I admit I am hooked. I never expected I would be, but that is what
addiction is all about. One minute you imbibe, and the next, you
need more, ever more, until you can’t do without. That is what
happened to me after several peeks into HBO’s new series, “In
Treatment.” Adapted from the Israeli TV series, “BeTipul” that
captivated that small nation during its recent run, the half hour
shows will air for 45 nights, Monday thru Friday, with each week’s
previous chapter repeated before the new one in case you missed the
previous showing. The full week repeats on the weekend. However you
look at it, this is a daunting viewing schedule that presumes the
audience will continue watching at 9:30 each night until the series
ends. But it is not an easy show to jump in and out of. Unlike most
series, each proceeding half hour depends on what happened on the
previous show, though HBO artfully brings the viewer up-to-date
before each new episode.
As many might already know, most of the action, if you can call it
that, takes place in a psychotherapist’s office where Paul Weston
(Gabriel Byrne), n his early fifties, sits mostly passive in his
chair with his patient or patients – call them clients if you want
-- seated across from him on a couch. A table with a pitcher of
water and some glasses lies between them, as if a moat necessary for
each to pass if there is to be success in their meeting. Success in
psychotherapy, by the way, appears to be loosely defined for this
series. Most of the sessions –including Paul’s time with his
therapist at the end of each week -- are confrontational, rarely
pleasant, often filled with hostility, and mostly difficult for Paul
who shows great empathy for those he is treating. The action is in
the words, so when it bursts forth physically from time to time as
it does, it is something of a shock, calculated, yes, but also
germane.
Who is Paul treating and why? Monday we have Laura (Melissa George),
a young, accomplished anesthesiologist troubled over what I am not
exactly sure. Is it self-esteem, or at bottom, childhood abuse?
Laura, whom Paul has been treating for a year, lets Paul know she is
deeply in love with him, not an easy situation for a therapist. This
theme, coupled with Paul’s problems in his own marriage, reveals
more about Paul than we might expect. Tuesday sees Alex (Blair
Underwood) confront and verbally abuse Paul whenever he can. Alex is
a navy pilot, arrogant, cocky, yet devastated over having dropped a
bomb on innocent civilians in Iraq. His marriage is a mess. Paul is
his enemy because Alex wants answers that Paul cannot supply.
Wednesday we have teenage Sophie (Mia Wasikowska) in a remarkable
turn as a suicidal, abused, champion gymnast, chameleon-like,
bright, and in need of serious therapy, always on the edge, almost
daring us to save her from drowning, something that seems
inevitable. Thursday we enter couples therapy with Jake (Josh
Charles), an aspiring songwriter, apparently not very successful,
and his wife, Amy (Embeth Davidtz), a highly successful
businesswoman. Early on, she is pregnant but she may not want the
child. During a session, she has a miscarriage that seems finally to
set her free from her husband. Now that Amy is no longer pregnant,
does that mean Jake can no longer control her? Only time will tell.
He is nasty and angry toward everyone, including Paul. Jake is
suspicious of everything Amy does, believing she is cheating on him.
It is a very uneasy relationship. The marriage is clearly in
shambles. Friday, a troubled Paul seeks answers for his own troubles
from Gina (Dianne Wiest) a therapist now sixty, his one time mentor
at the institute where he studied under her, now retired, to whom
Paul turns for answers or to salve a troubled conscience. During one
session he blurts out that he loves Laura, something that Gina warns
is dangerous for therapist and patient. Paul, in what is an echo of
how his patients treat him, is equally confrontational and often
angry with Gina. Some of this is old history between them but it is
mostly Paul’s inability to accept the truth when Gina confronts him
with it. Everyone suffers in the series. Some more than others do.
Wounds are common for all.
Then there is Paul’s wife Kate, (Michelle Forbes), who feels
neglected by him, and is angry at how he treats her and their
children. In an argument in his office, appropriately, she tells him
she is having an affair and that his children need him as a father,
not an analyst. Paul, shocked, has a roaring row with Kate and is
naturally resentful of her affair without ever realizing he may be
the problem. They eventually end up in couple’s therapy with Gina, a
fitting turn in the series.
At first, I wondered how I would stick through more than one
session. Watching people let it all hang out is not the easiest way
to spend thirty minutes of an evening. Photographed, directed, and
edited quietly, the series sets exactly the right mood to allow the
power of the words and the emotions to come clearly through the
characters. Usually two or sometimes three people are crosscut on
screen in the confines of an office that is pleasant enough but not
a designer’s dream. Of course it is exactly what a therapist’s
office should be. There is an open dictionary or encyclopedia on a
stand behind Paul. Always in long shot, I wonder what is on the open
pages.
The acting is superb. Byrne is remarkably understated as he mostly
sits and listens to the patient across from him on the couch. His
eyes are exceptionally revealing. In all of the half hour sessions
they tell much of the story. We watch his face with its subtle tics,
and his smile, often when he, Paul, the therapist, agrees to
something his confrontational patient says or as a self-deprecatory
recognition of the truth behind what a patient has said or revealed.
Byrne makes us accept there is a lively intelligence at work and a
major concern for the person seated across from him. Add the
movement of his shoulders and his hands, as they become a temporary
wall between himself and his patient and each session takes on a
life of its own.
Once started, staying the course is mandatory. Each session reveals
something new about the patient, and about Paul’s inner life, thus
his personal life. Some sessions end quietly. Others end with a
bang. Be prepared for the unexpected, the old-fashioned cliffhanger.
It keeps the viewer locked in, anticipating the next week’s session.
As I said, hooked.
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At NBC News for 35 years, Ron Steinman was bureau chief
in Saigon, Hong Kong and London, was a senior producer on Today and wrote
and produced for Sunday Today. At ABC News Productions, he produced
and wrote documentaries for A&E, TLC, Discovery, Lifetime and the
History Channel. He has a Peabody, a National Headliner award, a
National Press Club award, a International Documentary Festival Gold
Camera Award, two American Women in Radio & Television awards and
has been nominated for five Emmy's. He is a partner in
Douglas/Steinman Productions, whose latest documentary, "Luboml: My
Heart Remembers," aired on PBS' WLIW/21 and the History Channel in
Israel, April 29, 2003. He is the author of, "The Soldiers 'Story",
"Women in Vietnam," and most recently, "Inside Television's First
War: A Saigon Journal," University of Missouri Press, 2002.
