TV Therapy

Having moved from East Tennessee to Middle Tennessee means that a few times a year, my throat feels like it has an axe blade in it.

Fortunately, I was able to convalesce from my allergies with some good online TV yesterday.

As much as I hate to admit it, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is growing on me. I still find that the charactes all tend to come from the same emotional place, all the time, but at the same time, something keeps me watching. This last episode certainly seemed to have enough action, and enough twists, to keep me enganged. I think the show is getting better as it goes along. On an amusing note, my recent experience on a movie set has changed the way I view film. I think they have used the same warehouse set--or at least the pieces of it--for two or three locations by now.

Speaking of sets...that brings me to my juciest discovery of the weekend: HBO's In Treatment. The format of the show is brilliant: it goes through each week in the life of a therapist by showing him in session, as the therapist for four days and as the patient on Friday. Gabriel Byrne and Dianne Weist are well-matched....ooh, is that brogue of his a pleasure to hear! I can't help thinking that most therapists' lives are NOT this interesting, but it is just this side of believable. Plus, the format gives the script an intimacy and immediacy that practically jumps off the screen. Five nights a week could be a lot to devote to one show...but the beauty is that the Paul re-caps his week for Gina at the end of it. I will definitely keep watching.

And good news...the writer's strike may almost be over. Here's hoping for an equitable compromise, and an end to the long drought of new Story.