HBO Continues 'Treatment'

Zap2It.com | June 23, 2008

Michelle Forbes and Gabriel Byrne of 'In Treatment'

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Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest set for second season

HBO isn't ready to cancel its appointments with Dr. Paul Weston yet.

The cable network has picked up a second season of its drama "In Treatment," which stars Gabriel Byrne as Paul, a psychotherapist. Dianne Wiest will also return as Paul's own shrink.

When the show does return, though, it will do so with some pretty significant changes. Paul will likely have a new roster of patients visiting his home office. HBO's press release says only that "additional cast members will be announced as they are confirmed," which implies that first-season patients Melissa George, Blair Underwood, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Charles and Embeth Davidtz may not be back (in Underwood's case, definitely won't be back; his character died near the end of season one).

The series also has a new showrunner in Warren Leight, a Tony-winning playwright ("Side Man") and a veteran of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." He joins Rodrigo Garcia, Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Hagai Levi as an executive producer.

Production will also shift from Los Angeles to New York, partly to take advantage of tax breaks and partly because Byrne lives there. Filming is scheduled to begin in the fall for a premiere sometime in 2009.

"In Treatment" drew modest ratings for its first-run episodes, which aired in an unconventional Monday-to-Friday strip, with Paul seeing a different patient each day. Multiple weekly repeats and on-demand viewing, however, pushed the ratings up somewhat. A decision on scheduling for the second season hasn't been made yet.