In Treatment is an American drama television series for HBO, produced and developed by Rodrigo Garcia, based on the Israeli series BeTipul (Hebrew: בטיפול), created by Hagai Levi, Ori Sivan and Nir Bergman. The series follows a psychotherapist, Paul Weston, in his 50s, and his weekly sessions with patients, as well as those with his own therapist at the end of the week. The program, which stars Gabriel Byrne as Paul, debuted on January 28, 2008, as a five-night-a-week series. Its executive producer and principal director was Paris Barclay, who directed 35 episodes, the most of any director on the series, and the only one to direct episodes in all three seasons. The program's format, script and opening theme are based on, and are often verbatim translations of BeTipul. HBO Canada aired the program simultaneously with HBO in the U.S. Season 1 earned numerous honors, including Emmy, Golden Globe and Writers Guild awards. The series was renewed for a second season on June 20, 2008, and production on Season 2 wrapped in early 2009. According to The New York Times, production relocated to New York City from Los Angeles at the insistence of Byrne, who otherwise threatened to resign. The move and the addition of Sunday night to the schedule were considered votes of confidence in the series by HBO executives. Season 2 premiered on April 5, 2009. The second season built on the success of the first, winning a 2009 Peabody Award. The third season premiered on October 26, 2010, for a seven-week run, with four episodes per week. The 24-episode fourth season premiered on May 23, 2021, and aired four episodes weekly, with Uzo Aduba taking over as the series lead Dr. Brooke Taylor. In February 2022, HBO confirmed that the show would not return again.
Plot Psychotherapist Paul Weston has a private practice where he carries out sessions with his patients in his Baltimore home. He begins to question his own abilities and motives, so he seeks help from his former mentor and therapist Gina Toll, whom he has not seen for ten years.
Characters
Paul Weston Gabriel Byrne portrays Paul Weston, a charming, relentless psychologist, who is seeking a peaceful existence, free of self-doubt and ambivalence. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he earned his undergraduate degree, Columbia University, where he earned a master's degree, and The New School, where he received his PhD (though a season one scene shows two diplomas from the University of Pennsylvania displayed near the door to Paul's office). In summer 1988, he moved to Maryland, where he worked at the Washington–Baltimore Psychoanalytic Institute and later established his private practice in Baltimore.
Gina Toll Dianne Wiest portrays psychotherapist Gina Toll, Paul's former mentor and clinical supervisor whom Paul avoided for nine years after an argument over reservations Gina expressed in a letter of recommendation on Paul's behalf. She acts as a sounding board for Paul's doubts about his motives and abilities.
Episodes
Each episode of In Treatment focuses on one patient, including Paul, who is seeing his clinical supervisor and psychotherapist, Gina.
Season 1 Therapy patient Laura professes her love for Paul, which causes their relationship to grow more complex and difficult to control. Laura's personal issues include being seduced by a much older man when she was a teenager. She begins an unsatisfying sexual relationship with Alex, another of Paul’s patients. Paul reflects on his own feelings for her and believes that he is in love with her; sessions with Gina fail to resolve his inner conflict over his desire and professional responsibility. Midway through the season, Laura ends her therapy with Paul after he continues to reject her advances. Paul and Laura encounter each other at Alex's funeral, and Paul decides to pursue Laura at the risk of destroying his marriage, but a panic attack prevents him from going through with it. A fighter pilot who finds it impossible to express his internal struggles, Alex meets Laura and has a brief affair with her. Paul tries to get Alex to break through to his reasons for running himself to exhaustion and examine his feelings about killing Iraqi schoolchildren during a sanctioned mission. Alex drifts into instability, eventually deciding to end his therapy, and returns to the military just as Paul begins to make progress with Alex's repressed insecurities. Alex is killed during a training exercise, and although his death is ruled an accident, some indications suggest that Alex's death was a suicidal reaction caused by the trauma of therapeutic reflection. Sophie's ambivalence about life is elicited and broken down by Paul, who examines her underage sexual relationship with her much older gymnastics coach, Cy, and its effects on her, in addition to her conflicted feelings about her divorced parents and her father's distance from her. Eventually, Sophie benefits greatly from the therapy and begins to repair her relationship with her parents. At the end of the season, Sophie leaves Baltimore to pursue further gymnastic training in Denver. Jake and Amy's debate about whether she should have an abortion is the prologue to what is revealed to be an extremely volatile, dysfunctional relationship. During their second session, Amy has a miscarriage, but the couple return to therapy to work on their issues. Amy's inability to hold emotional connection leads her to have an affair with her boss, a man she finds "gross" but uses as a buffer against Jake. Jake and Amy each have an individual session, and finally and sadly decide to end their marriage and share custody of their son. Jake believes the therapy was helpful, but Amy thinks it hurt their marriage. Throughout the season, Gina and Paul confront each other over issues in their shared history and opposing views, but by the finale Paul realizes he needs her input and agrees to continue therapy. The first season consists of 43 episodes, with each episode airing on its allotted day of the week, Monday to Friday. The episodes were spread over nine weeks for most of the characters, except in the final week, which did not have Monday or Tuesday installments.
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