Royal Pains, "There Will Be Food": The gluten glutton

Spoilers for episode two of "Royal Pains" coming up just as soon as I give you a severance check...

Even though I believe "There Will Be Food" was produced as the series' third episode, rather than its second, it felt like an extra pilot -- as if someone on the show or at USA felt they had neglected to establish the "give to the poor" aspect of Hank's new Robin Hood existence in the original pilot(*), and that they'd best do that quickly before telling other stories.

(*)That, of course, ignores the fact that the pilot already made clear that Hank was doing a public service by catering to these rich people, by keeping them from wasting hospital resources on minor problems.

Because they had to spend so much time on additional premise-building, and because the ballerina's case didn't offer any opportunities for Hank to do his Dr. MacGyver thing, "There Will Be Food" was less entertaining than the real pilot. On the plus side, though, I thought Mark Feuerstein was much more relaxed and engaging here than he was a week ago. Whether or not he's too bland to carry a series is still an open question, but a Hank who embraces this new life, even a little, is more interesting than a Hank who's always "aw, shucks, this isn't really what I do."

What did everybody else think? And are you surprised they did the Michael Westen-ish expositional narration at the top, and then did a long credits sequence with theme song on top of that? What is this, 1983?