IN S1-3 (DVD/S)
From .co.uk
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Season 1
HBO's first half-hour drama gives new meaning to the term, "appointment television." Adapted from a popular and
award-winning Israeli series, In in its first season aired five nights a week for nine weeks beginning in
January 2008. Each episode eavesdrops on a weekly therapist-patient session. "The magic happens" (as one observer
sarcastically remarks) in the home office of Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne in his Golden Globe Award-winning role).
Monday's patient is Laura (Melissa George, 30 Days of Night), a doctor who reveals in a harrowing "about last night"
monologue in the first episode that she is in love with Paul. Tuesdays bring Alex (Blair Underwood, Dirty Sexy Money), a
cocky fighter pilot whose last mission over Iraq went horrifyingly awry, earning him the media tag, "The Madrassa
Murderer." Wednesday's child, Sophie (Mia Wasikowska in a breakout performance) is a teenage Olympic hopeful in need of
an evaluation following a near-al bicycle accident. On Thursdays, Paul meets with Amy (Embeth Davidtz, Matilda) and
Jake (Josh Charles, Dead Poet Society), whose rocky marriage is further shaken as they wrestle over whether or not she
should get an . Fearing he is losing patience with his patients, Paul turns to his former mentor, Gina (Dianne
Wiest in an Emmy-winning performance), with whom he had a falling out years before, to talk out his own troubles. The
therapist whose own personal life is unraveling could have either been bad sitcom or static and stagey talking heads.
But with its inful writing, powerful performances, and deft, unobtrusive direction, In avoids the
pitfalls to become an intensely gripping drama. Each episode thrives on what Laura calls "the back and forth stuff," the
soul-searching and the questioning that strip away the defenses of each damaged character, including Paul himself, who
has his own demons to confront as he becomes further estranged from his neglected and resentful wife, Kate (Michelle
Forbes, True Blood), and grapples with his feelings for Laura. This series is something of a career breakthrough for
Byrne, a celebrated character actor (Miller's Crossing, The Usual Suspects). As the rumpled and weary Paul, he is more
compelling just sitting and listening than many actors are in action. Quality programs for adults that deal with the
human condition are at a premium on television. For anyone whose psyche has been red by so-called reality TV, In
is excellent therapy.
Season 2
In its superb second season, In remains the gold standard example of discomfort television; not discomfort as
in the cringe-worthy comedy of awkward pauses (The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm), but discomfort in the and
primal issues most series avoid or reassuringly attempt to wrap up within the hour. "The kind of therapy I practice,
it's not a quick fix," Dr. Paul Weston (Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne) tells one of his four new patients. "It's a
process, and eventually change happens, but it does take time." It's time well spent in the company of Byrne and an
exemplary Emmy-worthy ensemble. Hope Davis, John Mahoney, and Dianne Wiest seem incapable of sounding a false note, but
the revelations this season are two young newcomers, Alison Pill as an architecture student who refuses to tell her
mother about her recent cancer diagnosis, and Aaron Shaw as Oliver, a child caught in the crossfire of his parents'
anything but amicable divorce. The format is unchanged from Season One. Each daily half hour "session" mostly plays out
in real time, with some illuminating glimpses of Paul outside his relocated Brooklyn office. Davis's Mia is a
hard-driving lawyer and a former patient of Paul's, with abandonment and intimacy issues after he ended her therapy 20
years before. Mahoney's Walter is an embattled CEO suffering from a recent wave of panic attacks. Wiest reprises her
Emmy-winning role as Gina, Paul's former mentor whom he visits on Fridays. They have much to talk about. His "mess of a
life" includes a recent divorce, a $20 million malpractice suit brought by an embittered her (Glynn Turman reprising
his Emmy-winning role) who blames Paul for the possibly suicidal death of his son (a patient from Season One), and the
passing of his own estranged her. "I'm caught between heaven and hell," Paul tells Gina. In its raw emotion, In
is hardly escapist entertainment. "Last week I had nothing," Mia wails at one point, "now I feel less than
nothing." But, as Paul assures her, this is ultimately a good thing for these desperate characters (and viewers) seeking
closure. "Thank you, Paul," Mia allows. "That was a good session." And a great season. --Donald Liebenson
Season 3
Rumours of In 's death have been greatly exaggerated. The half-hour HBO drama that was originally adapted from
an Israeli TV show has continued to flourish among devoted fans in spite of wide-ranging critical opinion about its
integrity and entertainment value. Nevertheless, season three is an absorbing continuation of the life and practice of
psychotherapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne), and the tortured processes he undertakes with patients and with himself.
Continuing the format of episodes that focus on individual patients--only three this time--then concluding each week
with his own therapy session, season three is the first based on original scripts rather than adaptations of episodes
from the hit Israeli series Be' Tipul. The new show runners, Anya Epstein and Dan Futterman, follow the previous design
in assigning the same writer to script for each patient. The only other major thematic difference is the absence of
Dianne Wiest, whose Emmy-winning performance as Paul's mentor, supervisor, and therapist was the highlight of seasons
one and two. Fortunately her replacement, Amy Ryan, is as capable an actor and strong a foil to give Paul's panoply of
problems a whole new arena for discussion (TV vets Epstein and Futterman were responsible for writing the Amy Ryan
"Adele" scripts).
Anyone who has experienced the psychotherapeutic process cannot help but be instantly drawn in to the show's eloquent
design of talk-and-listen, as secrets are told or held back, fears and desires explored or repressed. Even those who are
perfectly adjusted and scoff at the value of psychological should be fascinated by the twists and turns that
mostly seem entirely naturalistic, and better yet, unexpected. The 50-minute hour that is shortened to 20-something for
dramatic purposes may sometimes play against the realistic portrayal of the professional dynamic, but after all, this
isn't reality. Even so, the episodes crackle in their basic form as one-act plays that thrive on nothing but two people
trading razor-sharp dialogue about who they are and what they're thinking. Paul is still listening, and he's entirely
engaged. The flow of each session reflects the depth of his perception as he leads himself and his patient back to
points, gestures, and remarks that may have been made in passing, yet which represent the basic spectacle of the
therapeutic process and the essential role the therapist has in that relationship. We understand that what goes on in
his office affects him as much as his patients.
That's where Amy Ryan comes in as the young, brilliant psychiatrist who Paul sees at the end of each week to bare his
own tortured soul. He's still terribly depressed. His ex-wife is remarrying, he's plagued with guilt over his
12-year-old son, and he has terrorized himself into believing that he's becoming his her, even to the point of being
convinced that he'll die of the same disease (Parkinson's). At first Ryan comes off as the perfect psychiatric ice
queen. But as their connection deepens with knowledge, in, transference, counter-transference, and enthralling
exchanges of actorly acrobatics (their butts never leave their seats!), she becomes perhaps the show's most compelling
character. She's in great company with Debra Winger as a patient who plays an aging actress (though decidedly not
typecast) who finds work elusive and is facing some ordinary family struggles as well. Not only does she look terrific,
Winger brings the best game she has to her sparring-match scenes with Byrne. As an anguished gay teen, Dane DeHaan is
the weakest character. He's saddled with annoying adolescent stereotypes that seem to be thrown into the show's mix just
for a proper portrayal of patient demographics. Best of all is the Indian actor Irrfan Khan (best known for The Namesake
and Slumdog Millionaire) as a maladjusted immigrant whose inscrutable nature fascinates Paul. As the most glaring
example of how Paul's relationships with his patients sometimes slip into the inappropriate, the two become friends of
sorts, even into the ultimate and unforeseen conclusion of this sensational seasonal thread. In all, In
continues to be an engrossing dramatization of psychotherapy, made human by excellent writing and gripping
characterizations. --Ted Fry