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Television series featuring heroic doctors or zany medical interns have been all the rage for years now. Perhaps some television viewers might say there’s an overabundance of hourly dramas or half-hour comedies that focus on a close-knit group of people in the E.R., or a pill-popping doctor with miracle cures and an abrasive attitude. But over on the premium channels, there’s a new approach to picturing medical care. It’s more cerebral, and it’s uncharted territory in the States.

No one knew how well HBO’s In Treatment would do. HBO viewers are generally a cerebral lot, interested in complicated story lines and unconventional characters. This is, after all, the network that brought The Wire, The Sopranos, and Six Feet Under to millions of households over the years. But a television show about therapy, shot in more or less real time? It certainly wasn’t going to show up anytime soon on network television: this was material for cable and satellite TV only.

And if anyone could make it work, it was HBO.

But what needed to work here was a television show that felt, at times, more like a stage play. Based on an Israeli series and often shot faithfully scene-for-scene to its original, In Treatment follows the weekly schedule of Paul, a psychotherapist seeing five patients weekly through his private practice. Each patient has a day of the week, and entire episodes of the first season are focused on that single session of therapy.

In addition to seeing patients, Paul has his own therapist, a rule for mental health professionals, with whom he often disagrees due to differences in opinion. The show is not as straightforward as whether or not Paul will maintain his own family relationship while attempting to repair the relationships of others, but this is an underlying theme to the show’s already-existing seasons.

The jury’s still out on whether or not In Treatment counts as another triumph for the station. The show mostly succeeded with the critics, with cast members receiving nominations at the Emmy Awards two years in a row and bringing home wins at the Golden Globes. Viewers tuned in, but many folks got addicted to the show not when it aired live but later, when they used the satellite TV on-demand feature. So it’s entirely possible that In Treatment will meet the fate of so many other television shows that were creative, well-executed, and ultimately, a little too far ahead of their time to be renewed for season after season.

In case In Treatment goes the brilliant-but-canceled route, take advantage of the time you can catch it on the air. Shows like this are what on-demand was made for, and viewers can decide for themselves whether or not this drama deserves a shot at more seasons while feeling as though they’re right there at therapy, too, just through flipping on their HD TVs. And unlike when you’re watching in real time, when 50 minutes are passed, time doesn’t have to be up–you can watch a whole season in one setting.

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