TV Review - In Treatment: Season 4

This series, developed by Rodrigo Garcia, originally premiered in 2008. It was an adaptation of an Israeli series. It had a unique structure for a prime-time drama. It was half-hour episodes that aired five days a week, Monday to Friday. It focused on a psychotherapist treating various patients for the first, four days of the week. The fifth day was devoted to the therapist himself seeing a therapist to address his own issues. The first season generated over 40 episodes, meaning it ran for nine weeks. It originally ran for three seasons. Each season generated less and less episodes. The second season for example generated 35 episodes, running for seven weeks. The third season generated 28 episodes, running for seven weeks but only being four days a week. That season ended in 2010.

This fourth season debuts a little over 10 years after the previous season ended. This represents one of the longest hiatuses for a TV series that's ever been. Larry David took a six-year hiatus between Season 8 and 9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The X-Files had a 15-year hiatus. Twin Peaks had a 26-year hiatus. This fourth season generated 24 episodes, running six weeks, again only being four days a week. Yet, the reduction of episodes isn't the only change. The therapist at the center is now a new person entirely.

Uzo Aduba (Mrs. America and Orange Is the New Black) stars as Brooke Taylor, a 42-year-old therapist who runs her practice out of her home in Baldwin Hills, a wealthy black neighborhood in Los Angeles. She works from home since the COVID-19 pandemic has forced her out of her office. She can afford to do so given that she's clearly well off, a Stanford University graduate who has done well at her practice. We see her deal with three patients, three days out of the week. The fourth day are times when Brooke talks to someone about her personal issues. It's not like in the previous seasons. Brooke isn't in therapy herself, but those fourth days act as such.

Aduba was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role here and it is absolutely deserved. She is incredible as the therapist who has to analyze her patients and often navigate their issues, as they prove difficult to handle at times. The performances from the various actors cast as her patients are all incredible too. It's acting at its height from everyone involved, which was the case in the previous seasons. Aduba and the cast here pick up that mantle and run away with it. I would include that the writing from the new crop of writers here is also pretty top notch. Yet, I dare say that I wasn't as engaged with the material here, as I had with the material in the previous seasons.

Anthony Ramos (In the Heights and A Star Is Born) co-stars as Eladio Restrepo, a young man who works as a live-in nurse for a wealthy family whose son is disabled. Eladio basically cares for the disabled son. The reason he's in therapy is because he's been diagnosed as being bipolar. In addition to that, he's also suffering from insomnia, which keeps him up through the night. He also happens to be gay. The story line involving Eladio and his choices, as well as his attachments to certain people is probably the most interesting of all of Brooke's patients because it becomes linked to her.

There's some stuff with her other patient, Colin, played by John Benjamin Hickey (The Good Wife and The Big C), but he's just an insufferable character who is representative of white privilege to ugly degrees. None of his issues were compelling through which to sit. If the goal is to be frustrating and annoying, the series succeeds with Colin, but I never came to care about him the way that I did with Eladio. There is a warmth and a charm there that I didn't get with Colin or even Brooke's other patient, Laila, played by Quintessa Swindell (Voyagers).

Liza Colón-Zayas (David Makes Man and Titans) plays Rita Ortiz, a friend to Brooke and her sponsor for Alcoholics Anonymous. She's there to help Brooke through her addictions and other issues. They have some great scenes together and Colón-Zayas is excellent opposite Aduba. However, I simply wasn't that engaged with yet another addiction story line. When the series got into Brooke's relationship with her child that she gave away, as well as her relationship with Adam, played by Joel Kinnaman (House of Cards and The Killing), her love interest, the show was sparking more, but it ultimately wasn't enough to sustain my interest. I recommend just watching the episodes with Eladio and skipping the rest.

Rated TV-MA.

Running Time: 30 mins. / 24 eps.

 

Available on HBO.