In Treatment: Alex – Week One
By fred | January 30, 2008
(S01E02) Another day, another session. That’s how it works with HBO’s new series, In Treatment. I’m not sure how it is going to turn out in the end, but after two episodes only I can already see how some could watch only parts of the show, not all episodes, but only those they are interested in.
And because of its unusual “format”, it’s not hard to figure out which one you may be interested in, and which on you may drop. The show will obviously work on a “serialized” format, but with four different stories, one per patient. And not only are those stories completely unrelated to one another, but you know in advance which episode will focus on which story, and that there will never be one episode with more than one story. Except for Friday, of course, when Dr Paul Weston goes to see his own therapist. So it should be easy to pick your days.
Last night was Tuesday, and Tuesday is the day when Alex comes in.
I gave to say, I actually liked this episode. It was much better than the previous one, in more than one aspect. And probably the most important one of all, was the story, the patient and his story.
In itself, I find the fact the Alex is a soldier who did his job, hit his target which resulted in the death of so many children, and the fact that he wants to go back there despite people wanting to kill him, much more interesting than the girl and her relationship problems as she’s in love with her therapist. In itself, having a guy sitting in telling Paul that he died, he was clinically dead – and for no less than 48 hours mind you! – and is now back among us, is much more interesting than the girl and her fantasy about her therapist.
Now combine the two and meet Alex, Paul’s new patient. Unlike Laura, Alex is new here, this was his first session ever. And I have to say, I liked it a lot more than Monday’s. I loved that this one actually seemed more like a discussion between the two characters. Oh sure, Alex wanted to be in control, he had to chose the topic of discussion, throwing away some remarks or comments that Paul made that were interesting and would have been worth a few words on occasion, he had to even chose the questions that Paul was to ask him, something that I have to admit I actually liked quite much.
But regardless, today Paul seemed much more involved in the session, he had a lot more to do than a little smile here and a “go on” there, and thank God for that!
Not only that, but we had some actual “therapist comments and analysis” going on, even if at early stage, of course. And while I’m personally not such a fan of bringing up the father and mother issue like all therapist do, I found way more interesting Paul’s comment on his, despite his claim, Alex might not really be willing to go back to work, to another mission. Maybe he was, somehow, affected. I liked his interpretation that what Alex did was to find ways to avoid going back to work, now we’re starting something right there.
And while he did point out a few things, I guess he didn’t mention the way Alex referred to himself at the third person whenever he was talking about his mission because it was probably too soon, and might have gotten Alex more “annoyed” that anything else. But I’m sure this will come up in the next sessions, because while it was unclear what he would actually do one he left Paul’s office, obviously we know that, whether or not he goes on with his trip, he’ll be back next week.
One thing I want to mention, because that kinda shocked me : did I hear him wrong, or did he say it was $150 an hour ?? I’m not sure if we’re supposed to believe that the session are actually one hour long, because what we’re shown seems to be pretty uncut, and we saw Alex come in, talk, and then leave, all than in less than half an hour, but anyways : $150 an hour ! Really? I get it, Paul is the very best.. But is Laura supposed to be able to afford that kinda money, every week ? I don’t know, it seemed a bit much to me, but what do I know.
One last thing : that little joke Paul made, the therapist joke about how the customer is always wrong, that made me laugh. I don’t know why I feel like mentioning it, but I do, I liked it.
Anyways, all in all this was actually a good episode, one I liked. I said yesterday that I wouldn’t care if I never saw or heard of Laura again, but this time I can’t wait to see what Alex will have to say next time !
Posted in Reviews
Shows: In Treatment
