TVSquad

It looks like HBO is so in love with Gabriel Byrne's turn as Dr. Paul Weston that they're willing to go into uncharted territory with him. While the Isreali series BeTipul, on which it was based, only went two seasons, HBO has ordered a third round of In Treatment.

This is significant because the series remained incredibly faithful to the original series through both of its first two seasons. For this new third season, the writers will have to create all new patients, stories and drama for our beleaguered psychotherapist. Gabriel Byrne is already attached to continue his role, of course. It wouldn't be a show without him. I hope they can secure Dianne Wiest again as Paul's mentor and therapist, Gina.

HBO has slowly become my favorite network over the past few years. I don't know if it's because the mainstream networks have turned to lots of reality programming or what, but HBO just seems to get better and better. Just about every show on the premium channel is feature film quality (if not better), and I've got some favorites listed below.

I know I'm missing a few biggies, like Rome, Deadwood, Flight of the Conchords, and Extras, but it's only because I either haven't watched these shows or have only watched a few episodes -- not enough to make an informed opinion. I'm sure they'll make my Jane After Dark column at some point in the future. So I hope you'll tell me your favorites in the comments below.

Some shows are known for amazing acting, and some for stellar writing. In Treatment falls into the latter category, though the acting was top-notch, as well. Still, in essence the show was a one-room nightly play. It was simply dialogue between two to four actors. And It was riveting.

Davey Holmes won a Writers Guild Award for his work on that series. He was nominated for Pushing Daisies, a series with a completely different tone, and yet equally brilliant writing. He's also written for Damages and is involved in the forthcoming Happy Town for ABC.

Based on the strength of his script, Holmes has secured a pilot commitment from FOX for Worthy, a proposed series that would put the network dramatically into politics. The series follows a straight-arrow Arizona politician, named Worthy, who finds himself in trouble after he's in a hit-and-run and winds up blackmailed by the mob.

I've been watching In Treatment since the first season. At first, I was intrigued by the format (five half-hour episodes each week), and then I got into therapist Paul's story and the sagas of his various patients. The show is, if possible, even better this second season but it's also shown me that I absolutely could not be a therapist. His first patient each week this season is Mia, a former patient who alternates between flirting and intentionally antagonizing him.

She's illegally looked at his legal documents, ignored his policies and rules, pushed him around and been so alternately pissy and clingy you'd think she was bipolar. And somehow Paul sits there as calm as can be, and you know she's driving him crazy underneath. It's a tremendous acting performance by Hope Davis, fully embodying this tragic and tortured soul. It's becoming almost difficult to watch, there's so much "crazy" in the air you never know how she'll react to anything Paul says.

Last season, Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest and Blair Underwood lead an amazing cast in one of the most daring new projects on television: HBO's In Treatment. For nine weeks, the show aired virtually every night in half-hour installments. Gabriel Byrne was the constant, therapist Paul Weston, and each show featured one of his therapy sessions with a different patient. And with the sessions each happening Monday through Friday on the same day the show aired, the progression of the show felt like real time.

Which is why I don't get HBO's move to jigger with the schedule for the second season of In Treatment, starting this Sunday. Now, instead of getting one session per day throughout the week, we're getting two back-to-back episodes on Sundays starting at 9/8 Central and three consecutive installments on Mondays starting at 9/8 Central. Their reasoning for this change: they found that people tended to watch the show in clumps anyway, so why not air it like that? But honestly, it's so much more intimidating this way. When it's only 30 minutes each night, it doesn't feel like much, but now you're looking at an hour and a half on Mondays!

I'm crazy for HBO, and one of the shows I'm really looking forward to is Boardwalk Empire, a pilot executive produced by Martin Scorsese (who's also directing), Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, and Terence Winter (who's also penning the pilot).

Based on the Nelson Johnson book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, the project chronicles the 1920s origins of Atlantic City, New Jersey. From what I've read, it sounds like a mix of The Departed, The Sopranos and Goodfellas -- all favorites of mine. And the cast they've got lined up couldn't be better.

Steve Buscemi plays Nucky Johnson, a businessman who runs a liquor distribution ring at the beginning of Prohibition. Michael Pitt (pictured) is in negotiations to play Jimmy Darmody, a bright, young, ruthless WWI veteran who serves as a flunky for Nucky, but yearns for more power.

One of the biggest victims in last year's Writers Guild strike was the Golden Globe awards. Fortunately, the SAG threats of a strike remain just that -- threats -- so the Globes are on and the nominations were announced this morning.

Unfortunately, there were few surprises among the TV noms. In fact, it's kind of worrisome that these nominations are way too similar to the Emmy nominations. Among the new network shows from this season, and last, very little.

NBC will broadcast the Golden Globes on January 11. For the complete list of the Globe noms, click here, and for some instant impressions on said noms, read on after the jump:

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.

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.

Last week's episode of The Office now ranks high on my list of Awkward TV Moments. It got me thinking about other all-time great awkward TV moments. Sure, we've all seen the episode where a disheveled Mary Richards shows up at the awards banquet wearing one fuzzy pink slipper. And the one where Frasier and Roz nearly do it on a cruise ship. But let's take a look at a few recent awkward TV moments.

1. Jan heaves a Dundee at Michael's flat-screen TV. Okay, we'll start with last week's episode of The Office, in which Michael coerces Jim and Pam into attending a couples-only dinner party at his and Jan's condo. The entire episode is one long awkward moment, from Dwight showing up with his former babysitter as his date to Pam realizing she'll be held hostage for three hours, thanks to Jan's poor culinary planning. But the topper is when Michael and Jan's love spat escalates into a huge fight, ending with her heaving one of his treasured Dundee awards at his new (and tiny) flat-screen TV. The cops show up after the neighbors report a disturbance, and Michael ends up going home with Dwight.

Mysterious. Mesmerizing. Interesting. Dynamic. Compelling. Any and all of these words accurately describe actress Michelle Forbes. She is one of the finest actresses in television, and yet she has maintained a distinct quality that makes her as elusive a performer to come around since Garbo! Intensely private, there's not much known about the Austin, Texas native. (However, I can tell you that she collects clocks -- broken clocks. As she told me, quoting the movie Withnail and I, "Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day.")

She's currently making HBO's new drama In Treatment appointment TV, drawing her loyal following to find her latest work as she did in 24, Prison Break, Homicide and Battlestar Galactica. And that doesn't even take into account the millions who first discovered this chameleon when she first burst onto the scene in Guiding Light, and then Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In recent weeks, TV Squad has reported that HBO has made episodes of their new drama series In Treatment available for free viewing online. Now, HBO has taken another step in expanding its brand and making some of their top shows available on the web. The cable channel has just inked a deal with YouTube to create an HBO channel online. The HBO/YouTube site is up and running -- you can click over there today and start catching up on HBO series.

The initial line up is impressive, starting with the Gabriel Byrne drama In Treatment. You can also catch up with Entourage episodes, which are always fun. There are more laughs with Flight of the Conchords, Extras, Stand Up Comedy, Def Comedy Jam, and Real Time With Bill Maher. On the dramatic front, there's The Wire. In addition, you can watch episodes of the award-winning magazine show Real Sports, as well as the Latino documentary series Habla y Habla.

(S01E16-20) "Fuck all of you and the fish you swam in on." - Sophie

Laura
So it seems pretty obvious that Paul is jealous. What's worse is that Laura is so painfully aware of Paul's jealousy. The power has so clearly shifted in their relationship that it seems to be verging on malpractice.

You gotta love how Paul can be so detached when Laura is in tears begging him to have sex with her but when she is describing her sexual encounter with another man, the scowl on his face is severe enough to cut glass. He clearly needs a vacation.

(S01E11-15) "Are you making fun of me." - Alex

Laura:
So Paul is now sleeping in his office. It kind of gives you the impression that his profession is interfering in his personal life doesn't it? This show is about as subtle as John Turturro in Miller's Crossing.

The more I watch this show, the more I'm convinced that Paul is the worst therapist ever. Not only is he still seeing Laura after she's made it clear that she's obsessed with him, now he's begun talking to her like some passive-aggressive Svengali. What the fuck the does he care if she's late. Is he her shrink or her father? Freud much?