It's nice to see perennial guest-star Mark Feuerstein get a leading role, and he's actually a pretty good actor. But his character isn't the most original thing on Earth -- indeed, Hank is almost exactly like Burn Notice's Michael Westen, but nowhere near as compelling. Family problems, disgraced from his job, surrounded by the super-rich, noble in spite of everything around him yadda yadda yadda. Where Michael Westen's use of household materials to create spy equipment is only sometimes absurd, Hank Lawson's use of household materials as medical equipment seems absurd almost every time. Admittedly, Royal Pains does seem quasi-aware of its own propensity in this capacity: in the pilot, for example, he gives a girl a list of items he needs to save her boyfriend's life and she responds by asking him if he's MacGuyver.
Even if you manage to get past seeing Royal Pains as just a bootleg Burn Notice, the show still doesn't shine. The writing lacks the crispness that many TV shows have showed of late and the characters aren't terribly compelling. There's no sense of struggle or of conflict within or between any of the characters, and I felt absolutely no sense of suspense whatsoever when watching the first three episodes.
But I am fairly sure that it will be fantastically popular. Even though people don't trust doctors and it's now fashionable to hate the rich, medical shows are still virtually-guaranteed TV hits and people are still curious to see (often over-the-top interpretations of) how the super-wealthy live. Royal Pains checks both boxes, and spends more time checking those boxes than, say, crafting decent characters. That's what will make it popular, but also what makes it weak. And USA is a top-tier cable network now, so there's a large potential audience for it to draw upon.
As it is now, Royal Pains isn't a good show, in part because it sometimes seems to not buy its own premise fully. And if that's the case, how can it expect the viewers to buy the premise? Nonetheless, it is an amusing show, a decent sort of Summer TV distraction, and you can argue that Burn Notice wasn't much more than that in its first season (though Burn Notice was still better written and more compelling in its debut season). Maybe it will improve in the future, and I hope it does: despite the fact that it may seem otherwise, I believe there are glimmers of promise for it... those just need to be brought out and polished.
Seven years ago Royal Pains would have ruled the Summer TV season. But seven years ago Summer TV, with the exception of The Shield, was pretty much rubbish. Now it's a very, very different story, and Royal Pains has a lot of work ahead of itself to get up to the standards set by shows like Burn Notice and Rescue Me. But as a way to kill the occasional 42-minute span, there are worse things to watch on Hulu. It's just that there are a lot of better things to watch, both on air and on Hulu.
Seven years ago Royal Pains would have ruled the Summer TV season. But seven years ago Summer TV, with the exception of The Shield, was pretty much rubbish. Now it's a very, very different story, and Royal Pains has a lot of work ahead of itself to get up to the standards set by shows like Burn Notice and Rescue Me. But as a way to kill the occasional 42-minute span, there are worse things to watch on Hulu. It's just that there are a lot of better things to watch, both on air and on Hulu.
