The intense therapy drama is back with three extreme clients for our times and a doctor grappling with her own demons. Can she keep it together – or will her issues with boundaries bring trouble?
In Treatment is back for a fourth season after a 10-year break. We’re all in need of a new therapist now, and HBO has provided one in the form of Uzo Aduba as Dr Brooke Taylor (her first lead role since winning her second Emmy, for her performance as Shirley Chisholm in Mrs America). If you recoil slightly at the idea of such a powerhouse actor being trammelled into a role that suggests mostly expectant stillness – well, be not afraid. I cannot say much more without giving away various twists about the character, but – given that she does appear to be slightly miscast in the first episode – it’s worth noting that In Treatment has, aptly, always been about the rewards of the long haul. This revival is no exception.
We follow Dr Taylor through her sessions with three patients and her own therapist via the traditional In Treatment structure – an episode with each of them in turn, then repeating the cycle, rather than each episode covering multiple storylines in normal TV fashion. First, there is home-help aide Eladio (played so cleverly, delicately and heartbreakingly by Anthony Ramos that you cannot help but feel you are watching a career-making performance), who is either a world-class manipulator seeking drugs for an addiction or a young soul already lost in the US mental health system. It is he who gives us our first intimation of the good doctor’s potential problems with boundaries and the demons that drive her to push them.
