6/23/2008

In Treatment – Who needs a therapist?


Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) could live a happy life. He’s got a nice family and is a well known, highly recommended therapist to his costumers. He solves every problem in his dry, unemotional way – and forgets his own problems about it. And suddenly he finds his wife cheating on him, his kids hating him, a patient in love with him and himself sitting on the couch of a former therapist collegue to get his life fixed.

„In Treatment“ is one of those HBO series where you at the first episode think „Did we need this?“ but then from episode to episode you start to like the whole thing, the emotional characters, the concept.

The series works because we see one daily session per episode and all in all we got only seven characters we meet again and again to follow the way they get their problems solved or not.

Gabriel Byrne does great as the main character, you got the feeling sometimes he worked in this job for years and that is what the story wants to tell us. Paul Weston does this job for years, not only he started yesterday. And as that is exactly the message we get from Gabriel Byrne, I must confess its one of his best roles ever!

The series is for everyone who is interested in lifes of fictional characters and likes a good storyboard, well balanced between conflicts and listening. It is shot in a good series of close ups and quite relaxing to watch. In a while you feel like you’d sit on this couch in this cozy little room of Paul’s and watch the sessions in action. Great!

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