"In Treatment" is a great show that for some reason only ran for three seasons. It's a shame because it was well produced, well acted and had good scripts.
Gabriel Byrne stars as psychiatrist Paul Weston, who, during the run of the show, goes through a few changes himself. My first quibble, though I loved the show, is what straight woman or gay man could possibly have Gabriel Byrne as their psychiatrist? One of the main features of psychiatry - explored throughout the series - is that of transference, where a patient believes he or she is in love with the psychiatrist.
Now, if Byrne were truly a psychiatrist, he probably would have had to close his practice with all the patients throwing themselves at him. That's just my opinion. That being said, we saw several instances of transferences throughout "In Treatment."
The patients were fascinating: married couples, a potential teen Olympian (Mia Wasikowska), an angry gay teen (Dane DeHaan), a sexy beauty (Melissa George) who falls for Paul, an old patient who returns, a young woman (Allison Pill) refusing to seek treatment for her cancer, a successful businessman (John Mahoney) with panic attacks, a pilot (Blair Underwood) responsible for the death of children, a successful actress (Debra Winger) whose sister is dying, and others. The most interesting for me was the Indian man (Irrfan Khan) who has been brought from Calcutta after he was widowed to live with his son and his family.
I agree with others, that this was representative of real-life therapy, the high points. Psychiatry is like police work - pretty humdrum, so smartly, the writers did not include the more pedantic parts.
Along the way, Paul faces his own demons and works with two different therapists. One is his old supervisor (Dianne Wiest) and a young woman (Amy Ryan).
Gabriel Byrne is fantastic -- circumspect at times, vulnerable, and completely human.
I really will miss this series, which I viewed on Amazon prime.
