Gabriel Byrne

HBO's In Treatment has become a guilty pleasure (or torture) for therapists addicted to the serial drama. "It's like liver and onions," psychoanalyst Phillip A. Ringstrom told the Los Angeles Times. "People either love it or hate it." Some love it and hate it. Some started out hating it and now love it -- and vice versa. Showrunner Rodrigo Garcia and others will speak at a panel on March 9: "Responding to Erotic Transference" at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital. Another New York group held a "psychoanalytic salon" last week to discuss issues raised by the television show. Gabriel Byrne, the hot and bothered therapist who stars in the show, talked to a few therapists for research. In his interview with the Observer, he promised that sexual transference is real. After the jump, Dr. Glen Gabbard, a professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and author of "Psychiatry and the Cinema," put In Treatment on the couch for the LA Times.  read more »

MONDAY

It’s George Bush’s final State of the Union (All Networks, 9 p.m.). Incidentally, the one year when the networks are scrambling for programming and therefore probably welcome the intrusion is the one year where no one could care less. The failing economy, Iraq, and his legacy will more than likely be on the agenda. Watch and wait for the presidential candidates to trip over themselves trying to respond first.

Speaking of wastes of time, it can’t replace an actual new episode, but Gossip Girl Revealed (CW, 8 p.m.) should satisfy your weekly fix for the posh adolescents. In the show’s new time slot, it promises plenty of bonus features—commentary, deleted scenes, profiles—and a re-airing of the pilot. Sadly, this is meant as an introduction to the uninitiated and harkens the beginning of repeats. Oh, they’re too young to die!  read more »

Gabriel Byrne is a very good listener. The 57-year-old Dublin-born actor is naturally suited for his role as therapist Paul Weston on HBO’s new show In Treatment, a painstaking and challenging investigation into what therapy is and how it works, which premieres Monday, January 28th, at 9:30 p.m. If one didn’t like to listen, it would sure be grueling work, even for an actor: sitting at attention for a one-on-one talk session, with very little movement, to dissect problems ranging from the semi- to the very disturbing.  read more »