TVSquad

I watched Tell Me You Love Me a few times, but it never had enough oomph to bring me back every week. I guess a lot of viewers felt that way, because HBO decided not to renew it for a second season.

The sex-drenched show followed the lives of couples in therapy and was probably one of the most sexually explicit shows on TV. I have friends who watched it religiously, and some say they felt uncomfortable not so much with the sex, but because it felt like they were eavesdropping on peoples' darkest secrets.

I squealed with delight upon learning that I'll have the pleasure of more therapy sessions with Dr. Paul Weston. In other words, HBO has renewed the half-hour drama In Treatment for a second season.

Is it bad that I'm overly excited by this news? Clearly, I need to get out more. But the soulful doctor, played by the even-more-soulful Gabriel Byrne, has got the art of listening down to a science. He can be my therapist any day.

Based on the Israeli series Betipul, the show follows the psychoanalyst through his week in a real-time scenario. From Monday through Thursday, we get to eavesdrop on sessions with each of his patients. On Friday, Paul meets with his own therapist, Dr. Gina Toll, played by the always wonderful Dianne Wiest. It's a fascinating look into the minds of both patients and therapists.

CBS has secured even more celebrities to grace the stage at Radio City Music Hall next Sunday. Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment), Julie Chen (Big Brother), Harry Connick, Jr. (Will & Grace), Laurence Fishburne, Mandy Patinkin (Criminal Minds), David Hyde Pierce, Lily Tomlin and John Waters (Til Death Do Us Part) have been added as presenters. These actors and actresses (and, er, Julie Chen) will join an already stellar list of presenters and host Whoopi Goldberg.

I have to admit it. I'm getting a little excited for The Tonys. I usually find them boring. The performances are fantastic but the awards in between are a bit of a snore. However, this cast of presenters is intriguing. I'll at least be flipping back and forth hoping to catch the performances and my favorite stars.

The 62nd Annual Tony Awards will be held on Sunday June 15th from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. ET on CBS.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who assumed the HBO nightly series In Treatment, featuring Gabriel Byrne, Blair Underwood, Josh Charles and Dianne Wiest among others, was pretty much going to be a done in one. I really enjoyed the tension they managed to create with essentially two or three people sitting in a room and talking, and while critical acclaim pretty much affirmed that I am brilliant (like I needed their help), the ratings didn't follow.

While official word on the show's fate still hasn't come, what is trickling around is that HBO is this close to signing Law & Order: Criminal Intent executive producer Warren Leight (see me holding my fingers really close together), with the intention of putting him on In Treatment should it get the pick-up, which ups the odds of said happening tremendously. I can't imagine the show costs a tremendous amount to produce, aside from paying the top-notch actors they brought on board. Aside from Byrne and Wiest, we'd likely be looking at a new cast of patients with all new conflicts.

If you're cool, then you've been following HBO's bold new nightly series In Treatment, starring Gabriel Byrne, Blair Underwood and Dianne Wiest among others. If you're even cooler than you've been reading our awesome reviews right here at TV Squad. Don't worry, the reviews will continue, only instead of being nightly you'll get a weekly recap.

So far, you've missed eight episodes, but it's still not too late. In an unprecedented move for HBO, they're making the first three weeks (that's fifteen episodes for you mathematically challenged) available for free viewing online. The full series runs 43 episodes, but these 15 will give you plenty of time to give your cable/satellite provider a call and sign up for HBO.

(S01E05) "I think this was a mistake coming here today." - Paul Weston

Now this is what I was waiting for. Sure, it was still essentially a single therapy session in real time for thirty minutes, but it was Gabriel Byrne on the patient side and the always brilliant Dianne Wiest as his therapist Gina. Only it's been nearly ten years since he's seen her due to some kind of bad history, and their professional relationship was more complicated than simply patient/therapist. So out of the blue he called her and she agreed to see him, but was he wanting to see her as a friend, a colleague, a therapist? Gina had no idea what Paul wanted, and I don't think Paul did either.

As I expected, the Friday episodes will be the fulcrum on which the entire series balances, and if this episode is any indication, I officially think the series is going to be amazing. So much of the history of these two characters and the bad blood was hinted at, but thank god we weren't spoon fed information through awkward dialogue, and the acting on both sides to capture all those buried feelings bubbling near the surface was stellar.

(S01E04) "So was that convincing enough?" Amy, after a long monologue about her 'depression.'

It's like the fourth first episode in a row! It really is amazing how every episode so far has essentially been the first episode of a new series. In fact, when they do the "Next time on..." bit, it's not "Tomorrow on In Treatment." It's "Next Thursday on In Treatment: Jake & Amy. And there has been no real connection between these first few episodes, save the common thread of Paul Weston as therapist. Tomorrow night's episode will show what this series is really going to be about as Paul goes to see his own therapist. In Treatment is one of the most unusual television experiments I've ever seen, but after four episodes I think I'm beginning to really like it.

(S01E03) "You just don't get it." - Sophie

What's this? A glimpse into the personal life of Dr. Paul? I feel like I'm watching Lost. Was his son real or just an apparition like Walt?

Even though I felt a little cheated by the brief appearance of Paul's family, Mia Wasikowska's performance as Sophie certainly made up for it.

(S01E02) "I was told you were a good listener." - Alex

I was pleased to see that the second episode seemed a little more light-hearted. Since Blair Underwood is a new patient, things start off a bit lighter. Gabriel Byrne even attempts a little joke, a very little joke. Sadly, that failed joke set the tone for much of the episode.

HBO continues to prepare for a post Sopranos world. There has been a lot of talk about their upcoming shows lately, including adapting George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, David Milch's John From Cincinnati, and the untitled Kanye West project. We can now add two more to that list.

The network has picked up a one-hour comedy from producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (Designing Women) called 12 Miles Of Bad Road. The show will star Lily Tomlin as the matriarch of a rich Texas family. Add in the family real estate business and a collection of relatives and hilarity will ensue, hopefully. The idea almost sounds like a Dallas spoof. With Tomlin on board, it will certainly be worth a look. Look for Gary Cole, Mary Kay Place, and Leslie Jordan to also appear.