The tea leaves have me fearing that the bubble might have already burst for In Treatment. From Broadcasting & Cable:
The future of In Treatment has yet to be decided. Producers and HBO executives will meet this week to discuss the possibility of a third season. The Gabriel Byrne drama attracts a small audience, averaging about 1.6 million viewers. While the show is cheap to produce, a third season would be significantly more expensive. More writers would have to be hired to create scripts, as HBO has now exhausted all of the material from the original Israeli series. And Byrne's rate would likely increase. The actor has talked openly about his fatigue due to the show's arduous shooting schedule.
[HBO Programming Group President Michael ] Lombardo declines to characterize prospects for renewal, but he stresses that In Treatment's passionate fan base is a factor.
For those of you interested in Treme and Hung, you should read the full story.
I did not watch season one of In Treatment, but I watched season two and really enjoyed it and I thought Alison Pill was especially amazing. She wouldn't have been back on the show if there was another season anyway, but I'd still like to see another season. Perhaps another week or two of strong DVD sales for season one of True Blood can subsidize it!
In Treatment is one of the greatest shows on television, hands down. However, I am not sure if I’d want a third season. Since the series it’s based on only had two seasons I am not sure if a third season, written by all new people, could live up to the quality…
If the show, Garbiel or Alison Pill don’t make it in at The Emmy’s this year, they should pull the plug.
Last week, USA Today said the finale had 264,000 viewers, so to get 1.6 million viewers, did they add up all five episodes per week, or…?
I remember that in season 1 the ratings were so bad and it took up so much of HBO’s schedule that either Variety or the Hollywood Reporter put out an article about how HBO’s ratings were lower than Starz.
In Treatment is the best show out there right now. I would hate to see that one bite it too.
Honestly I never got into In Treatment. Too much TV commitment. I am really looking forward to Hung and , next year, Treme. So we got True Blood, Hung and Entourage this summer. I know Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Life and Times of Tim are back in fall but with what else? Is Big Love coming back in the fall or waiting until winter like this year? I don’t know what else is on the books?
That’s a shame. It’s a great show. It doesn’t look like the season 1 dvd make it onto the top 30 sales chart (at the-numbers.com) so that’s not a good sign either.
Is there somewhere we mortals can see the ratings of HBO shows?
Kermonk, for us as well, as always for premium cable, only in press releases.
Jon K, purely anecdotal, and there are definitely some exceptions, but it seems when it comes to scripted drama (it’s different w/Comedy), there is some DVD buying bias for fantasy, make believe, things that don’t actually happen.
Vampires, special powers (Heroes), weird time-travely stuff (LOST), or science fiction set far into the future or in a far away galaxy a long, long time ago escapism sell better than the real life drama presented with In Treatment.
I think the In Treatment team handled it beautifully (and I will go back and watch S1), but I’m not surprised it didn’t sell a lot of DVDs.
I’m working on better relations with HBO and Showtime PR people, but I haven’t ratcheted up the squeaky wheel strategy just yet. All that will do is give us more timely access to the data they DO feel like publicizing, which certainly won’t be all of it. But, because of the interest in new shows, and premieres, and slow summertime ratings news, even if they don’t publish data for the premieres and new show’s like Nurse Jackie via press release, I’m certain we’ll wind up seeing them somewhere. But on a regular weekly basis, I doubt we ever will.
True, but if the show has a “passionate fan base” shouldn’t that at least translate into some DVD sales? Even JAG made it on the list its first week.
JAG season 8*
Jon, due to limited data access, it’s very hard for me to do any reasonable/reliable analysis on what it means to NOT make the top 30. Because of the way the releases work, what’s newly released and already available drives what happens with the top 30. I’m sure there are many weeks where numbers that would often produce an appearance on the top 30, do not produce such an appearance.
Even though In Treatment season two was based on Be Tipul, major rewriting was done. Take Walter’s sessions, for example. In Be Tipul, there was no suicide attempt and the last several sessions of the season focused on Walter’s daughter Natalie. I’m mentioning this to show what a great job I think the American writers did with In Treatment season two. The changes they made, made the show stronger. I think In Treatment season three would be every bit as high quality as this season. Also, concerning DVD sales – HBO’s decision to not include bonus material has a lot to do with sales not being higher. Be Tipul season one has 4 hours of bonus material. In Treatment has none. A lot of fans recorded the series and without bonus material have a hard time justifying purchasing the DVD. If bonus material had been included, every one of us would have purchased the DVD the day it became available. In Treatment is one of if not HBO’s highest quality show and should be renewed for another season.
Are there really people who decide their DVD purchase based on the extras?! I couldn’t care less. Usually the extras are utter junk (Lord of the rings extended being about the only exception) – I base it on the main content – if it isn’t worth watching several times over, then I don’t care how much extra material the put on.
In Treatment season 2 was good but the Israeli original is much better I think there may be a third Israel season with a new therapist – a woman?
The DVDs of the Israeli Season 1 and 2 are available at internationalpsychoanalysis.net
Are they in Hebrew or English?
in treatment is a good show and i hope it survives. does anyone know when the new entourage season begins? a specific date? HBO promos keep telling me in the summer. probably late summer i bet.
Never seen In Treatment, but in regard to the DVD extras question it can be a big deal.
DVD commentaries can be a gold mine for fans if they are lively and informative. Simpsons DVDs have some of the best commentaries around. Kevin Smith does wonderful commentaries for his terrible films.
Maybe HBO should just end it. The series was good while it lasted (two seasons for several weeks each) but if they have run out of ideas, maybe its better for the series to just end.