After filming the first episode of the new season of Private Practice, KaDee Strickland (Dr. Charlotte King), is giving the kind of diagnosis we would expect from her:

“It is action, honey. Get ready, because it is not a game!”

KaDee Strickland, who plays the ABC medical drama’s twangy, sarcastic and at times hard-outside, soft--inside doctor, says the talented cast just wrapped the debut.

The events pick up right where last season’s tense finale left off.

To sum up, a conflicted Addison (Kate Walsh) is on the verge of an affair with the married Noah and a pregnant, paralyzed Violet (Amy Brenneman) is terrifyingly in the clutches of and at the mercy of a psychotic patient planning to abduct her unborn baby.

Does she know who will rescue Violet? If so Strickland is mum.

But we won't want to miss it, she says.

“I don’t think anybody’s gonna get up to grab a beer during the show,” KaDee Strickland told TV Guide. “The stakes that ended the last season were so high, and the resolve and the payoff is worth every penny. I love what they’ve done with Kate."

"I love what they’ve done with everybody that’s in this episode.”

KaDee also thinks her Private Practice character will be more prominent.

“[The writers] are really good at fusing light and shade. They never let her get too kind, so we’ll see if they do. I mean, she is an evolving little flower now.”

Yes. Yes she is.

While she’s determined to stay tight-lipped on details about the third season’s direction, “We’ll be more in the personal lives of the main characters,” she said.

“You get to know who these people really are, as well as see exciting cases that are very important, about health care and things important to Americans.”

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.