See You Next Tuesday... In Therapy

While I've been waiting for Netflix to finally send me the first season of "The Wire" so I can catch up with the rest of the world on that flurry of excitement - I've been watching HBO's other hot but somehow overlooked show, "In Treatment."

Airing weeknights and based on an Israeli TV series, it's quite an experiment in television. Monday through Thursday we see different patients' sessions with their therapist played by Gabriel Byrne, who occasionally and sexily lets his Irish accent out to play with a effortless growl. And then on Friday, we get to see his own session with his unofficial therapist played by the ever-squinting Dianne Weist. My own personal dislike for her aside, she's quite good in this.

The real acting however occurs on Tuesday evenings when Blair Underwood portrays patient Alex (seen above). This possibly gay fighter pilot who accidentally murdered children in a school in Iraq is a powerful character, more compelling than any other I've seen on TV lately. Underwood and Byrne together on Tuesday nights is an acting tour de force. The other nights are good, but Tuesdays will be the ones up for Emmys this year. "In Treatment" is must-not-miss television.