Hanks hurts his back and Dr. Van Dyke fills in.
I’m not sure I am on board with everything going on in this episode of Royal Pains. Firstly, Dr. Van Dyke (Kyle Howard) is way too smarmy to bear. It takes a skilled actor to pull off being a dick and still being engaging and Howard is not up to the task.
Secondly, I don’t remember Hank (Mark Feuerstein) ever complaining about a bad back before, so why is he so debilitated in this episode? Wouldn’t a doctor as skilled as he is known that golf lessons might make him stiff and take some precautions?
Lastly, I have said before how stupid I think it is that Divya (Rashma Shetty) insists on paying for the wedding that never happened. Arranged marriages are an outdated practice. Maybe they worked before people spent tens of thousands of dollars on the ceremony but today, anyone who shells out an exorbitant sum on an arranged wedding is a fool.
To make matters worse, the “china heist” was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen on Royal Pains. Am I to believe that the valet knew that Divya’s china was valuable and he stalked her for a day only to end up impaled on a pole after looting her vehicle? At this point, I was ready to check out and the episode was only half over.
As for Mrs. Newberg (Christine Ebersole) and her “radiating pain” I’d rather not comment.
The only thing I really liked was Tom Cavanaugh as golfer Jack O’ Malley, and any excuse to watch him is a good one. Jack’s obsession with proving that his doctor is a former child star strikes a chord with me. I know if I thought my doctor used to be on a sitcom with Tom Bosley, I’d be pretty obsessed with finding out the truth.
Some stats and info about Royal Pains, “My Back to the Future”
TV SHOW – Royal Pains
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 13
AIRED ON – February 1st, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – USA/Netflix
GENRE – Comedy, Drama, Relationship Shows
CREATED BY – Andrew Lenchewski, John P. Rogers
CAST – Mark Feuerstein, Paulo Costanzo, Reshma Shetty, Brooke D’Orsay, Campbell Scott, Jill Flint, Ben Shenkman, Henry Winkler
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.