The blind leading the blind?


I've written before that I'm a sucker for one-on-one scenarios ~ they're generally the hardest to pull off, but when they're good, they're very, very good: intimate, intense and deeply rewarding. "In Treatment" has a unique format: Monday through Thursday, we focus on a different patient of therapist Paul (an interesting performance by Gabriel Byrne) and then on Friday, it's Paul himself who is in therapy (with the superb Dianne Wiest as Gina).

This is a terrific format, and some of the patients are intriguing as well. So far I've seen 2 weeks of the show, which means I've seen 2 sessions for each of the patients. For the most part, the sessions are written in a realistic way, where the issues are revealed in layers, not upfront, which is how things generally are revealed in real life, so this works.

On Monday, we have Laura (the compelling Melissa George), who tells Paul she is in love with him. Yer basic "transference" as it's called, and Paul responds by telling her he's not an option. She's very persuasive, this Laura, and the next week (the second session we see), she comes back to tell him she's decided to accept her boyfriend Andrew's proposal of marriage, simply because Paul told her no. A lot of game-playing and power-tripping going on here, a lot of testing, as well, and then there's Paul's true feelings about the situation, which go far deeper than he shows Laura, of course.

Tuesday is Alex - he's a pilot who's flown bombing missions and is seeking help for his guilt, which he cannot even admit he has. He's the most controlling of the patients, constantly playing tedious ego games with Paul.

Wednesday, we've got Sophie, a teenage gymnast and Olympic hopeful who may or may not be subconsciously causing herself harm in order to get attention from her mother and/or to get out of the pressure of training. She also might be sexually involved with her coach - this is something I picked up on during the first session and I was pleased to see Paul bring it up with Gina in his own second session (which I watched last night). The actor who plays Sophie is Mia Wasikowska, and she is absolutely fantastic - she makes her lines sound as if she's creating them on the spot, a brilliant actor with a stunning career ahead of her. Her sessions are by far the most believable, and I find myself truly caring about what happens to her character.

Thursday we meet with a couple, Amy and Jake, who are having a baby and not sure if they want to keep this baby. The second of their sessions was cut short when Amy started having pains and they had to leave.

This provided a chance for Paul's wife Kate to have it out with him in his office, which she feels he uses to escape from her and shut her out. She's been very unhappy because she feels Paul puts all his energy into his work and has nothing left for her and their children - "all I get is an anemic old tired man," she tells him. Then she proceeds to say she's been having an affair - something Paul already suspected and had mentioned to Gina in his first session with her. He then flies into a rage and demands details, so he won't be left to his own imagination, he tells her.

Friday, things really heat up, when Paul seeks solace by going to see Gina, a therapist with whom has an apparent history. By the second session, he's a wreck, although he was a mess the first week too, confiding in her that he feels he's been "losing patience with my patients" - which is true, from the behavior we had witnessed.

It's like the blind leading the blind, really, because Paul, we find, is egotistical, angry, deeply conflicted, confused and in denial just as much as the patients he attempts to treat. Even worse, he's withholding when it serves him. For instance, in their second session, he fails to tell Gina that HE was the one who demanded details of the affair from Kate, instead passing it off as if she was throwing these details in his face. It's only when Gina calls him on it that he sort of admits what really happened.

Also in the second session with Gina, when she suggests that he should get a different therapist for Laura, he pulls a major power trip/hissy fit by laying unbelievable guilt on her about a patient whom she had had a serious transference issue with, even going so far as to blame her for this patient's death, because she had stopped treating him after he pronounced his love for her. Bad form, Paul. The more I see of this guy, the less I like him. If I had to have therapy with either one of these people, or even go out for drinks, guess who I'd choose.

This is good though, the way Paul is portrayed - it makes him human. And the show is addictive, if you like this sort of thing, which I do, of course, even with the self-consciousness of some of the writing - only the sessions with Sophie genuinely ring true, as I've said. Rodrigo Garcia, who also worked on the other therapy show, "Tell Me You Love Me", is a good writer and director, as are the others being employed, and I believe this show could blossom and go on for quite some time.

2/26/08: I've watched weeks 1-7 now, and I have to add: keep watching. It gets better. MUCH better. I've up'd my rating from a 6 to a 7 to reflect this.

3/18/08: Week 8 is nothing less than transcendent, some of the most compelling TV I've ever seen. Giving the series an 8 now.

5/5/09: After 5 weeks of Season 2, it's a 9 from me. This season is much better, in every possible way: all the self-consciousness is gone from the writing, it's much more organic now and quite brilliant. Paul has new patients (all intriguing and beautifully written and brought to life in stunning performances across the board), and he's dealing with the fallout from Season 1 - most notably his infatuation with Laura which cost him his marriage and the potentially hugely damaging lawsuit brought on by Alex's father, who holds Paul responsible for his son's death.

In Week 5, we see a heart-breakingly sad Paul, whose father has just died. The subtlety, complexity and poignant restraint with which these segments were written and performed represent, in my opinion, some of the most stunning and affecting television you will ever witness.