I am tempted very little by TV, not because I’m so superior but because I grew up without it. It’s easier for me to read cereal boxes than watch TV when I’m bored. But I have been watching HBO’s In Treatment which finished tonight, and while two of the weekly tales were flawed, two were really excellent.

Frances I found boring.

Sunil started out great and ended up disappointingly and implausibly melodramatic, though it’s possible even the end was a lie, which could redeem the melodrama. But still, too much.

I don’t especially recommend the two above, but the following two are especially worth watching serially.

Jesse was incredibly accomplished, as was Dale DeHaan as the protagonist, whom I’d never seen before. And the end was as good as the rest of it, not disappointing at all. You see someone about to make what he thinks is a really good decision, pleased with himself, but you can see it may really be a mistake, and yet there is no way to for anyone to help him out of it, nor does anyone have the right to. It’s very sad.

Adele is a good story too, although it’s possible you need to have seen some of Sunil to get all the details, but it’s not crucial. One of the things I take away from it is something I have discovered myself: people can benefit from the truth about themselves, but only if it’s delivered in very small doses. If one or two doses are just a little too big to swallow comfortably, there will be no opportunity for finishing the entire course. It must be very difficult to give people just enough to stress them but not so much as to repel them.