In Treatment is one of those series that doesn't need anything more than creativity, because it's all about it. There's no need for more than a director, a camera, an effective editing, great few actors and interesting cases. OK, any other series need all of that too but here everything's much more simple, fitting in a low budget that results in a high profile series that holds your attention just by amazing performances in a room.
When I heard about it for the first time I thought that it could be a lot boring, but I was completely wrong. HBO's philosophy about realistic drama shows never goes wrong on the target.
In Treatment really is something like 6 different series in just one. I mean... you can follow each one of the 5 weekly patients individually or you can just opt following all of them. So you will keep understanding the primal idea anyway you choose. And that is a lot interesting and innovative.
Boring? No way. The actors and their characters have their very own personality and problems a part, and each one of them has their own meaning and importance in a way that it's impossible choose the most interesting or the best performance between them.
First season is filled with great actors and amazing characters. You have Laura (monday) - brilliantly performed by Melissa George - a person who have relationship problems with her fiancé because she's in love with Peter, her psychotherapist; Alex (tuesday) - performed by Blair Underwood - an arrogant navy pilot that is always testing Peter and himself without balancing consequences; Sophie (wednesday) - performed by Mia Wasikowska - a teenager that seems to be a potential suicide but in fact problems are too much worse than that; Jake & Amy (thrusday) - performed by Josh Charles and Embeth Davidtz - a couple which husband has trust problems with a wife that's always hiding truths to avoid his jealousy behavior; and at least and last Peter himself (friday), performed by Gabriel Byrne, who searches for his once a time mentor and now a retired psychotherapist Gina - magnificently performed by Dianne Wiest - because psychotherapists are also humans and have their own personal and professional problems.
But the best thing for me is the realistic tone of each chapter, making us fell like in a real psychotherapy session. If you like consistent dialogs and enjoy a lot to be an observer of human behaviors and also all those psychotherapist manners to take away hidden truths like playing a game, you'll be mesmerized with this show. It's simple, consistent, dense and emotional with no shame.
