PRIVATE PRACTICE

Welcoming Netflix into my life, as the pandemic began to take over our lives, I cut my television teeth on such wonderful series as “Grace and Frankie” about two women, not quite friends, who discover their husbands are having an affair with each other and want to marry, “Anne with an E” about a spunky young orphan who desperately wants a family, “Offspring” involving a dysfunctional but lovable clan from Australia, “Blacklist” a cat and mouse game of spies and murder and “The Queen’s Gambit” concerning an orphan who learns how to play a mean game of chess from a caring janitor. Each was enjoyable in its own way and I followed each episode with interest. None of this prepared me for my next venture in TV land when I innocently began watching what I thought was going to be a show about a team of lawyers. “Private Practice” was, instead, about a unique medical group in California where the physicians shared information about their patients as easily as they shared each other’s beds. Quickly captivated by each doctor, I soon found myself addicted to seeing what would happen next and happily seduced into watching one or three episodes every night. Was Violet going to marry either of the two doctors, Pete and Sheldon, who might be the father of her baby? Was Cooper going to win over the cactus toughened Charlotte who kept rebuffing his advances? Would Naomi resume her relationship with Sam, or pick one of the other two doctors pursuing her? Did Addison have a chance to be a mother and find love at long last? Could Amelia break her addiction to drugs and clean up her act? As a medical drama, this show succeeded in capturing my attention and educating me about every possible malady known to woman and man, including organ donation, transplantation, cancer treatments, pedophilia, complications of pregnancy, assisted suicide, mental illness, and the list went on. As I watched, I felt I was personally involved in every intimate issue and had a voice in whether Violet wrote about her revealing traumatic life altering crisis, or whether Sheldon was ever going to find a woman to love who would love him back, or whether Del could raise his daughter Betsy alone since his wife had died of a drug overdose. Now that I know all the answers and the series has ended, I feel like I have been abandoned by a group of close friends who are no longer part of my life. To say I want them back is an understatement. Please suggest what shows I can watch to fill in the hole in the fabric of my TV Guide quilted life. Now that I am vaccinated with both shots, I am almost ready to meet people in person and actually hug again. HELP me please.