A PhD in Hypocrisy

HBO’s In Treatment brings new meaning to “Physician, healthyself”

By Matt Lynch

The gosh darn strike is over. New scripted televisionwill finally return to your screens. Months of suffering throughbrain-shrinking reality shows and no new episodes of 30 Rock have left me abitter, shambling husk of my former self. It’s tough, living only for the43 minutes a week in which I’m allowed to enjoy a new episode of Lost, or thelatest installment of The Wire. (Speaking of which, as of this writing thereare only two new episodes left of that masterpiece. The series finale willprobably have already aired by the time you read this, and I will turn into avery, very sad young man.)

If I had one, my therapist would probably tell me to get outmore, if he wasn’t too busy dealing with his failing marriage and trulyunstable clientele. Wait, sorry, that’s not me, that’s HBO’s intriguing,slightly experimental new series, In Treatment. Pretty great segue, right?Anyway, you’ve probably already heard about this show. Like me, you alsoprobably thought “That’s just what television needs! Another boring showabout a psychiatrist who can solve everyone’s problems... except his own.” Itwasn’t enough that Showtime rightly cancelled Huff (what’s Huff, you ask?).

But honestly, I think the show’s pretty cool, and well worthyour time, which is saying a lot since In Treatment is probably the largesttime commitment requested by a major network since the invention of the soapopera. Let’s start with the basics. In Treatment stars Gabriel Byrne as Paul, atherapist going through some sort of emotional crisis. He’s having troublewith his patients, and his marriage is falling apart. But this isn’t atypical HBO hourlong.

Instead, the show airs five 30-minute episodes a week, one aday Monday through Friday. Each day, we sit in on Paul’s session with aparticular patient. Mondays it’s Laura, who claims to be in love with him.Tuesdays it’s Alex, the arrogant Navy pilot, et cetera. On Friday, there’s achange-up, and we watch Paul in therapy with his own (sort of) analyst, Gina(Dianne Wiest). Most viewers, including even myself, honestly won’t want or beable to put in that sort of time commitment, regardless of the quality of theprogram.

For those willing, though, HBO has actually made it quiteeasy, running the episodes multiple times during the week, airing catch-upmarathons, and placing full weeks of the show on On Demand a week ahead ofschedule. You can even watch the show online, for free, even if you’re not anHBO subscriber (a bold move, I must say). Personally, I watch the show intwo-and-a-half hour chunks all five episodes in a row every Monday.

Not to mention that if a viewer is only really interested inthe Wednesday story of Sophie, the teenage gymnast, they can just tune in oncea week. But I think that would be a mistake. At first glance, In Treatmentdoes seem rather bland.

Why do you want to spend a half hour a day listening to somejerk vent about his stupid problems? You’ve got enough stupid problems of yourown, I know. But the show is far less about the patients than it is aboutPaul himself. One of the best reasons to watch every episode is to watch theway Paul’s interactions with the individual patients shape his work, and hislife, as a whole. It becomes sort of a game.

Why did Paul bristle when Laura made that comment? We mightnot find out until his session with bickering couple Jake and Amy on Thursday,which in turn will probably come up when Paul sees Gina on Friday. Or maybe theargument Paul had with his wife when Jake and Amy didn’t show up on time willrear its head during Alex’s session next week.

Though it might not seem this way, In Treatment is a lotmore than two people talking to each other for 30 minutes. Byrne’s really great in the role of Paul,too. He has a tendency to mail it in sometimes, but so much of his performanceon the show is minor facial expressions and changes in tone. My favorite aspectof his work is watching Paul lie. He may recount to Gina or another patient anincident we witnessed, and the way he tells the story almost invariably departsfrom the truth in ways small or large.

It’s almost impossible to know whether or not Paul’s lyingbecause he’s being deliberately deceptive or if he truly thinks that’s howthings went down, but a lesser actor would probably tip his hand too soon andgive away the store. Truly it’s an aggressive program, and a difficult one tosit through, even if you find it as intriguing as I do.

As viewers we don’t normally like our television to makedemands of us, intellectual demands, demands of time or even making us watchcommercials. But HBO has come up with an ingenious, complicated show that, sortof like a therapist, is always around for us to check in on. It’s theperfect show for people who can’t do without a DVR. It sucks you in quickly butis patient enough to reward your attention when you’re willing to give it.