In Treatment: Jake And Amy – Week One
By fred | February 1, 2008
(S01E04) Here we go again, with another day came another patient for Paul, HBO’s very own therapist. The concept of the show is as much in the way its done than it is in its schedule. I said before that I could see how people could chose a few patients they liked, and only watch episodes with them. It works, because none of the stories are related – which is good – and I think that if it may bee surprising to have one new episode every day, it couldn’t have worked otherwise, you’d forget about each story or character and by the time they’d be back for another session you wouldn’t care anymore.
The only real question comes from the Friday show, which will be different and may be the exception where all stories are crossing paths, since this time Paul gets to be the patient. But for now, he’s still the therapist.
I was glad to see that this time it wasn’t a newcomer, like the recent patients, and even better was the fact that it was a couple. So far it has always been a one on one discussion, or even more of a monologue at times. But with three people now, things were different. I know I’ve said this before, but once again it looked like Paul was more invested this time than ever before. More affected too.
Really, during the first episode on Monday, I don’t want to say that he didn’t care about Laura or that her story didn’t affect him at all, but pretty close. And each day he seemed to be getting more and more involved, and more and more active in the discussion as well. On Monday he listened, but barely spoke word. Last night he was much more involved. Maybe it was because he was pressed to be part of the conversation, but either way it was really a good thing I think.
Now I’m sure people will say that those two were a bit too much into the stereotype of their role, but that actually didn’t bother me. In fact, I really liked this session because for the first time it actually felt “real”, like every day real. Laura was a stupid cliché, Alex had a very unique experience that you could only find on TV (a guy back after being dead for 48 hours no less), and if Sophie wasn’t the usual girl abused by her coach, it sure looked like it. And I failed to get interested in her story.
But this time, somehow, I liked it. I liked Jake’s attitude and his denial, I liked how he “attacked” Paul, and how Paul was actually doing some therapist work, I liked how the two of them were fighting each other constantly because you could really believe that those two argue with each other that way every day. Their story was nothing special, but it was not boring either, I found myself laughing a few times although I’m not sure it was the reaction we were supposed to have, and by the time it was over – which came much sooner than it did before, or so it felt (unless it was due to the time “wasted” at first, waiting for Amy) – I wanted to see what would happen next.
Although to be fair, after Jake left like he did, after seeing the two of them fighting one another the way they did, I think that my advice to them would be to have the abortion, and a divorce. But I guess that will be Paul’s challenge, to see if he can bring the two of them to really talk, and listen, to each other, and to trust each other.
I said this episode felt like it went faster than the others, but forced to admit that not only did they wasted a few minutes at first waiting for Amy, they also wasted a few more at the end. But I guess we had to be shown that Paul usually doesn’t go to see a therapist, but that he was affected by his patient now and needed to talk about it, to let it out.
Which he’ll be doing tonight at 9.30, on HBO.
Posted in Reviews
Shows: In Treatment
