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Private Notes
Dr. Craig ""Huff"" Huffstodt is a Los Angeles psychiatrist whose life and career is sent reeling when a tragedy occurs in his office. Huff's nurturing nature is also tested at home as he endures and deals with the conflicting personalities and small insanities within his own family.
Huff is forced to defend himself and his practice in front of a Medical Board hearing, with his reckless best friend and attorney Russell by his side. As if this weren't enough, Huff is besieged by Melody Coatar, a dangerously belligerent bipolar patient and is informed that he's being sued by a patient's parents.
With the pressure of the parents' lawsuit building, it's almost a relief for Huff to deal with a normal family crisis. But when his 14-year-old son Byrd sneaks off for a disturbing teenage party and is found out, Huff has trouble convincing his wife Beth that there's anything normal about it.
Control is an issue in Huff's life, professionally and personally. He goes to Russell's office who pulls no punches when hitting Huff with tough questions in preparation for the insurance hearing to help save his job. At home, Beth gets into a tangle with her mother-in-law Izzy about preserving family privacy early in the morning and Byrd heads off to help tutor Gail, a cute high-school senior. Meanwhile, day two of the hearing begins with a body blow as Huff's bipolar patient takes the witness stand.
Huff is the recipient of two unlikely visits, as his estranged father attempts to use him as a go-between to settle his affairs with his mother Izzy and Doris, a patient's mother, shows up in his office seeking answers she thinks only Huff can provide. Russell is pinned in his own corner when he is enlisted to track down his high-powered TV star client and convince him to sober up and get back to work.
Russell has a new client. It turns out to be Pepper in disguise, a girl he picked up at the liquor store for a wild night a few weeks back. She is up on grand larceny charges and has come to him for help. Beth tries to stay busy with her party planning business but her mother's cancer weighs heavily on her mind, while Izzy weighs heavily on her nerves. In the meantime, Huff and Doris attempt to heal each other's emotional and psychological wounds. Huff becomes worried when he finds out that Teddy, who went on a field trip with his group from the facility, is missing.
Huff is awakened from a disturbingly surreal dream about his estranged father and Byrd. Throughout the dream, Huff hallucinates back to his childhood, seeing his young self, his brother Teddy, father Ben and mother Izzy. This leads Huff into a much-dreaded camping trip with his father and son. Three generations of Huffstodt men together for the first time in the family cabin in the woods. Russell embarks on a liver detoxification and cleansing program, which in typical Russell-style, ends somehow with a client being blown up in a trailer.
Huff is not happy when Melody returns in his sexual fantasies, and at the most inopportune times. Russell is coming out of his body cleansing and purification regime in time to take Laura, one of the partners in his law firm, out to dinner. Byrd is under tremendous peer pressure to steal drug samples from his father. Meanwhile, Beth has a verbal run-in with the cops in a convenience store. Russell lobbies Izzy to sign her divorce papers.
Huff's optimistic enthusiasm for this year's Christmas celebration meets its match when Beth's family, including her sick mother and competitive sister, arrive for the festivities. Izzy strains to be hospitable and good-natured, particularly when Russell comes with an unusual date, and pays one last visit to her best friend in the hospital. Byrd plays host of his own when his lost flame Gail shows up with an unexpected present.
Huff grapples with the dangers of psychiatry when a young, eager and attractive pharmaceutical rep does her best to persuade him to aggressively prescribe. But Beth discovers an item in Izzy's closet that may be alarming enough to distract him from his flirtation. Over in the land of Russell, Huff's lawyer friend may be the victim of federal surveillance or simply the victim of his own paranoia.
With the guilt of his near-miss infidelity weighing down on him, Huff misinterprets Beth's partnership with a young, attractive business client. Russell does the best he can to council his best friend while getting news that puts him in a position where somebody has him by the balls for the first time in his life and there's nothing he can do to change it.
As Beth prepares for the arrival of her gravely ill mother, the rift between she and Huff escalates, putting them both in a position we've never seen them in before. With Huff realizing that there's no way he'll ever be able to ""put the toothpaste back into the tube,"" Russell confronts the horrifying possibility that he may have unintentionally started a family during a recent ecstasy binge.
Huff's sanity is seriously called into question by his family after a series of unfortunate and wildly unpredictable events and circumstances, one involving Melody, threaten to make a big tear in the fabric of the Huffstodt family. Russell has to decide if he wants to be a father or not. Izzy refuses to allow Teddy to take a new anti-psychotic drug, one that could also possibly kill him. Beth learns her mother's cancer has spread to the spine. Byrd is a little stunned by the adults pinballing around him. Huff screams at Russell that he's in for a fall.
