What’s this show called … In Treatment?

Someone at HBO must have a thing for therapists. Just consider my own experience with HBO-bred therapists, starting with the grandmommy of them all Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), Tony Soprano’s shrink on The Sopranos. I enjoyed Melfi when her office provided Tony with the opportunity to expand on who he was, but when she became her own story I was never as tuned in.

Then there was Dr. May Foster (Jane Alexander) on Tell Me You Love Me. There the story was about the lives of three couples who all saw the same therapist. While Dr. Foster wasn’t quite in the story — there was some history to her character that never got fully explored — her guidance partly dictated what our couples did when back at home.

And of course, there are also the occasional therapist visits with the likes of Dr. Marcus (Nora Dunn) on Entourage … not quite the same, because the story there is still really about Mr. and Mrs. Ari and their marriage.

I’ve been curious about In Treatment since it first aired. Clearly not curious enough to give it a try, but I wondered what mix of Dr. Melfi, Dr. Foster, and the Dr. Marcuses of the world Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) would exhibit. On this series, since the patients change from season to season, it really is all about the therapist. Does that mean that the therapy application I so enjoyed on Tell Me You Love Me would disappear? Does the entire series take place within Dr. Weston’s office (save for his own therapy sessions)? I checked out last week’s four sessions to find out.

Frances – Played by Debra Winger, Frances is a woman juggling the needs of her dying sister Tricia and her opinionated daughter Izzy (Robyn Rikoon). Last session found Frances struggling with the realities of her duties as the executor of Tricia’s living will — her sister didn’t want extraordinary measures taken to save her life.

The drama on In Treatment is solely of the emotional variety, and I have to say that this was a difficult one to watch. Ignoring Izzy judging every decision that Frances made — and keeping in mind that we’re only aware of that situation as relayed by Frances — Frances’ story is about a woman struggling to fulfill her sister’s wishes to end her life. Needless to say the first installment made me wary of continuing.

Sunil – The first glimpse we got of Sunil’s (Irrfan Khan) story actually involved his daughter-in-law Julia (Sonya Walger). As an aside, I thought she was awesome as Carolyn on Tell Me You Love Me.

Anyway, the week found Sunil locked up in a detention center awaiting deportation back to Calcutta; apparently a message we heard Dr. Weston leave in the previous installment was him trying to track Sunil down. After an elaborate scheme that encompassed the entirety of Sunil’s story line, Dr. Weston calling Julia in a precautionary manner led to Sunil’s deportation.

What was interesting was the thought that anyone in therapy could be making their entire story up. I don’t know why someone would do that, but therapy is just one person’s story; it can be a lie just as much as it can be limited by our own perspective.

I enjoyed the fact that we left Dr. Weston’s office without actually leaving his office, as he conducted a “session” with Sunil through glass. Ultimately Sunil is a very disturbed individual, but I don’t know that therapy was the answer for him regardless.

Jesse – Jesse’s (Dane DeHaan) a tough one. Clearly he and Dr. Weston were in the midst of some major struggles when Jesse appeared in session with his adoptive father Roberto (Joseph Siravo, who played Johnny Boy Soprano on The Sopranos). There was not only a lot missing due to the fact that I came in at the end, but clearly a lot still missing that Dr. Weston and Jesse may never get the chance to cover. I found it particularly interesting that Jesse’s “breakthrough” was that Marissa, his adoptive mother, was all to blame for his problems … a suggestion floated by Roberto himself.

Even just watching I was uncomfortable by the manner in which Dr. Weston made it all about him versus Jesse’s parents, while at the same time counseling Jesse not to make it a competition. Clearly there’s some amount of “Us versus Them” in a situation where a patient is attempting to leave therapy and their therapist is trying to wrestle them back into the chair, but who’s to say what’s best for the patient?

Adele – The final installment is perhaps the most crucial in the entire series: the therapist’s therapist. I actually thought I’d heard somewhere that this angle of the show had been retired after season one. I was glad to discover otherwise.

Unlike on The Sopranos, where Dr. Melfi’s sessions with Elliot (Peter Bogdanovich) were completely inexplicable — the show wasn’t about her, so it was foolish to pursue her story so in depth — on In Treatment it makes sense for Dr. Weston to decompress with his own therapy. But two things about that surprised, and ultimately disappointed, me about it.

First was the fact that his therapist, Adele, was played by Amy Ryan. Now, I only dislike her on The Office, so I didn’t go in with negative thoughts, but she was just awful. She totally took me out of the entire scene, and thus the entire episode. She made for a terrible therapist, not least of all because the typical analyst speech patterns were beyond her … much like a Boston accent in Gone Baby Gone. I just didn’t buy her as a dispenser of mental health help.

The second thing was that Dr. Weston sat there talking to Adele about his patients (she, in fact, had lobbied for him to call Julia about Sunil). She’s not his supervisor! In that type of situation, it would make sense for the therapist to discuss his/her patients with another therapist. But here Dr. Weston comes to Adele for his own analysis, his own problems. It was the part of Dr. Melfi and Elliot’s relationship that I disliked the most — how dare she discuss Tony with him! It’s a complete breach of ethics.

So sure, it was interesting to hear Dr. Weston discuss his Parkinson’s, his desire to quit his practice (and his therapy with Adele), and wonder what else he’s blind to in therapy and in life. But Amy Ryan, and the inappropriate nature of their therapy session (ignoring that he’s in love with her), kind of ruined the moment for me.

This is a tough show. From A to Z it’s about other people’s problems, and to make it interesting for television the viewer only comes in at a crucial moment in the patients’ lives. But ultimately, on a show where only the therapist remains from year to year, it’s all about him. Gabriel Byrne’s an extremely talented actor, but if he came back next season to see patients, I’d say I’d have to pass.

However, if season four of In Treatment were to focus on Paul Weston struggling to find himself without the “Dr.” … I just might be there hoping to see what he finds.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 13, 2010 @ 16:00 EST5EDT