Whatie and Her Mother Watch Animal Practice

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for animals. I’ve been looking forward to Animal Practice since I first heard it was coming. I didn’t need to know much: it’s set in a veterinary office, and one of the main characters is a monkey. As far as I was concerned, you could put a big “SOLD” sign on it before I even watched it.

Well, I suppose I could have been jealous. This is an idea that I should have come up with and written. Why didn’t I? I really don’t know. In retrospect, the idea of a show set in a vet’s office is so obvious. A vet could easily house a comedy, or a serious medical drama, or even a dramedy. Maybe that’s why I’m not jealous. I may not have thought of it first, but there are at least a hundred different possible spins to the setting, so I can do my own another day.

But, for now, I just want to watch the monkey.

Animal Practice the series hasn’t premiered yet, but you can already watch the pilot episode. Overjoyed, I watched it. Then, I told my mom about it, and she watched it, too.

Personally, I was totally thrilled with it. The monkey did it for me. Yeah, I’m easy. Just dangle a monkey and I’m yours for life.

The cameo of the peacock helped, too. I also adored the hamsters riding turtles.

As for things like characterization, plot, and humor, well, I was satisfied. I thought the way (some of) the characters fought to get that dog his surgery was both heartwarming and inspiring. I felt that the story was really fresh, too – as in, I can’t recall another show using that plot or anything reasonably similar. Sure, most of the human characters didn’t really grab me right off, but I didn’t have any particular major objections. I figured they would grow on me as I learned more about them.

My mom, on the other hand, was disappointed. She also liked the monkey, but that’s about all she liked. She hated all but one of the human characters. She thought the vet guy was both unbelievable and shallow. She thought the assistant guy was crass and shallow. She was put off by the short female assistant’s, ah, blunt way of expressing herself. I told her she might warm up to them as the show progressed and the characters developed, and she agreed that might be true. However, more damagingly, she felt that the show relied entirely too heavily on sex for any semblance of humor. She did not enjoy the sideline about the assistant male’s girlfriend problems. She really hated the way the vet guy talked about getting laid. She wasn’t particularly impressed by the romantic issues between the lead characters, either. In short, this show was not the show she wanted.

She generally feels that most modern sitcoms aren’t funny any more. She does have a solid point: the best comedy comes from characters acting true to their natures in ways that happen to be funny given the circumstances. Many modern sitcoms don’t really measure up to that simple standard.

Well, she feels that Animal Practice didn’t meet that criteria, and for that reason, she was not impressed with the pilot episode. She will give it a second shot, mostly on account of the monkey. But she’s not expecting much.

It’s strange how we saw the same show and got such completely different things out of it.

Best television monkey picture ever

2 thoughts on “Whatie and Her Mother Watch Animal Practice”

  1. My father saw “Star Wars” because he wanted to see what the fuss was about, and his only comment was that the fighters should have a rear gunner. He saw “Alien” because I wanted to see it on my birthday, and his only comment was that there aren’t that many movies with no romance.

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