Pull up a couch for 'In Treatment'
Posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 7:00 AM by Paige Newman
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TV
HBO’s “In Treatment” may not get the fan accolades or the critical love of some of the network’s other series, but it’s the kind of show that sneaks up on you. Even though I’d watched last season faithfully, I wasn’t even sure if I’d watch this new one. All new patients? Did I really want to put in the time and get invested? Well, it took about half an episode and I was hooked.
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Gabriel Byrne's hang-dog expression is just one of the many joys of "In Treatment."
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If anything, this season is even stronger than the first. Season one had some weak links. Laura (Melissa George) just wasn’t that interesting. And fighting couple Jake (Josh Charles) and Amy (Embeth Davidtz) only had the effect of making me glad I wasn’t married. The strongest part of season one was Sophie (Mia Wasikowska), a troubled girl who had an inappropriate relationship with her gymnastics coach. Wasikowska really should have received an Emmy nomination.
This season, however, there are no weak links, and better yet, there’s an overarching theme about the burdens our parents unknowningly place upon us. Each character struggles with the weight of having to shoulder responsibility, seemingly by him or herself.
Walter (“Frasier’s" John Mahoney) is a corporate executive who feels responsible for everything from his company’s contaminated baby formula to the childhood death of his older brother. Oliver (a star is born in Aaron Grady Shaw) is a boy who believes if he acts perfect he can keep his divorcing parents from arguing. Mia (Hope Davis), a former patient from 20 years prior, needs to feel “special” but instead feels more and more alone. And April (Alison Pill) is a young woman with cancer who can’t tell her friends or family because she doesn’t want to burden them.
Holding them all together is therapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne, who won a Golden Globe for the role), who is struggling with his broken marriage, his dying father and the fact that he’s not even sure he wants to be a therapist anymore. It’s Paul’s struggles in concert with his work with his patients that make this show so compelling. When he tells his own therapist (Dianne Wiest), “I hate my life,” it’s heartbreaking not just for him, but for all the people who we know count on him.
I’m amazed how often I tear up watching the show. When Paul finally told April that he was taking her to chemo: tears; when Paul made the starving-himself Oliver a sandwich: tears; and Walter’s drawn face as he talks about the death of corporate responsibility: you guessed it.
One of the best aspects of “In Treatment” is its short, 24-minute run time. I like recording a week’s worth and then watching them whenever I need to feel some serious empathy and whenever I want to watch an acting showcase. In these tough economic times, your downgraded health insurance (if you have it) may not pay for therapy, but watch one of these half hours and you’re sure to feel just a little bit better – at least about the state of cable drama.
