In Treatment

Dean and I have a confession: we are in treatment. We have been for weeks. I mean, we are so *in* to In Treatment, the new HBO series that follows a therapist, Paul, played by smoldering hunk Gabriel Byrne, and his sessions with clients. It is simply fascinating, riveting. Each half hour-long episode is an individual therapy session, done in real time. My favorites are the ones where the therapist, Paul, is in session with his own therapist, Gina, played brilliantly by Diane Weist.

Though it is a little fakey at times (I mean, really, what decent therapist sees patients in his own living room?) it is in general a very well-done show. Paul has incredibly flimsy and porous boundaries, no real sense of professional distance (Dean is simply mortified watching this). And he is hopelessly enmeshed with his patients, who are having "erotic transference" and counter-transferrance constantly. It's a total roller-coaster ride of emotions. But I guess that's what makes it so interesting?