Web Therapy is a dark comedy starring Lisa Kudrow as Fiona Wallice, a business minded therapist. She has devised a new "modality" of therapy, which discards traditional 50 minute in-person sessions in favor of roughly 3 minute online sessions.
Web Therapy rests on a great, cheap premise. Fiona and a patient, in two different rooms, talk over web cameras for 3 to 7 minutes. Their conversation explores humorous situations that occurred in the past, while Fiona inevitably falls into childish conflict with her patients. The series gives each set of patients three episodes, allowing the excellent cast to create great character comedy.
Fiona's character drives the show. She's a therapist who does not want to hear about dreams or feelings. If her patients are insecure, Fiona impatiently talks down to them. If her patients are confident, Fiona inappropriately competes with them. Her tone is intellectual and condescending, yet her advice suggests that she is deeply flawed. By laughing at Fiona's emotional immaturity, the show narrowly steers clear of an elitist vibe.
The Achilles heel of Season 1 is that it starts to feel a bit constricted. If important events happen to the characters, they always happen off camera. We don't get to see Fiona in any environment other than in front of her web cam. Additionally, her character arc is limited. Nevertheless, Web Therapy starts with a clever premise and executes it well.
Watch Web Therapy.
No comments:
Post a Comment