Not to shill for Netflix, but there are two other TV series revolving around psychologists that are worth a look: HBO's "In Treatment" (Season One and Season Two) features Gabriel Byrne as Dr. Paul Weston (with a lovely Irish brogue). "In Treatment" is a serious and sometimes heavy view of therapy. For less serious and lighter therapy sessions, go to the Starz Channel's "Head Case" (Season One and Season Two) for Alexandra Wentworth as Dr. Elizabeth Goode. All of the shrinks in these TV series are psychologists with doctoral degrees; hence the patients all call them "Dr." In "Head Case," Dr. Goode practices in a two-office suite and in the other office is the wonderfully droll Steve Landesberg as Dr. Myron Finkelstein (MD); when Dr. Goode is late seeing an incoming patient, Dr. Finkelstein comes out of his office and asks the waitiing patient if he can be of any "help." At least none of these TV "shrinks" are Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) providing psychotherapy. The LCSW-scam is the dirty little secret of the mental health industry. Those folks truly need to post a sign: "Psychiatric Help 5¢." If this is (fair & balanced) psychobabble, so be it.
[x Salon/The GigaOm Network]
Lisa Kudrow’s "Web Therapy" Hits Hulu, Hits Home
By Liz Shannon Miller
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One lesson for web video to take away from legendary media scholar Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” philosophy: Yes, it matters if the video player you use to distribute your web series sucks. And that’s why I never reviewed "Web Therapy", the Lisa Kudrow starrer produced by Lexus, when it debuted last fall — because Lexus hosted the series exclusively on its LStudio site, and to be blunt, its site was at the time badly designed, its player extremely problematic and totally unembeddable.
To be fair, lstudio.com has since been redesigned and is much more usable now. But the second season of the series premiered this week on a multitude of sites, including YouTube, iTunes and Hulu, players which are honestly much superior. Thus, today I find myself watching and enjoying the series for the first time. Because once you can actually watch the show, it’s a delight.
Kudrow plays Fiona Wallace [sic; the name is spelled Wallice], a therapist with a doctorate in passive-aggression, who’s more interested in building out the brand of her new iChat-enabled three-minute therapy practice than actually helping any of her patients, whose neuroses seem heightened, not quelled, by her treatment. The first season’s cast included TV’s Jane Lynch and Rashida Jones, but the second promises Alan Cumming, Victor Garber, Courtney Cox-Arquette, and Steven Weber — accumulated, as Kudrow admits on the Hulu blog, by calling in favors.
The improvised episodes are strung together in threes, with Fiona’s relationship with a patient evolving over the course of three sessions. Episodes aren’t as tight as they could be, especially in the first season, with installments stretching to seven or eight minutes — but when the show runs shorter, it’s near perfection. Fiona’s approach to patient therapy involves a lot of talking and not a whole lot of listening, at one point saying, “Let’s not get bogged down in feelings and stuff….”
In a behind-the-scenes clip on Hulu, director Don Roos (who’s a phenomenal nab from the world of feature films) explains that the second season will have a greater emphasis on plot than the first. The first three-parter of the season, Gossip Girl, shows that’s definitely the case, as we learn more than we’d probably ever hoped to about Fiona’s relationship with her husband — which is undeniably on the edge.
Because she’s so closely identified with the role of Phoebe on "Friends," it’s hard to remember that Kudrow is insanely good at crafting unique characters, especially in an improv environment. But if you didn’t see her in her post-"Friends" indie work (including one or two of Roos’ films) or the HBO series "The Comeback," here’s the reminder you need. It’s easy to characterize Fiona as a shrew, someone who takes pleasure out of tearing other people down. But the sad truth is that her self-delusion comes from a real and believable place, the layers of her anal-retentive nature masking an inner terror. Sure, she’s intensely unlikeable, but as a character portrait, it’s irresistible in short bursts, making Web Therapy a perfect fit for web distribution — especially when you can actually watch it. Ω
[Liz Shannon Miller is a mild-mannered freelancer living in Los Angeles, where she works as a filmmaker and writer of various different media. A graduate of the USC Cinema program, Miller has completed several scripts, plays, and short films, and her reviews and essays have appeared in Bookslut, The Daily Reel, and Ostrich Ink. She also designs for the web, knits her own iPod cozies, and enjoys a nice vodka tonic. At night, Miller fights crime!]
Copyright © 2009 Salon Media Group, Inc.
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Copyright © 2009 Sapper's (Fair & Balanced) Rants & Raves
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