Michael Ausiello of TV Guide has been a Private Practice critic from the start, but he’s (slowly) coming around. Here’s what he says in his latest column, which includes some quotes from Paul Adelstein (Cooper)…

Question: Got any Private Practice scoop? Was it just me or was the latest episode of Private Practice 100 times better than previous episodes?

Answer: I don’t know if I’d go that far. In fact, I know I wouldn’t go that far. While Private Practice is definitely improving, it’s still not must-see TV. Yet. For one thing, the characters need to stop behaving like they’re on The Hills. The concluding beachfront make-out scene between Kate Walsh and Tim Daly was so Lauren Conrad-Brody Jenner it wasn’t even funny.

Still, the show is much better today than it was a month ago, and Paul Adelstein — perhaps Private Practice’s most consistent bright spot — credits creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes‘ prowess as a master tweaker.

“Shonda is a great adjuster,” Paul Adelstein said. “I mean, if you go back and look at the first few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and then towards the end or middle of their first season, you see that she figures out how to gel a cast and tell a story. What she does is very ambitious, in terms of a mix in tones, and it takes a while to get that alchemy right. I feel like we’re hitting our stride.”

On the romance front, Adelstein says Cooper and Violet will soon address the whole attraction-repulsion thing they’ve got going on.

“They make some decisions about how they think it should proceed, and then they try to act like [adults], and then, you know, hilarity ensues.”

Tonight on Private Practice, Dr. Charlotte King is fed up with insomnia and decides to do something about it, while Cooper suspects foul play in his patient’s case and Naomi finally goes on a date. And that’s just the beginning.

Below is a greater list of developments and Private Practice spoilers from tonight’s new installment of the ABC hit show, titled “In Which Charlotte Goes Down the Rabbit Hole,” courtesy of BuddyTV.

This evening’s “In Which Charlotte Goes Down the Rabbit Hole” begins with Charlotte - the bad-ass doc at St. Ambrose - turning to Pete Wilder, the alternative medicine “quack,” hoping he can rid her of raging insomnia.

As she finally comes to grips with her divorce, Naomi begins to open herself to new people.

Naomi takes her first step to putting Sam Bennett behind her by agreeing to go out on her very first date since she was still in college.

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Michael Ausiello of TV Guide chimes in on the rumor going around that Kelly Bishop was cast as Addison’s mother on Private Practice. He writes:

“I hate you for getting my hopes up. I [talked to] my Private Practice moles, all of whom responded with a resounding, “False!” I should’ve known it was too good to be true … particularly coming off my failed campaign to get K.B. on Gossip Girl. But at least one good thing came out of my ill-fated crusade: I got my hands on Bishop’s personal e-mail address! Last week, the grande dame of Gilmore Girls sent me the nicest e-note thanking me for endorsement — and we’ve been exchanging e-mails ever since! I’m buddies with Emily Gilmore!”

Oh well. That would have been great. Here’s hoping we get to learn more about the family life of Addison at some point in this Private Practice season.

We’ve come across some new spoilers for the fourth episode of this season, “In Which Addison Finds the Magic.” Follow the jump to read it …

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With less than a month to go until the series premiere, fans are starting to get more excited about Private Practice. Which is good to see.
There’s more and more buzz about the Kate Walsh-driven Grey’s Anatomy spin-off as well. Kristin Veitch of E! Online has some good dirt on a possible romance for Addison in her latest column.

We’ll break up the story so you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. Follow the jump for her Private Practice spoiler …

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May’s somewhat-forced, two-hour pilot of Private Practice wasn’t received very well by many critics, planting seeds of doubt that the spin-off will be able to repeat the magic of Grey’s Anatomy.

However, ABC is giving it a go because Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) is a great character who is bankable as a lead. Hopefully Grey’s Anatomy fans and other viewers give the show a chance when it debuts September 26.

That being said, how about some Private Practice spoilers, courtesy of the super sleuths at BuddyTV and SpoilerFix.com? Nothing too revealing below, but if you’re not a spoiler fan, do not read on.

Above: Amy Brenneman, Taye Diggs and Paul Adelstein in the Pilot.

The first episode, entitled “In Which We Meet Addison,” features a 15-year-old named Lucy, who is in labor. Her mother is not helping making her feel better as she keeps saying that, yes, it hurts to deliver!

Thankfully, a nurse is more helpful. Police, meanwhile, are called when a woman, Jenny Banks, sits on the floor of a grocery store and repeats the same sentence over and over again.

A woman named Leslie is at the wellness center watching the doctors try to resuscitate her soon-to-be fiancé. A father is upset when he doesn’t know the doctor who’s about to remove his daughter’s appendix.

A woman named Maria goes to a courthouse so that another woman her now dead husband wanted to marry doesn’t get his money. Nothing new on the Private Practice characters and their interactions specifically now.

One interesting note, which means very little - apparently Private Practice will adhere to a pattern of episode titles, a la Grey’s Anatomy. That show names every episode after a famous song.

Every episode of Private Practice will start with “In Which…” in the title. This is also reminiscent of Friends, which began each with “The One…”