In Treatment

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domino harvey
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In Treatment

#1 Post by domino harvey » Sun May 20, 2012 7:37 pm

This is a show best discovered for oneself, so all of this is spoiler-free and thus a little vague. Would be happy to expand on any points in spoilertext, though, for fellow viewers or those inspired to start.

In Treatment sets the bar right out of the gate, and one needs only watch the first episode to discover if this is a show for them: at an early morning therapy session, a sobbing female patient describes the night she's had, recounting an embarrassing sexual encounter before revealing her love for her therapist. This confession and the session's structure itself will form the entire trajectory for the series, four sessions with the therapist receiving recurring patients plus one session with the therapist's therapist spanning the entire week for nine weeks, that is laid here and built upon until the first season ultimately congeals into a novelistic work of density that is as good and ambitious and satisfying as anything that has ever aired on television.

Each of the first season's forty-three episodes is at a basic level a one act play, and it bolsters my long held idea that above all possible dramatic accompaniments, there is simply nothing quite so fascinating as an interesting conversation between two people. But the show screws the knife in deeper and deeper with each passing week as it raises complications and asks serious questions that don't necessarily have easily-gleaned answers. It took me a couple months to work through the first season-- not because of the length (though at forty-three episodes it's certainly a commitment), but because it was just so emotionally exhausting.

There are recognizable names and faces in the first season but rarely have I bought in so completely to the false reality of performance as to those found here. I can't count the times I'd watch and completely forget that these aren't real people. It's not merely the actors who deserve credit-- though they are all exceptional and relatively well-known, making the chameleonic effect all the more impressive-- but the writing which places them within a set artificial construct and works inside the boundaries of their therapy appointments to form whole and complex characters whose minds and mouths go off on tangents in fifty different directions, many of which will never be resolved into pat dramatic arcs. It is this refusal to be boxed-in, to have "likable" characters, that proves the series primary strength: It has the conviction of showing in a heightened form of shorthand the complexity of being human that most series only hint at.

The first and second season are in many ways compliments of each other, but one of the primary disappointments I had with the second season is that despite the presence of more great actors, their parts felt like just that-- parts, roles, characters created to fit a mold. For instance, Alison Pill was very good and convincing in season two as a college student who doesn't want to reveal her cancer diagnosis to her family. But note how I am able to sum her up as thus, whereas Mia Wasikowska's first season counterpoint of sorts Sophie cannot be summed up in terms of mere plot function. Sophie is quite simply the most convincing… portrayal? Embodiment? Representation? of damaged adolescence I've ever seen, and the only adequate summation seems to be that I feel like I know her-- not someone like her, her. The first season has a necessarily thumbnailed understanding of reality whereas the second season has merely well-acted scripts. But I should note that despite my criticisms, the second season (and it's an additional thirty-five episode commitment to mostly new characters) is still highly recommended, as In Treatment is only a disappointment in comparison to itself. (There is a third and final season of twenty-eight more episodes that I have not yet begun. Soon. Please don't spoil anything for me about it)

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Re: In Treatment

#2 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun May 20, 2012 8:29 pm

I watched most of the 2nd season and really liked it. The format was really interesting, and something I hope HBO returns to with another show.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: In Treatment

#3 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon May 21, 2012 5:08 pm

A wonderful series.

"Domino" - if you had concerns about the caliber of acting in Season 2, I will only say that Irfan Khan will put those concerns to rest in the third season.

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domino harvey
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Re: In Treatment

#4 Post by domino harvey » Mon May 21, 2012 5:30 pm

I actually thought the actors in Season Two did a great job (the exception being the family trio in Ryan Fleck's day, who weren't anything special) but the show saddled them to more melodramatic scripts that were a bit pat and reductive in their arcs compared to the trajectory of season one. All the same, glad to hear there's good stuff to look forward to!

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Re: In Treatment

#5 Post by domino harvey » Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:16 pm

Ancient thread bump but for some reason all three seasons of this are up on Amazon Prime for free, no HBO subscription needed!

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Re: In Treatment

#6 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:18 pm

I thought that deal between Amazon and HBO was ending soon, or already did.

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domino harvey
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Re: In Treatment

#7 Post by domino harvey » Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:19 pm

Well, better watch all two hundred episodes of this while you can, folks

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mfunk9786
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Re: In Treatment

#8 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:21 pm

Yeah - all (most?) older HBO series have been up on Prime for a while, until HBO/Warner/AT&T's behemoth of a standalone streaming service launches, if my last check-in on this situation is correct

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Re: Streaming Services

#9 Post by RIP Film » Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:03 am

Recently finished In Treatment on HBO Max, and what a fantastic, intelligently written show that was. It continues to linger with me. Gabriel Byrne is an actor I was only vaguely aware of, but he inhabits his role like a second skin.

I’m quite curious what they do with the season 4 reboot that comes out in May. Hoping it retains the same grounded intensity.

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Re: Streaming Services

#10 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:32 am

I need to get on it (though I don’t really want to go back to work after work) - I mentioned it elsewhere but a lot of my colleagues watched episodes in grad school to analyze as part of class. Seems to be considered pretty authentic

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domino harvey
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Re: In Treatment

#11 Post by domino harvey » Fri Apr 09, 2021 9:42 am

Without Rodrigo Garcia's involvement, there's no reason to bother with the upcoming fourth season

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Re: In Treatment

#12 Post by RIP Film » Thu Apr 29, 2021 7:22 pm



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Re: In Treatment

#14 Post by RIP Film » Fri May 21, 2021 12:28 pm

New season premieres this Sunday; but sadly it seems Domino was right based on early mixed reviews. Some unencouraging snippets from Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2 ... le-insight

”Watching In Treatment, it’s impossible to ignore how central therapy has become to our culture—not merely as a healing modality, but as a way of relating to each other. Armchair therapists lurk all over Instagram and Twitter, haphazardly mining the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of loved ones and strangers. The show’s fourth season doesn’t offer us a salve for this phenomenon; it, too, is more interested in the performance of therapy than the science of it.”

“By refusing to obey the boundary intrinsic to therapeutic practice—namely, that a therapist does not (consciously) involve their own personal life in the session or otherwise take up space beyond their capacity as therapist—In Treatment becomes a soap opera about a struggling psychologist. The three patients become window dressing, supporting characters in Dr.Taylor’s star vehicle. It’s not a difficult premise to accept, since Aduba is so fun to watch—an incredibly skilled actor who is clearly invested in every moment. But the whole affair doesn’t do much for elucidating or challenging the practice of therapy itself. You get the sense that Aduba could have any caretaking role—doctor, addiction counselor, parent, caseworker, teacher—and the show could play out in the same way, if not a bit more freely.”

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domino harvey
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Re: In Treatment

#15 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:51 am

Just learned the French remake premiered this year with episodes directed by Pierre Salvadori (who I’m assuming is directing the Pio Marmai sessions). Is this available anywhere with English subs?

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