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Steve Carell in The Patient: Funny was yesterday

2022-12-03T15:02:17.156Z


Steve Carell, isn't that that funny Hollywood comedian? Also. Above all, he is one of the best American character actors. And his new series is not funny, but very moving.


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Steve Carell in The Patient: Woke up chained

Photo:

FX Networks / Disney+

Do psychotherapists react more thoughtfully and reflectively in extreme situations than average people?

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Alan Strauss (Steve Carell) has ample opportunity to discuss this issue when he wakes up to find himself in someone else's bed - and chained.

The house he is in appears to be in a forest.

Nobody hears his call.

It is possible that parts of the audience are now waiting for the

comic relief

, after all Steve Carell plays the leading role in »The Patient«, this hilarious guy from »Virgo (40), Male, sucht …« and »Get Smart«.

However, Carell established himself as one of Hollywood's greatest character actors years ago (Foxcatcher! Beautiful Boy!) and this is one of his most complex roles.

So the series is no longer funny, but more and more menacing.

Because Alan Strauss is in acute mortal danger: his patient Sam (Domhnall Gleeson) has kidnapped him, and he is now revealing himself to be a serial killer.

Sam had previously discussed his difficult relationship with his abusive father in sessions with Dr.

Strauss tries to recover, but with sunglasses and without really opening up.

Now it turns out: The anger that Sam feels in himself has already caused him to kill several people.

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Strauss should help him to control his impulse - chained and in great fear for his own life.

Psychotherapy needs a fear-free space to function.

The series »The Patient« by Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg (»The Americans«) completely reverses this premise.

Alan Strauss' drive is pure survival instinct, and that's not good advice when it comes to therapy, as the ten episodes will show.

If this series were designed as a pure suspense machine, it would probably run out of juice relatively quickly, the premise seems too well thought out.

But the creators have something else in mind, and »The Patient« quickly shows what surprising genre variations modern series narration is capable of producing.

Both therapists and serial killers are well-known figures in film and series history.

"In Treatment," starring Gabriel Byrne as a psychotherapist with a bunch of problems of his own, was one of the early HBO series to garner international attention;

Serial killers have haunted films like »The Silence of the Lambs« as absolute evil for decades.

However, the Netflix series »Dahmer« recently showed the real-life mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer as a guilty, complex, suffering bunch of people.

Sam in »The Patient« is also allowed to reveal himself as a complex being with feelings and injuries.

It soon turns out, however, that Sam's sensitivities are only marginally at stake.

At the heart of the minimalist setting is Alan Strauss, who actually soon draws on techniques he learned in supervision sessions with his own therapist.

His inner life comes to life in fragmented flashbacks, partly through imaginary therapy sessions, partly through memories of his family life.

Alan's wife recently died of cancer, but his family was already divided by an estranged son who joined an orthodox Jewish sect.

Faced with death, Alan questions his own contribution to this family schism, his relationship with his children and, ultimately, his Jewish identity, which he struggles with.

Dreams and inner monologues even lead to Auschwitz.

In short episodes of only 20 to 40 minutes, »The Patient« emerges as a deeply moving portrait of a man whose inner turmoil and honest self-questioning comes very close to the audience.

The risky tightrope act of screwing different genres into something new becomes a virtuoso feat that then leads to a surprising, emotionally all the more overwhelming finale.

Source: spiegel

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