Spoiler: Royal Pains premiere - "The only thing knocking here, Hank, is opportunity."

I wasn't really planning on watching - or enjoying for that matter - the new USA show Royal Pains, which premiered tonight. But I did watch and I did enjoy. It is exactly the summer pleasure television show needed to get through the long, hot months. Here is the premise as well as some key points needed to understand the show.

Dr. Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein) is one of the best ER doctors at the New York hospital where he works. When he brings in a patient who collapsed while playing basketball, on his day off nonetheless, he is devoted to making sure the patient is OK. But when a billionaire hospital trustee is also brought in, the hospital attending pressures Hank to switch his focus. After the "special" patient seems to be fine, Hank returns to the other patient who is in dire need of help. Hank saves the basketball playing patient, but the billionaire dies in a bad luck turn for the worse. Following this Hank is fired, blacklisted from becoming a doctor anywhere else and his fiance leaves him; essentially his life falls apart. Then his brother shows up and forces Hank to take a trip to the Hamptons to celebrate Memorial Day weekend.

While at a party, Hank is in a room where a woman needs medical attention. He helps the girl and the home owner refuses to allow him to call an ambulance. The host, Boris, pushes Hank to save the woman using items found in the mansion. He does and Boris insists on compensating him. He also mentions that Hank should look into becoming a concierge doctor, which is essentially a private doctor for hire. Hank refuses the proposal and says he does not want compensation.

But the next morning Hank is woken up by a phone call. The caller says it is a matter of life and death and Hank is texted an address to which he is supposed to report. Apparently his name and phone number was circulated throughout the area and he is, from that moment forth, called for special medical attention by members of the Hamptons' wealthiest citizens. For the rest of the episode Hank is continuously pushed into situations where he has to medically help others and is also being pressured to take more of an active role in the operation he is being forced to start. By the end of the episode he has agreed to being a "doctor on demand" full time and extend his stay in the Hamptons.

Am I the only one who watched? Am I the only one who liked? Does the premise sound like something that may interest you? The lifestyle of the rich never stops impressing when presented on television and these people clearly have enough money to demand anything from these types of personal doctors. I think it makes for an interesting topic to breach on a television show. Let me know what you thought of the premiere episode and if you plan to watch in the future.