The Patient TV Review

Plot: Dr. Alan Strauss, a therapist mourning the death of his wife, takes on an enigmatic new client. As the two men wrestle with very different, individual problems, their professional relationship is transformed by a choice that binds them deeply together.

Review: Television series have long explored the worlds of serial killers and psychotherapy. Usually, killers are fodder for police procedurals and thriller series but every now and then there is a unique take on the subject that upends convention. From Dexter to Mindhunter to Hannibal, serial killers have often been portrayed as monsters or deviant human beings that the masses struggle to comprehend. The new limited series The Patient tries an angle of the expected serial killer story that somewhat succeeds thanks to the writing of Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg. Echoing the dramatic intensity of their riveting espionage series The Americans, The Patient is an unexpected twist on a familiar genre.

Told over ten episodes, The Patient is a limited series focused on Alan Strauss (Steve Carell), a therapist seeing a patient who is not quite who he seems to be. Strauss quickly learns that Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson) is a serial murderer when he awakens one morning shackled to a bed frame. Seeking therapy to stop his violent urges, Sam begins an unconventional relationship with Dr. Strauss. As the story unfolds, Strauss becomes very familiar with Sam’s life and what led him to his current frame of mind. At the same time, Strauss must contend with his own emotional damage told through flashbacks and representations of his internal thoughts. With each additional episode, The Patient builds towards an ending that will redefine the doctor-patient relationship.

Primarily focused on Strauss, The Patient is another solid dramatic showcase for Steve Carell. Having already garnered acclaim for his turn in Foxcatcher and Beautiful Boy, Carell delivers an intensely emotional performance as a man struggling in every way imaginable. Dealing with the death of his wife to cancer and a rift with his son, Strauss spends the series trying to help his captor while also plotting numerous ways to survive and escape to freedom. As he plans, we see Strauss play out interactions with his own therapist (played by David Alan Grier) in his mind. Carell’s character spends a lot of the series reflecting on his Jewish faith and how it played a factor in losing connection with his son, Ezra (Andrew Leeds). There are also multiple references to the Holocaust and concentration camps which play a role in the overall narrative of the series.

As much time as Carell spends on screen dealing with his captivity, Domhnall Gleeson gets to delve into the psyche of a deeply disturbed character. Gleeson plays Sam Fortner as a survivor of child abuse and a clearly broken person who struggles with murderous urges. The Patient humanizes Sam to a certain extent and Gleeson plays his role in varied layers of sympathy and vulgarity. Food is a central theme in this story and as the story unfolds, the events that occur on screen often make the cuisine on screen as unpalatable as possible. While we get to see a lot of interaction between Carell and Gleeson, their time independent of one another is just as interesting to the story. But, when these two actors sit across from each other, it is very much like watching a stage play with two seasoned performers whose every mannerism and facial expression could shift the path the story is taking.

Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg’s first series since the finale of The Americans, The Patient spends a great deal of its ten episodes exploring whether or not Dr. Strauss can actually help Sam curb his psychosis as well as trying to explain how and why Sam became the way he is. There is a lot of atmospheric photography in the series and directors Chris Long, Kevin Bray, and Gwyneth Horder-Payton spend each chapter interspersing flashbacks, dreams, fantasy, and reality in an effort to both illustrate the two main characters as well as to keep the audience guessing what is going to happen next. Being a limited series, there are several plot threads that are explored more than I expected and do not necessarily factor into the ending. Without spoiling any of the twists and turns, you may finish the last episode and wonder why Fields and Weisberg spent time going down certain paths with no intention of coming back to them.

With each episode aside from the finale clocking in at just around thirty minutes, The Patient packs a lot each week. Watching the entire series in a single sitting, my experience with the story was closer to watching a feature film rather than a television show. I expect audiences will spend more time analyzing each chapter for clues as to how things will end up, with the finale bound to be controversial for those invested in this tale. Like The Americans, I anticipate that The Patient will garner a dedicated following early with word of mouth spreading once the story finds its footing. The performances from Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson are more than worth watching this entire series which is surprisingly bloodless for a story about a serial killer. Still, this is a solid drama with outstanding tension throughout that will have viewers nervous until the last episode ends.

The Patient premieres with two episodes on August 30th on FX on Hulu.

The Patient

GREAT

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