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Identity soul-searching and four fresh patient faces are teased on this dark poster for Rodrigo García's In Treatment - season 3
An Indian-American married couple bring the husband's Indian father Sunil to Brooklyn-based psychotherapist Paul Weston, because they are worried about his despondent behavior 6 months after the death of his wife in Calcutta. A combative former TV star actress with symbolic razor blade elbows is having trouble remembering her lines, and Weston suspects Parkinson's Disease. Jesse is a gay 16 year-old boy, who is acting out in a passive-aggressive manner, in an identity crisis around his biological parents, who gave him up for adoption. Paul himself is still unhappy, having trouble sleeping and also worried that he might have Parkinson's. His new therapist Adele sees through his curtains.
Sunil opens up about his cultural issues with his son's marriage and Western culture in general. Paul digs into his Indian past, and Sunil's increasingly alarming behavior towards his daughter-in-law, whom he is sure is cheating on his son. This culminates with his arrest and deportation, which Sunil himself provoked consciously, using Paul as an instrument.
Jesse has unrealistic plans about an art school education and continually provokes his surroundings for effect. He brings his mother to one session and provides spectacularly crude behavior in an attempt to learn of his biological roots. He shows up on Paul's doorstep one evening after a visit at his bio-parents, while Paul's son Max starts a minor fire in their kitchen. Jesse later decides that all the blame for his problems stem from his mother and decides to end therapy.
Frances' sessions revolve around her sister, their mother's favorite, in Frances' words, her own alienated daughter Izzy and her lacking sense of self-worth and extreme self-absorption. Paul urges her to see her sister, who is fatally ill.
Paul's sessions with Adele have his innate self-pity at the center, and his dissatisfaction with his former therapist and mentor Gina, which Adele cuts effectively through. He soon grows enamored with her, and her competent competence and clarity is sorely needed in Paul's dark world.
Paul ends up after the season's mostly unsatisfactory patient relations making the drastic decision, - a late midlife crisis? - to shut down his practice to start, instead, living in the 'real world'. Adele, professional to the very end, when he also ends his sessions with her, resists any direct reaction to his obvious attraction to her.
In Treatment - season 3 is created by Rodrigo García (Six Fee Under (2001-05)). While the two first seasons were close adaptations of the two seasons of Israeli TV-series Be Tipul (2005-08), the third is entirely original.
The complex adult drama peaks here in a thematically dense and highly rewarding third season, the last focusing on Gabriel Byrne's (Hereditary (2018)) Paul Weston character. Byrne is still fully on point as the beleaguered psychotherapist. The three patients are interesting, with Irrfan Khan's (Hindi Medium (2017)) riveting performance as Sunil the jewel of the three. Several of their sessions make for downright masterly television. Debra Winger (Legal Eagles (1986)) is outstanding in the moving portrait of Frances, an evocative portrayal of a woman caught in the particular hell of extreme self-absorption. And Dane DeHaan (The Kid (2019)) is good as the sometimes frightening Jesse, a struggling young man with sociopathic tendencies.
Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone (2007)) is exactly the unaffected, uninvolved remedy of clarity that Weston seems to be missing, and she, too, is terrific here. The show is photographed to reflect the intense psycho-dramatic shifts, both written, acted and directed without blemishes. A smash of a season.
Best episodes:
1: Sunil: Week One - Written by Adam Rapp (Vinyl (2016, TV-series)), Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake (2006)), García; directed by Paris Barclay (Monsters (2022-24))
Sunil is introduced to Western therapy by his son and daughter-in-law in the season's promising and intriguing opening episode.
4. Adele - Week One - Written by Anya Epstein (The Beat (2000, TV-series)), Dan Futterman (Foxcatcher (2014)), Garcìa; directed by Barclay
The arrogant veteran psychiatrist meets a critical younger expertise. Paul's first session with his new therapist Adele is phenomenal.
Related posts:
Rodrigo García: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Albert Nobbs (2011) - Glenn Close's triumphant, tender tranformation in García's great film
In Treatment - season 2 (2009) - Advanced character drama
In Treatment - season 1 (2008) - Red-hot performances fuel heavy therapy drama
Carnivàle - 1st season (2003, TV-series) - Grand but oft clotted-up period mystery show
Watch a trailer for the season here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV-series
= Uncertain
[In Treatment - season 3 debuted 25 October - 7 December (HBO) and runs 28 episodes of an average 25 minutes each, coming to approximately 700 minutes. Shooting took place in New York. The viewer ratings are regrettably not public information. The show was rebooted for a 4th and final season at HBO in 2021 with Uzu Aduba portraying the new therapist. García returned with Albert Nobbs (2011). Byrne returned in I, Anna (2012). In Treatment - season 3 is certified fresh at 85 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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