Get Psyched – The Doctor Is In

The second season of HBO’s brilliant drama series In Treatment is finally almost here. I haven’t been this geeked for the next episode of a TV show since The Shield ended.

If you didn’t act upon my entreaty to watch In Treatment during its first season, don’t beat yourself up, because I couldn’t walk the walk myself. I was going without any TV service at the time, and after the first 15 or so episodes HBO stopped streaming them for free on its website. Now, fortunately, there are remedies for dramatic completists like me who need to catch up:

1. If you have HBO, you have until March 15 to check out any of the first 20 episodes via HBO on Demand. Presumably, after that they’ll have episodes 21-43 available the same way.
2. HBO’s bogarting of the In Treatment Season One DVD set ends March 24. So great is my esteem for the show, I may just pre-order it.

If you’re not familiar with the show, here’s my attempt at a brief run-down. Psychotherapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne, pictured above) conducts weekly sessions with four different clients, and each session is depicted as one half-hour episode of the series. Paul’s Fridays are dramatized as his weekly visitations of his mentor Gina (Dianne Weist), who apprehensively counsels him on his own abundant issues despite questionable ethics of doing so.

In a broader sense, In Treatment is all about ethical dilemmas. Paul’s foundation of therapeutic skill and experience are evident enough; the drama takes off as that foundation’s flaws and fissures exploited by a set of difficult and often deceitful set of clients. Take for example Paul’s failing marriage to the young and attractive Kate (Michelle Forbes, seen in brief intervals before and after his sessions), and his possibly-failing resolve to ward off the overtures of his young and attractive client Laura (Melissa George):

▶

Similar “portrait” clips of Paul’s other Season One clients are likewise posted on HBO’s YouTube Channel, along with two-minute recaps of many episodes. However, I must stress that the clips cannot substitute for seeing the full episodes. What really sets In Treatment apart from other series is that each episode feels whole and continuous, like watching an unbroken scene in a play live and in person. The episodes take place (with only minor exceptions) in a single setting, and are filmed in extended takes often several minutes long. What ends up on the screen is beautifully simple: superb writing and superb acting, seamlessly directed and edited.

As if the news of the show’s return wasn’t welcome enough, my anticipation was compounded when I watched the Season Two preview clip on the HBO site. In addition to Byrne and Weist (both of whom are on my short list of favorite actors), Paul’s new crop of weekly conversationalists include characters played by Hope Davis (a mini-crush of mine ever since Next Stop Wonderland), Alison Pill (familiar from Milk) and John Mahoney (who showed much greater acting depth in movies like Say Anything… and Eight Men Out than was ever required of him on Fraiser).

Oh hell yeah, baby. Let the treatment be in.