In Treatment is back five two nights a week on HBO. While we have a mostly new cast, Paul (Gabriel Byrne) is of course back, and it was exciting to see that not only is Gina (Dianne Wiest) still a part of the show, but that her Friday sessions will continue to cap each week’s worth of programming.
Beyond that, we got four new “patients” (yes that’s in quotes for a reason). But all is not well for Paul, in fact very little is well. He’s lost just about everything a man could lose and still feel himself a man, and at the top of the first episode he’s hit with the possibility of losing what little he has left. It was nice to see Glynn Turman back as Alex’s (Blair Underwood) father from last season; he gave a nice turn in the role; but his presence is foreboding of harsh times to come.
While I’ll miss the drama we saw last season with Laura (Melissa George) affecting Paul’s marriage, and the brilliant performance of Mia Wasikowska as Sophie, it didn’t take long for me to get just as intrigued with this season’s crop of new “patients.”
There’s those quotes again. Let’s just get this out of the way:
Mia
Monday’s “patient” is Mia, and she’s the reason for the quotes as she’s not really a patient at all, anymore. At least for now, Monday is dealing directly with the fallout of Alex’s death last year.
A year later, Paul is separated from his family, having moved and set up practice in Brooklyn. But as I stated, the season opened with Alex, Sr. showing up at his doorstep to serve him with the papers for his lawsuit. Negligence, malpractice, wrongful death, call it what you will it is clearly tearing Paul up, as is Alex’s death in general.
He already blames himself and now he’s got a multimillion dollar lawsuit looming over it. So here’s where I began to really feel for Paul. When he went to meet his lawyer, the guy was unavailable so the senior litigator stepped in to assist. Good news, right? Wrong. A former patient of his from many, many years ago, Mia is rife with unresolved issues despite her success and harbors tremendous resentment toward Paul.
As if he didn’t have enough to worry about with the lawsuit. I’m not sure where the Monday storyline is going, and I don’t imagine Mia will become a proper patient under Paul’s care again, though I suppose it’s possible. We have eight weeks before things get underway and about that long of In Treatment, so I guess it’ll all be leading up to that.
April
Alison Pill does a great job of playing this new patient. She’s a typical college student full of anxieties on the surface, but underneath she is boiling with resentment, anger and denial issues about a serious cancer diagnosis she is facing. If she gets treatment right away, there’s a good chance they can take care of it and she can recover fully. If she doesn’t she’ll surely die.
It looks like April, coming right on the heels of the Alex fallout installments, is there to keep Paul aware of the mortality of his patients and his possible role in preventing their deaths. If he doesn’t reach this girl, who’s already pushed away another therapist with her misdirected anger, she will die. And he’ll put that on himself again.
Oliver
This one cuts a little too close to home for me. While ours is amicable at this time, my son’s mother and Oliver’s mother Bess (Sherri Saum) could be two peas in a pod. Oliver (Aaron Shaw) is a kid who’s struggling with the fact that his parents are getting a divorce and are already living apart.
His first struggle will be in accepting that they really are getting divorced. His second struggle is his overbearing mother and his almost too cavalier (“toughen him up”) father. The two are such polar opposites in their parenting styles they really need to find a middle.
These sessions are to force Paul to face the turmoil in his own family, separated by literal miles from his children and the stormy relationship he shares with his wife. I’m not sure if she’ll be showing up or if any of that will be addressed directly, but you can tell this one will touch him deeply.
Walter
John Mahoney is great in this role, it’s such a departure from his signature role on Frasier as Martin Crane. Here he’s a driven hard-working CEO. He demands excellence, expediency and doesn’t have time for weakness of any kind. And it looks like his body is beginning to betray his stringent work ethics.
While his purpose for this visit is an inability to sleep, the severe panic attacks make me think we’ll be dealing more with his severe anxieties about getting older and becoming less capable of maintaining his hectic schedule. And even more devastating, realizing that he’s not immortal and he may even become irrelevant.
Gina
What started as a social call regarding Gina’s being deposed on Paul’s behalf (damn him for not taking notes) in the trial regarding Alex’s death, this was half friendly and half confrontation. Estranged again since last season, I’m glad to see that Paul will be taking Gina on as his own therapist again.
Gina was unaware even that Paul had moved, meaning that he probably just kind of abruptly and impulsively tore his entire life apart to run away from the guilt he felt over Alex’s death and his allowing Laura to come in and ruin his marriage.
Summation
Damn, this was long but we’re talking two and a half hours worth of show each week. Still, it looks like we’re off to a fantastic start. Tying in nicely to the major events of last season and moving forward with some intriguing new cases, I hope In Treatment can find a bigger audience this second time around so we can maybe get a third.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Apr 09, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I’m so happy it’s back! I was obsessed with the first season, and this looks to be just as good. Walter and April look to be early favorites, and I’m intrigued at how they’re going to keep Mia around.