In Treatment s1 ep 21; ep 22; ep 23; ep 24; ep 25
Five excellent episodes this week; even the makeweight Jake and Amy storyline provided enjoyment as Paul decided that an aggressive approach might pay dividends. Or maybe he just felt like it. After all, he was having a hell of a week.
The series is still pivoting on the relationship between Paul and Laura, examined again in the first of this week’s episodes. While we now know that Paul claims that he loves Laura, we still don’t know why, nor whether it’s because the producers are leaving it to the intuition of the viewer to fill in the gaps, or – and it matters – because they’ve undercooked the writing and acting.
Anyway, Alex senses a weakness and homes in on it during his session, in what was perhaps the most extraordinary episode so far; and after ruthless and relentless probing – and a remarkable violation of privacy - Paul finally snaps. This gets further explored during Paul’s own session with Gina, for which they are joined by Kate, ostensibly trying to save their marriage, although partly at least trying to reclaim a bit of the moral high ground. Personally, though, I’m not sure that she deserves too much sympathy just because her dirty weekend in Rome didn’t go according to plan.
Somewhat sui generis in all of this is Sophie’s story, which this week provided raw, uncomfortable, but compelling viewing. I’ve said it already, but justice demands that – yet again – Mia Wasikowska’s remarkable performance be acknowledged. She’s switching from girlhood to womanhood and back again in a manner which feels both utterly traumatic and completely natural.
I completely agree re Mia Wasikowska.. I look forward to seeing her in Alice in Wonderland – as Alice. The cast is pretty amazing by the look of the list on IMDB –
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/
She’s doing quite a lot of other work and I am looking forward to seeing it.
With there being so many episodes it’s hard to keep track of it all in my head, but I’ll try and give it a go. It’s also strange how each plot strand changes in quality each week; one week’s strongest strand suddenly becomes the weakes, and vice versa. I guess that’s just the nature of the beast though.
The previously tedious Jake & Amy strand really picked up this week, as you say, and it was actually quite moving. They both finally seemed like real people.
The Alex episode was very powerful but I also found it all kind of strange (perhaps it was supposed to seem that way). Alex was definitely very creepy, but I don’t know that I believed that he would really have gotten all that information. Maybe this week will shine a bit more light on it.
I definitely agree that it’s not entirely clear why Paul is in love with Laura – other than her being 25 years his junior, gorgeous and she’s coming on to him. He did say to Gina, the previous week, about how intelligent, funny, good story-teller etc etc that Laura was, and that hasn’t really come across in the sessions that we’ve seen with her. Given the quality of the show though, I’d guess that it will all get addressed eventually – I hope so, anyway.
The Gina episodes are especially fascinating, although there is so much smoke and mirrors in their conversations that it’s difficult to know exactly what is going on between them. Did Gina bring up Laura because it was the correct decision for the therapy or because she has some deep-seated resentment for Paul? I really don’t know.
It’s hard to feel too sorry for Kate considering what she had done and that Paul hasn’t actually acted on his feelings. I think that this set up is deliberate though in order to highlight the different ways that men and women think about infidelity – men are more bothered by a physical betrayal, and women by an emotional one. That said, it did certainly seem like they were portraying Kate to have the moral high ground and it didn’t really wash with me.
And finally, we get to Sophie. I wonder if her strand will eventually link to all the others or if it will continue to stand-alone. Either way, Mia Wasikowska is exceptional in the role and the way she works with Gabriel Byrne is some of the best acting I’ve seen on TV for a long time.
I, in turn, agree with pretty much all of that, Sherb. I’m not sure that the show was trying to give Kate the moral high ground as such, but there was a definite attempt to give her and Paul some sort of equivalence. And given that there remains for the moment a fundamental difference – he resisted acting on his feelings, she didn’t – I’m not buying it either.
The Gina episodes, as you say, introduce an extra dimension, partly by the almost novelistic device of letting us see Paul as an unreliable narrator – and thus reminding us that there is no guarantee that anyone else is especially reliable – and by giving Paul’s backstory an intriguing extra dimension.
Finally, Laura. I kind of hedged my bets a bit when posting by saying that Paul claims to be in love with her; I’m not convinced that we can trust him on that, perhaps because we haven’t seen her as someone you could fall in love with. On the other hand, she’s young, a babe, and up for it. Yes, I’m in love. Paul, I mean. Paul’s in love.
Paul being an unreliable narrator is one of the things that really elevates In Treatment above the norm. It’s really brave of them to throw everything else that goes on in the series in to doubt.
I’ve expanded my last comment in to a full post: http://poursomegravyonme.co.uk/2009/11/12/in-treatment-week-5/
I’ve watched the Laura episode of week 6 now and I’ve changed my mind about her being unlovable – I think that maybe it’s Paul that doesn’t actually seem to be in love with her.
My other thoughts are here: http://poursomegravyonme.co.uk/2009/11/15/stuff-i-watched-7th-nov-14th-nov-2009/
I had the same thought while watching ep 26: finally I can understand what Paul sees in her.