TV Recommendation: HBO's In Treatment

I really don't know much about psychotherapy. I did a semester of 'counseling and interpersonal skills' last year in which I learned that there's only so many times you can say "So.....how do you feeeeeeeeeel about that?" before you start to sound like a broken record. But apart from that, I don't know much. I'm more the data nerd, research type.

Nevertheless, I'm fascinated by psychotherapy from an outside point of view. And so I've absolutely fallen in love with a new HBO series about psychotherapy called In Treatment.

It stars Gabrielle Byrne as the very serene psychotherapist and terrific supporting cast playing his clients (including Australia's very own Melissa George of Home and Away fame, and Michelle Forbes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Battlestar Galactica fame).

Each episode is aprox 30mins and documents one therapy session with one of his regular clients. For the first few episodes, you'll think that the show is just about the clients, but as things unfold you'll realise that it's actually about Paul, the psychotherapist.

It's a tangled web of intrigue. Brilliantly written (infact, it's an adaption/remake of an Israeli series), brilliantly directed, and brilliantly performed.

It's really gotten inside of me.

If you've got the means of seeing it, I highly recommend it.

UPDATE: To my great surprise, it looks like you can download the full episodes as a podcast from the In Treatment website. And here was I thinking I was being naughty.

Kid Nation

I find this new TV show, Kid Nation, absolutely riveting!

It's not hard to imagine the TV executives pitching this one:

"OK Johnny, I got somethin you're gonna love, the next big the thing! It's dynamite I tells ya!...think Survivor meets ....Lord of the Flies!

Ya like?! No Johnny, it's got nothin to do with the Hobbits...Lord of the Flies! It's with kids! Kids, see!...no, no, no, not elves! it's with kids!"