First Review: HBO's "In Treatment"

One early reviewer noted that the new series "In Treatment" from HBO was the replacement for "The Sopranos", but zeroing in on the psychiatry. I really like Gabriel Byrne, who plays the shrink, so I thought I would give it a spin.

I watched the first night and was a bit disappointed, but that was because I didn't understand the format. This is like a weekly mini-mini-series where you watch four days of the shrink listening to his patients, and then the last day of the week you hear him talking to HIS shrink.

That's what I didn't like about the first episode - that we got nothing from the shrink, but heard a 30 minute session about the patient. Byrne only had about ten lines (after all, he's a shrink and is supposed to listen). Apparently each patient comes back the same time each week (so each Monday will be the same patient, etc.) then each Friday Byrne goes to his own shrink to wrap things up, so I assume that will be 30 minutes of listening to just him.

So I will give it a full week before I give my final verdict.

Like legal shows versus real law, there is a lot here that you wouldn't find in "real" psychotherapy, but that is a discussion for another time.

Update: The second episode was much better. Blair Underwood did a good job as the "Tuesday" patient and there was a lot more feedback from Byrne this time. A good write-up is here.