Hart of Dixie 1x09: The Pirate and the Practice

Original Air Date: 28 November 2011

Storyline: While the residents of Bluebell prepare for their annual Planksgiving celebration, Zoe anxiously counts the days until her return home to New York for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, getting out of town may be a bit trickier than Zoe anticipated due to the fact that she has to meet her thirty percent quota of patients by midnight or lose her share of the practice to Brick. Meanwhile, Lavon encourages Wade to be honest about his feelings for Zoe, and George's father offers him an opportunity to join his law firm in Montgomery, which isn't exactly music to Lemon's ears.Best Quote:

Lavon: Planksgiving.
Wade: Bam!
Zoe: That is the single stupidest thing I've heard since I moved here. And I hear Wade talking to his dates every night on his front porch.

Review: So, remember me saying I was glad there was no Halloween episode of Hart of Dixie? Well, with Halloween come and gone, a new holiday has made its appearance, and that is Thanksgiving. No normally, the shows used that as a theme all of last week and I'm pretty sure it will go on this week as well. And I will not even start on Christmas.

So far, I've really liked this show. It's medical procedural part is delicately hidden behind the small town drama and the amusing moments derived from having a New Yorker transported into hot Alabama. However, this week brought us the most chaotic, busy episode so far. There was so much going on and all made to fit in in just one hour, that I got dizzy at some point. You've got the not-Thanksgiving, Zoe's struggle to meet her 30% quarterly quota and still make her flight to New York, George's parents trying to get him to work for his father's law firm, the Hilsons' family drama, Wade trying to tell Zoe what he feels for her... it was just too much and none of these plots was properly developed. I will not even go into the stupidity of a holiday called the Planksgiving (which was not even nearly as funny as Marshall's Slapsgiving, despite the pirate costumes that made everyone except for Lemon look extremely sexy).
I was glad Zoe got to meet her 30% quota and prevent Brick from buying her out, don't get me wrong. Of course, her methods of getting patients were not the most ethical, but neither were Brick's, for that matter. What I didn't get is why we had to see a reenactment of House when the real thing was going on at the same time on FOX, they could have found a different way of diagnosing and finding out clues about the boy, one that wouldn't seem like coming right out of Princeton Plainsboro's resident diagnostician's mind.
I was also amused by Zoe's bewilderment at realizing not even Thanksgiving would be celebrated properly in this town where "heat waves and blue people" are a normal thing, seeing how I had the same reaction myself. Plus, I find Wade being smitten by his neighbor so much that he'd prefer to live without electricity quite hilarious. I'm a big Wade fan and I think George is a pussy, so don't ever expect me to root for Pirate Tucker. Lavon's trap was a bit obvious, but it's not slick intelligence that I expect from this show.
I didn't get into the plot involving George and his parents. Somehow, despite having seen a more ballsy version of him, the whole things was too convoluted, too daytime soap opera for my taste. The Tuckers are presented in a two-dimensional way, completely unrealistically and, as I said, reminding me of the horrid Young and the Restless characters. Plus, Lemon's fit did not make her any more likable.
I will admit the community idea seems pretty smurf-esque and emotional enough to be suitable for a holiday installment, and having Zoe actually care about what happened to the Hilsons put a smile on my face, especially after her effort to help the boy stay true to his beliefs. But this was probably my least favorite episode so far and I really, really hope they don't do a Christmas one as well. I'd hate to see what they's use instead of Santa.Hart of Dixie 1x08: Homecoming and Coming Home Back to Season 1