Recommended: The Patient on FX on Hulu
What's The Patient About?
From the creators of one of the decade's greatest shows, The Americans, comes a limited series about a therapist who's hired by a serial killer wanting to be cured of his homicidal urges. Just to be on the safe side, the killer takes him hostage.
Who's involved?
Why (and to whom) do we recommend it?
The definition of suspense is not knowing where the hell the story is going and wanting to follow it to the end. By that definition, The Patient is good suspense — even more than its Hannibal Lecter-y premise might suggest. But the real reason to keep watching is its very deep, dark weird streak.
The Patient is a satirical take on our therapeutic culture disguised as a thriller, the kind that you find yourself chuckling at during highly inappropriate scenes. And that's only possible thanks to Steve Carell, who has made a career playing characters whose sincerity and conviction connect with an audience that knows he knows it's all an act.
"It's OK, I know this is hard." That's a line Dr. Strauss gives Sam in the middle of Episode 5, and it's just one of many stock therapist responses imbued with a kind of chilling hilarity here.
Meanwhile, Strauss is haunted by flashbacks of his wife Beth, who is sometimes seen leading worship at the family's synagogue. These depictions of American Jewish culture are rare on TV, and they walk us slowly into the backstory of Strauss' own troubled past and how helping his current patient will also let the healing begin for him. If he lives that long.
Between the taut plotting and the dark laughs, The Patient is expertly calibrated to lure viewers in. Episode 1 takes just over 19 minutes, and the run times grow slowly from there, along with the need to keep seeing how things will turn out.
Pairs well with
TOPICS: The Patient, FX on Hulu, Andrew Leeds, Chris Long, David Alan Grier, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Joel Fields, Joe Weisberg, Kevin Bray, Laura Niemi, Linda Emond, Steve Carell