THERAPEUTIC EVOLUTION
It’s hard to imagine Couples Therapy existing without Dr. Melfi’s precedent
Couples Therapy Fridays, Showtime/Streaming, Crave
“What seems to be the problem?”
For decades, these were the words heard from the mouths of just about every therapist on television — almost always for laughs. In recent years, that caricature has been abandoned in favour of a more authentic look at therapy as the practice has become increasingly less stigmatized. Instead of being a lazy plot device to reveal the inner workings of a protagonist, today’s TV therapists offer much more: Doctors are given an emotional nuance, they’re diverse, their wardrobes include more than just wool sweater-sets, and, most importantly, they dig deeper.
Into this new landscape walks Showtime’s Couples Therapy. It’s a non-fiction episode-by-episode look at multiple sessions with four couples and one therapist, Dr. Orna Guralnik, a New Yorkbased psychologist. The sessions between doctor and patients are divided by Guralnik’s own sessions with an adviser in each episode.
Couples Therapy offers a three-dimensional look at some of the most private, emotionally intimate conversations couples can have. At times, it’s deeply uncomfortable, at others, heartbreaking — but always consuming. Despite being a documentary, Couples Therapy owes a lot to the fictional television therapists who came before it.
Consider Big Little Lies’ Dr. Amanda Reisman, Celeste’s therapist and the only character on the series to know the extent of the abuse she suffers at the hands of her husband. By the time the doctor insists she leave her husband, viewers, too, feel a sense of renewed urgency and panic for Celeste. While some might consider this overstepping, the reality is that therapy is not entirely black and white; therapists will have opinions and share them when they see fit.
As Couples Therapy offers both a strangely voyeuristic peek into how others live, we watch these couples quibble over everything from kids to sex to abuse to communication issues.
However, the most engaging parts of the series come when Guralnik admits to feeling uncertainty over how she approaches each couple, and how she sometimes judges one-half of them. It’s what you might expect and even fear of any human therapist, and yet it feels shocking to witness. This perspective is only revealed when Guralnik visits her adviser, a dynamic that operates like her own therapy session, all of it giving her new colour where she might only previously work as a kind of talking head.
This is not to suggest that the new television therapist must be devoid of humour. In the place of Frasier’s mocking advice and goto catchphrase — “I’m listening” — there is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Dr. Akopian, who gets an entire dance number, This Session is Going to Be Different, which she sings in the hope that her patient may finally be ready to grow. Even in jest, the therapist is represented as a charismatic character invested in the development of the protagonist.
Likewise, a large part of Couples Therapy’s draw is due to Guralnik. Her leading questions and raised eyebrows can elicit quite a lot from her patients.
Perhaps we can credit The Sopranos’ Dr. Jennifer Melfi for giving birth to this iteration of a more humanized television therapist, though she was a lone wolf at the time.
Less a figure of mystery and more a relatable individual with flaws, she, at times, brought her own issues into the room with Tony, possibly the most difficult patient in TV history. But the majority of their sessions remained professional as she attempted to draw a line between his behaviour and his past, much like the therapists we’ve seen recently on everything from Homecoming to Wanderlust.
The couples on Couples Therapy, who were found through an open casting call and paid for their participation, quickly forget they’re being filmed by cameras concealed by one-way glass in Guralnik’s office, which itself has been carefully manicured to appear muted and soothing. They never interact with anyone other than Guralnik and spend time in a waiting room.
By zeroing in on the issues at hand and witnessing these conversations in real time, it feels like an emotional journey the viewer is taking, too — much like every other series that’s dared to offer a genuine look at how talk therapy actually works.