‘In Treatment’ with Irrfan Khan

Entrapment, escape, and a startling breakthrough with a widowed professor from Bengal on a therapeutic couch in Brooklyn

It is Irrfan. Irrfan Khan. Is it, yes, oh, I mutter. The TV remote stays mute. Addicted to the might and madness of the human mind for years through books, films, talks, I let the jazz of adrenaline play my veins in prep for the fourth season of the HBO series, In Treatment, that debuted recently. I am surfing through previous seasons (which aired between 2008 and 2010) on Disney + Hotstar. Having compulsively watched 50-something therapist Dr Paul Weston (actor Gabriel Byrne) over 70-plus episodes, I am in love with his non-verbals as with his spoken word. Shrink in shining armour. In dark jackets, polished shoes, silver shimmers in his hair, he navigates his clients through abusive relationships, teenage rebellions, erotic transference, or difficult divorces. I have been in his clinic for many weeks, and Americans in therapy exhaling with cuss words amuses me. I was unprepared though to find Irrfan Khan unpacking his life in Season 3. In Treatment is intense. Often, a lifetime tides up between two people talking to each other. Reminiscent of intimate, theatre work. A viewer can pan Weston’s book-lined, wood-panelled office with the camera or invisibly take a seat. Produced and developed by Rodrigo Garcia — based on the Israeli series Be Tipul — the programme shows four patients each week in sessions with Weston, followed by one with his own therapist to dust his mental cobwebs.