Friday, October 23, 2009

HBO renews 'In Treatment'

Great news, particularly around these parts: HBO has ordered a third season of "In Treatment," to begin filming early next year and airing sometime later in 2010. Gabriel Byrne is still the star, HBO hopes to have Paris Barclay back as lead director and executive producer, and the new writing showrunners (replacing Warren Leight, who himself replaced Rodrigo Garcia) will be actor-turned-Oscar-nominated-screenwriter (for "Capote") Dan Futterman and his wife, Anya Epstein. Too early to say which, if any, of Paul's previous patients will return (including Dianne Wiest as Gina, I suppose). Given the real-life relationship of the new creative team, I wonder if Paul will be doing more couples therapy, or less.

28 comments:

krista mills said...

Woo hoo. Third season!

Beth M. said...

Any idea when season 2 will be on dvd?

Mike Cavaliere said...

Shows like In Treatment are why HBO is the uncontested TV king! Although I will admit, I always get wary hearing that a show I love is coming back after it has a knockout season. I mean, honestly, how many times can Paul say "screw therapy" then go back to Gina, then renounce her, then go back again before we start wondering if the back and forth is little more than dramatic filler?

Gish said...

Was there any change in the number of episodes ordered or the overall structure of the show> I believe both were being discussed.

Yet another anonymous said...

I have nothing more interesting to say than awesome, and that I, too, hope that the third season doesn't fare too bad in comparison to that nearly perfect second season. (Boy, that sounds pessimistic, which is not the way I meant it).

Alan, do you think that the relative success of Hung, and continued success of Curb Your Enthusiasm and True Blood made this renewal possible?

Gaines said...

Yes! Amazing news.

It's gonna be interesting to see how they will decide about Gina's character. It will be quite hard to incorporate her in the show again in a plausible way after the ending of last season (although she is so integral to the show that I can't really picture it without her, or at least don't want to). And I'm wondering if any writer from last year's staff will remain - they're ahead of a tough work creating brand new storylines from scratch.

Anonymous said...

Yeeeeehaaaa!

Yes sir, this is the best damn news in a long long time.

Also, Capote was just in the ballpark of In Treatment, tonally speaking so this is great great great!

Oh yes sir, this made my day alright.

Alden said...

Gaines: I believe Paris Barclay will be sticking around.

Anonymous said...

I wish they would have renewed Tell Me You Love Me. It was actually a good show once you got over old people having sex.

Mike F said...

Excellent news!!! go HBO!!! this doesn't quite make up for Deadwood, but its a good good thing

Eric said...

I wonder if the creator of BeTipul is going to have any kind of consulting role for the third season. There's really no roadmap for this one to follow compared to the first or second season.

Anonymous said...

I want to see Tommy Gavin in Paul's office!

Rich in Denver

Hatfield said...

I'm assuming you posted everything you knew, but is there any hint as to why Leight is leaving? He seemed so passionate about it in your talks with him.

acool said...

Kudos to HBO for recognizing what a jewel of a show and lead actor they have! Thanks.

Mike said...

I agree about Tell Me You Love Me. I thought that show was excellent. But if they did a Season 2 I think they were talking about using different couples, and I really don't know how that'd work.

D4P said...

Loved "Tell Me You Love Me". Watched one episode of "In Treatment" and hated it.

But I'm used to the shows I hate lasting a lot longer than the shows I love.

pepa urrea said...

If they keep the original structure,

a) Which four patients/cases/pathologies would you guys like to see?

b) Which actors/actresses would you like to see playing those parts?

c) Should Paul go back to Gina or get a new therapist?
(Some friends of mine who are GB fans would like to see Helen Mirren as his therapist. Or Susan Sarandon.)

Anonymous said...

[faints from excitement]

LA said...

Great news to start the weekend! Now that she's done with True Blood, I wonder if Michelle Forbes will be back? I had heard awhile ago that HBO was very happy to renew, but a lot depended on whether or not Gabriel Byrne was willing to return. Apparently, it's a pretty grueling for him to make this show. He needs an Emmy, stat.

The Bgt said...

YAY!!!!!!!!
Finally!!
:)))))))))

Thank you so much for the amazing news Alan!!!!

thank you HBO and mr Byrne!

a very happy IT fan from Greece

Anonymous said...

The third season would be the first to be completely original. Seasons 1 and 2 were close adaptations of the Israeli Be'Tipul, and Be'Tipul hasn't had a third season.

Alan Sepinwall said...

I believe Paris Barclay will be sticking around.

Hopefully. I re-read the HBO press release, and it just says "It is expected that Paris Barclay will return as an executive producer/director." So we'll see.

SmartSistahLL said...

Somebody please send D4P the complete seasons one and two of In Treatment. "Hate" is such a strong word after only viewing one episode. No matter, those of us who LOVE-LOVE-LOVE In Treatment, let's give a shout-out to HBO for renewing, Gabriel Byrne for coming back (THANK YOU, GABRIEL...I met him last month, y'all...lovely, lovely man, much more than the sum of his parts), and everybody involved in making season three a reality.

Now, if only the Emmy voters would take their heads out of their, ahem, ass-ets, and get on board with recognizing Gabriel Byrne's amazing work or else risk losing all their remaining shreds of credibility - just dumb.

YAY!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I get that the structure of the show IS the show, but I would love it if the schedule changes (to fewer episodes in a week). I usually start out watching the show loving it, but even when the patients are phenomenal and the stories intriguing, I still get too winded from playing catch up to the episodes that sometimes I abandon the show altogether at the end. (I did this for both seasons, which is kind of funny since I never know what happens to any of the patients at the end. :D)

jenae said...

Great news!

I'll only seen season 1 (on DVD) but trust 2 was good ("nearly perfect" someone here says!), look forward to many more. A totally unique show. Self-aware, probing adult dialogue like nowhere else.

Blaire Underwood was so great--and touching!--in season one.

Oaktown Girl said...

Fuckin'-A! Outstanding news! Gotta admit, I was pretty worried considering how much the people behind the showed harped about how much work it was.

And jenae: totally agree about Blair Underwood in Season 1. Wonderful performance.

dez said...

Best news I've heard all day! HOORAY!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh my God, I am SO happy! The best writing I have ever seen on television. I can't wait.