The Lex Files:
A Retired Blog

In Treatment

I hadn’t *planned* to watch it.

When I first read that HBO was planning [a series](http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=4326379&page=1) that would air five nights a week for nine weeks, I didn’t think that was the kind of television commitment I could make.

The premise — that we’d see a therapist five days a week, each day representing a different patient (or, on Fridays, his meetings with his *own* therapist) — seemed gimmicky. And tiresome.

But TiVo… TiVo decided that I just might like the show. So it started taping a couple episodes as suggestions, a few weeks back.

I caved and watched the first several eps. And they were good.

And now I’m, shall we say, addicted. And even, truly, concerned for some of the patients — and the therapist himself.

It’s amusing to watch how the show frequently fears its own premise. Since, at its core, the show should be confined to a fairly cramped office for the entirety of each 26-minute episode, and since that’s a little boring visually to writers and directors alike, much is done to allow occasional glimpses of spaces outside Paul’s office. The street outside his home were patients park, the rest of his house on occasion, or even more rarely, mental images conjured up by Paul as he gets jealous of a patient.

Still… It’s a great show. It’s nice to know that the sagas, such as they are, will be wrapped up after 45 episodes. I’m personally rooting for Paul *not* to sleep with Laura (a patient), and also not to reunite with his cheating wife. I’m expecting he’s not going to listen to me on either issue.