In Treatment: Week 5

I’ve not written about In Treatment since the first week, so it’s time I wrote a catch up post.  I was inspired to do this when I left a 400 word comment on Unpopcult’s review of week 5 and I thought it would be a waste not to try and turn it in to a post.

In Treatment is a 5-nights-a week, HBO drama currently airing in the UK on Sky Arts 1.  The most recent complete week that I’ve seen was Week 5, so that’s what I’m going to concentrate on.  The series centres around therapist Dr Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) and his relations with his clients.  Each night of the week features a different patient.

To begin with, each plot strand seemed to be unrelated, but, as time has gone on, they have slowly become entwined.  Considering that it mainly consists of some people talking in a room it’s an incredibly gripping, and, at times, exciting series.

With so many episodes, the quality inevitably varies, although they maintain an overall high standard.  The emphasis in each strand shifts, week by week, in order to tell a long novelistic story and, quite often, last week’s strongest strand becomes the weakest, and vice versa.

Monday – Laura (Melissa George)

Laura has become the central focus to the series.  It started with her confessing her love for Paul (known as erotic transference in the trade), but, as the weeks passed, we also learned Paul is actually in love with her too.  It’s not entirely clear why Paul is in love with Laura – sure, she’s 25 years his junior, gorgeous and keeps telling him how much she wants to have sex with him – but doesn’t Paul want more than that?  Facetiousness aside, they’ve not made the reasons clear why Paul has completely lost his head over her.  There are some clues, such as the disintegration of his marriage, but, so far, Laura hasn’t proved to be that lovable.  In his own therapy session, the previous week, Paul did say how intelligent, funny, good story-teller etc etc that Laura was, but that hasn’t really come across in the sessions that we’ve seen with her.   The series is incredibly layered and subtle, so I’m sure that my concerns will be addressed before too long.

Tuesday – Alex (Blair Underwood)

Alex started as a bullish fighter-pilot struggling to deal with having killed civilians, but, with the on-set of an affair with Laura, the strand has taken on a darker edge.  This week’s episode was very powerful as Alex pushed Paul to breaking point by revealing that he had been spying on him and divulging details of his wife’s affair.  I did find it all  kind of strange though (perhaps it was supposed to seem that way).  Alex was definitely very creepy, and seemed almost possessed, but part of me just didn’t believe that he would really have dug up all that information.  I’m hoping that this week will shine a bit more light on it all.

Wednesday – Sophie (Mia Wasikowska)

Sophie’s strand seems to be the least connected to the others, but it is no worse for that.  I do wonder if her story will eventually link to all the others or if it will continue to be stand-alone.  Either way, Mia Wasikowska is exceptional in the role and her rapport with Gabriel Byrne is a joy to behold.  I guess what it brings to the overall picture is that it shows Paul at his most caring when he can at other times seem a bit cold.

Thursday – Jake and Amy (Josh Charles & Embeth Davidtz)

Thursdays have always felt a little bit like filler on In Treatment and Jake & Amy, a husband and wife undergoing couples therapy, have never quite rung true.  Like Sophie their story isn’t tied directly to the overall plot, but you can draw parallels between their marriage and Paul’s own troubled one.   The plot really picked up this week and, in something of a reversal, we saw Amy become very unemotional while Jake showed his true desperation to save their marriage.  It was actually very moving and they both finally seemed like real people.

Friday – Gina (Dianne Wiest)

Friday’s episodes are especially fascinating as Paul visits his own therapist Gina.  Their relationship is quite complicated and there is past bad blood between them.  This means that there is so much smoke and mirrors in their conversations that it’s difficult to know exactly what they are really saying to each other.  We see first hand that Paul blatantly lies when recounting some events and so it brings in to question everything that is said by every character in the series.

This week they were joined by Kate, Paul’s wife, who has recently admitted to having an affair.  Despite stating that they were already blurring the lines of acceptable behaviour for therapy, Gina brought up Laura and made Paul explain the situation.  Did she do this as a good piece of therapy or in order to get one over on Paul?  The other big theme in this episode was the comparison between Kate’s physical betrayal and Paul’s emotional one.  Kate was allowed to be very indignant about Paul’s feelings for Laura, but it’s hard to feel too sorry for her considering she’s just come back from a holiday with another man.  I felt that, to an extent, they were allowing Kate to take the moral high ground and it didn’t really wash with me.  Everything seems to have fallen apart for Paul and I’m intrigued to see where the series goes next.

In Treatment is the rarest of beasts – a complex, adult drama serial.  My only criticism is that having  five episodes every week is forcing me to be very creative when managing my Sky planner.