Back in July, HBO floated the idea of rebooting In Treatment, the three-season Gabriel Byrne series from 2008 about a therapist helping his patients with their problems while also getting help for his own problems (along with the added hook of airing multiple episodes every week to coincide with the days Byrne’s character was meeting with his patients, which is how the show managed to air over 100 episodes). Now, surprisingly, that idea has already gone from “huh, weird” to “actually happening,” with HBO announcing in a press release that Uzo Aduba will be starring in a rebooted version of In Treatment that will debut at some point next year.
Aduba will be playing Dr. Brooke Lawrence, an “observant” and “empathetic” therapist treating a “diverse trio” of patients “while she wrestles with her own issues.” (So the same basic premise as before.) The idea of an In Treatment reboot is odd, given how many other things HBO could theoretically reboot, but as we noted in July, there is a certain logic to it. After all, a show about two people having a conversation is a pretty easy thing to film under COVID restrictions, even if HBO doesn’t take the easy route and have Dr. Brooke Lawrence do these things over Zoom. In fact, the aforementioned press release even says production is actually going to start “this fall,” so the relative ease of making this must’ve been a big factor in moving forward with it so quickly.
We don’t know who will be playing Dr. Brooke Lawrence’s diverse trio of patients or if this new In Treatment while maintain the exhausting structure of the original run, but we’ll presumably know sooner rather than later if the current pace is any indication.