Monday, February 18, 2008

In Treatment - Offline

Aurorasbored made a good point about what's so disappointing lately with In Treatment. I think she nails the major unravelling here...

This was supposed to be a different format - five strands on five days. That's what got me excited! I wanted to watch Paul's patients grow internally and change through dialogue only. Instead, we see everything devolving and revolving around Paul himself.

The patients are foils for Paul and are helping illustrate his character arc. Instead of watching them grow, they're remaining flat.

The patients in two dimensions are reflecting different aspects of Paul and helping to fill him out. By connecting Alex and Laura, they're reflecting more of him, but less of themselves.

Paul was entrancing in Week 1 as a foil for his patients. As of now, I've lost patience.

If this was an effort to hook me with the free online viewing, it has not worked. I won't pay for HBO to get this show and I won't make the effort to download the torrents.

If Soprano's didn't get me to pay for HBO and The Wire didn't get me to buy Showtime, this prescription's gonna have to be a whole lot stronger.

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