Guest Blogger Aurorasbored: Dismay and Discord to All Therapists! (In Treatment, Week Three)

First thing I want to know (aside from who would be so foolish as to let me guest write on their rather fantastic blog) is: what compels television writers to reach for sex?

I mean, not as a personal habit but as a professional one. I have in my day been attracted to "searing," "passionate" sexual plots that tanked such once-great shows such as The Practice, The X-Files, Grey's Anatomy, et al. I personally find The Practice the most egregious, and most apt to compare to In Treatment in that it started off noble, sober, and deeply intriguing on a moral level then just ended up with Lara Flynn Boyle, naked, on a kitchen counter. No, I'm really not joking.

And dear god, after only two weeks, has In Treatment suffered the same fate? I'll be damned!

The Laura night gave us a damn rocky start, that's for sure. Paul Weston, rattled by his wife's affair and dogged by his old mentor Gina, wakes up in his office on Monday morning. A good a start as any, as Laura promptly busts in and starts her now-tired, histrionic shrieks about how she is in love with Paul, Paul is in love with her, they are going to make love right there on the coffee table, and how dare he treat her as something as mundane as a patient. Oy.

I tuned out a lot of it, I admit. Paul gets up the courage to at least slightly imply she ought to be transferred (which, delicacy of the treatment aside, should have been done immediately, in my highly unprofessional opinion. Like, six months ago so we wouldn't have to deal with The Laura Problem all damn week.) Laura, predictably, flips. There's not much to say about this except dun dun DUN, after she walks out? (as Mssr. Stoner has pointed out) boom, she's right into the Alex narrative.

Okay, I see why it figures of all the characters to be drawn together, it would be Laura and Alex. Alex has some fearsome daddy issues and has projected a great deal of them onto Paul. And Laura is of course, Laura and despite every writerly protest to the contrary, is turning into damn ol' Glen Close. Must we?

It's not all bad, though. In fact, therein lies the grief: Blair Underwood and Melissa George have marvelous chemistry, even in one short scene. It's sneaky, it's sly, they both know on some level they're pulling Paul's chain, but they don't care. Paul just seems utterly wearied by Laura, not ferociously intrigued as Gina seems to want him to be. But Alex and Laura? Not a bad fit, it seems, if it didn't drive everybody else into distraction.

I'm not going to address the end of the week yet except to say OH COME ON but I will say that Gina is rapidly spiraling down in my estimation, as a shrink and a person. She seems to be dragging Paul by the yoke of a natural attraction to a patient, though I suppose it's being revealed that Paul's feelings go deeper than that. Please no.

Cut out SOON, I do not care if Laura is hit by a bus and Paul has to explore whether he subconsciously pushed her into the street, but Sex. Ruins. Everything. If at all possible, dear ambitious TV writers, when you have such a thinky show, at a very intense, very unique pacing (5 half hours a week is a huge commitment, which is why we fans are a tee biddle insane) and then you just do that thing. That everyone does. And so early too. So enough of the teasing. Either full sex, right there in the office her next session, toss Alex in there to wave around a Desert Eagle, and have Gina confess to Kate that she raped Paul eight years ago. Anything. A rut is a rut is a rut, but I am willing to forgive.

And so should you! If you're watching, that is.

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Aurorasbored is your handy dandy ranter for all occasions. I'm available where suds and bud roam freely through the plains. She also does not actually get HBO, so she may be in trouble with this show sometime soon. Thanks E. Stoner!