The Boston Herald reviewed the new series, and I really hope they’re wrong.

If only your medical insurance covered the suffering of “Private Practice.”

The spinoff from ABC’s blockbuster “Grey’s Anatomy” (premiering Wednesday night at 9 on WCVB, Ch. 5) is practically dead on arrival, choked with contrived stories and lifeless characters.

As the show opens, OB-GYN specialist Addison (Kate Walsh) tenders her resignation to Seattle Grace, leaving (unseen) McDreamy and McSteamy for a ward of McStupids in Los Angeles.

At the medical co-op Oceanside Wellness Center, Addison learns to her horror that the rest of the staff doesn’t know she was hired.
“To them, I’m an interloper. I don’t lope,” she complains to best friend Dr. Naomi Bennett (Audra McDonald).

McDonald replaces Merrin Dungey as Addison’s best friend. It’s obvious why she was hired. Her character is far more neurotic, sobbing on the floor of the bathroom while stuffing her face with cake after the breakup of her marriage to Dr. Sam Bennett (Taye Diggs).

Addison’s new practice will consist, on average, of one patient a day, and that raises the first of many questions: How does this co-op pay for itself, anyway?

Naomi tries to explain. “It’s not about surgery. It’s about connecting.”

Addison bickers with holistic doc Pete Wilder (Tim Daly, who appears to have aged considerably since the first pilot was shot) over his methods and his kissing.

Amy Brenneman (“Judging Amy”) and Paul Edelstein (“Prison Break”) round out the cast as lovelorn doctors.

By the time Addison suffers a panic attack over a pregnant patient in crisis, you realize you are not watching the intimidating, competent Addison who made Seattle Grace interns quake. You are watching Meredith Grey as played by Kate Walsh. Creator Shonda Rhimes has merely swapped locations for one neurotic heroine.

As on “Grey’s,” there is the now trite device of a patient’s crisis somehow illuminating the physician’s personal life.

Wednesday night, Sam and Naomi learn an important after-school-special-worthy lesson in letting go from a wife and a mistress fighting over a dead man’s sperm. OK, a lesson from an after-school special on the Playboy Channel, but you get the drift.

There’s only one way to improve “Private Practice”: a Do Not Resuscitate order.

Well, decide for yourselves, guys! Private Practice premieres tonight on ABC, and you can bet I’m going to watch it. Well, I’m going to TIVO it…I have a girls night tonight, and a couple drinks sounds better than sitting and watching TV. But I’ll totally watch it tomorrow when the kids are at school.

Private Practice starts tonight on ABC!!! Can’t wait!

PS: Those shoes are HOT.

Kate Walsh managed to turn her witch-of-a-character Addison Montgomery into one of the most beloved characters on Grey’s Anatomy, and now she is headlining the most anticipated show of the year – Private Practice. As the cover girl lounges on the beach for her Entertainment Weekly cover shoot for the annual Fall TV Preview, she talks about her goals, leaving her friends behind, and her excitement about her new adventure.

When Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes cast the actress in the first season of Grey’s, the plan was to have her around for a handful of episodes, as the no-good tramp who cheated on McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey), so it’s impossible for Walsh to have known she’d end up with her own spin-off. “I definitely like writing down goals, where I want to be, how I imagine it. But I didn’t write this down,” she says. “I didn’t write down I’d like my own spin-off.”

She had actually planned for a hasty departure. “After the initial five episodes, I shot another pilot for ABC,” says Walsh. “There were always a lot of half-hour shows to do, so I thought, That’s probably going to be my life.”

Once Rhimes came up with the spin-off concept, ABC execs – to cover their bases – inserted a spin-off clause into cast members’ contracts. Though initially surprised, Walsh said she didn’t read too much into the clause because none of the cast knew about Rhimes’ plans. “We were like, What’s this? We had never seen it before,” she says. “We just thought it was a part of negotiating.” That is, until Rhimes beckoned Walsh into her office in February. “It was like I was being called to the principal’s office,” Walsh recalls. “She told me she wanted to spin off my character, and then I slowly started to leave my body. I was very excited about it, obviously, totally thrilled! But my first thought was ‘Oh, God, what if it doesn’t work?’”

What does Rhimes have planned for Addison’s character? “I don’t think anybody wants to see Addison jump into a relationship,” says Rhimes. “I don’t think she’s ready for that.” It’s hard to be ready when she still has emotional ties to Seattle Grace, which is why she will return to her old workplace one last time on the Grey’s Sept. 27 premiere. This is where it gets a little sad for Walsh. “I’m friends with all of them [at Grey’s], but even as my character, I’m thinking, ‘Wait, can’t I just take a friend with me to California?’”

“There’s definitely real melancholy, and a loss,” continues Walsh, of her big move. “But I also feel like it was right, just like when it’s time to go off to college. This is the right time for me to go.”

For more on this fall’s TV lineup, check out Entertainment Weekly’s Fall TV Preview issue on newsstand’s Monday, September 10th!

ET spoke exclusively to “Private Practice” star Kate Walsh about preparations for her upcoming wedding. In an interview to air tonight, August 29th, on ET, Walsh says, “I’m living a very good dream.” When asked if she has had any “Bridezilla” moments, Walsh laughs and says, “Oh yeah. I had a fitting a few days ago and who knew someone could get that hysterical about a bra! I said, ‘it’s not the right bra, it’s not the right bra.’ The sad part was there was a mirror there so I had to see my face turn to stone, snakes coming out of my hair. It was bad. I can’t believe I had a meltdown over a bra!”

Kate Walsh left Grey’s Anatomy last year to star in her own spinoff show Private Practice, but Seattle Grace isn’t the only thing she’s leaving behind.

She’s put her current digs up for rent and has bought a home with fiancé Alex Young, a $4.75 million, 6,000 square foot Spanish-style home in Los Feliz, California.

The 39-year-old actress closed on the gated 5-bedroom, 6-bath house on July 17. The couple’s new home boasts a media room, wine room, a pool house that includes a spa and its own bar. The rear grounds are complemented by an outdoor fireplace, free-standing hot tub, outdoor cooking center, and al fresco dining area.

If the actress ever wants to visit her bachelorette pad, she doesn’t have to stray too far from home. Her old stomping grounds are located less than a mile away.

Currently up for lease for $8,800 a month, the 4 bedroom, two-and-a-half bath Moorish-influenced home features a step-down living room, new cherry wood kitchen, and an oval dining room lined with French doors which lead out to the pool area. There is also a private deck and multiple verandas and gardens. It’s is within walking distance of Los Feliz Village and was recently featured in O magazine.

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