Prescription for summer: Fluff of 'Royal Pains'

THE SHOW "Royal Pains"

CATCHING UP Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein) had been fired by the big-city hospital where he worked as a doctor after being wrongly blamed for the untimely demise of a trustee. Easier-going younger bro Evan (Paulo Costanza) gets him to come east to the Hamptons - for the easy money and to help the locals. And so "HankMed," a concierge medical service, was born.

Evan runs the business, sort of, while Divya Katdare (Reshma Shetty) is the physician's assistant. As last season ended, Evan had pretty much bankrupted the company by lending money to dear old Dad - a flimflam artist. Eddie R. Lawson (Winkler) makes his entrance tonight. Meanwhile, Divya is engaged to Raj (Rupak Ginn), while Jill Casey (Jill Flint) - head of emergency surgery at Hamptons Heritage, the local hospital - has split with her husband. Now, what about Jill and Hank?

WHAT THE EPISODE IS ABOUT As fans know, most episodes tend to revolve around a patient who's not just ill but more than a little bit nuts. This one's no different. Hank and Divya are looped into the strange case of an infomercial king (Kyle Bornheimer) who has coordination problems. Jill's gig at Hamptons Heritage is on the line when her boss, Dr. Elizabeth Blair (Marcia Gay Harden), tries to get her canned. Hank's wealthy patron, Boris (Campbell Scott), as always, needs Hank to find a cure for his genetic illness.

MY SAY "Royal Pains" is a charming, low-key show that doesn't demand much of viewers, or (for that matter) of itself. That's the good news and the bad news. Yes, this is a summer series, and it is supposed to be a bromide to the hard-charging prime-time rabble that demands our attention the rest of the year.

But "Royal Pains" is now a sophomore series and needs to - and hopefully will - up the ante for Hank, Evan and Divya this season.

BOTTOM LINE This show needs a little more urgency, and drama; so light, it all seems slightly unreal, while the portrayal of the Hamptons sometimes feels like a page out of "The Beverly Hillbillies." (Perhaps that's what fans want.)

SEE PHOTOSTV Shows with ties to the Hamptons

GRADE B