Appointment TV

HBO tries to fill the programming vacuum from the writers' strike single-handedly on Monday by running a new series five nights a week.

Understand, that's not one weekly episode rerun endlessly the way premium cable is so fond of, but a new episode every weeknight for nine weeks, 45 episodes in all, or about two typical TV seasons' worth.

And the most amazing thing is that it's not just a stunt. Debuting at 8:30 p.m. Monday, "In Treatment" is a marvel, in effect a series of one-act, two-actor plays that unreels in a way that only gets deeper and more fascinating as it goes along.

When Gabriel Byrne's therapist Paul Weston says, "Time's up," a viewer is apt to be as disappointed as his patient -- if not more so.

That's the central conceit of "In Treatment": Paul has a different patient each day of the week. On Monday, it's Melissa George's Laura, an erratic woman with a bad case of transference (i.e., the hots for him). On Tuesday, it's Blair Underwood's Alex, an alpha-male fighter pilot who challenges Paul for dominance while trying to address his own guilt -- or lack thereof -- for a misguided bombing in Iraq. On Wednesday, it's Mia Wasikowska's Sophie, a self-destructive gymnast who might be the victim of sexual abuse. On Thursday, it's Embeth Davidtz's Amy and Josh Charles' Jake, a seemingly irreconcilable couple trying to decide whether to go through with a pregnancy.

No wonder by the end of the workweek on Friday Paul has to seek the counsel of his own former colleague, Dianne Wiest's Dr. Gina Toll.

Now, don't approach "In Treatment" expecting to be bowled over right away. The series is incredibly static. Day after day, it's two or three people sitting in a room facing each other and talking. Even compacting the 50-minute sessions into half-hour episodes doesn't exactly speed the tempo to the level of an action thriller. It's "My Dinner With Andre," only without the dinner -- unless eating your heart out counts.

Yet this is HBO, and it comes up with a few neat tricks to compromise with viewers and draw them in. For instance, it's no accident that Monday's premiere begins with Laura describing an anonymous sexual encounter in a bar restroom.

"Is hearing about this disgusting to you?" she says during a pause.

"No, it's not disgusting," Paul replies, then speaks for all viewers by adding, "Go on."

What's more, the Friday sessions serve as reviews for what's gone on during the week, for anyone who's missed one or two. In that, it's the most contrived episode of the week, the one most insistent about giving viewers clues about how to parse the rest. Paul lies, so perhaps his patients are lying as well. He turns small details to his advantage, so of course they must be, too.

The therapist who is his or her own worst enemy is actually a fairly trite idea for a series, and I'm hoping this doesn't become one long descent into madness. That would be a disappointing end to such a daring overall concept.

Because, from night to night, "In Treatment" can be electric. Byrne is excellent playing the objective, unemotional therapist (except when he gets subjectively emotional), and his sessions with Underwood in particular are terrific, as they test each other like a pair of boxers for weak spots and openings. Wasikowska has a heartbreaking vulnerability as a gymnast putting up a tough façade, and the rest of the cast is stellar, especially once the show opens up enough to let in Michelle Forbes as Paul's wife, Kate.

That's the thing about "In Treatment." It starts out so minimal, each little variation on the basic concept seems packed with meaning. When one episode opens with Paul's son, Max, faking illness to get out of school, it resonates with the anxieties of the patients. And when the camera begins to move, and a little background music suddenly comes in, it seems rife with significance.

Will premium-cable subscribers be willing to tune in night after night? I have to admit, my wife and I devoured the review DVDs a week at a time, in two-and-a-half-hour installments, and that might be how they're best seen. For those without a TiVo, HBO On Demand will make the entire week available on Monday, and beginning with the second week each new episode will be preceded at 8 by the previous week's rerun. HBO will also show the full week on Sundays starting at 5:30 p.m., and on Saturdays starting at 9 p.m. on HBO2. So the option belongs to the subscriber.

"In Treatment" is based on an Israeli TV series, and perhaps that's why it seems so fully formed and well-thought-out right from the start. I'm not sure where it's going, but I know along the way we're seeing some of the best acting -- and some of the best writing -- of the TV season. "In Treatment" is testimony to the power of actors and writers working with bare-bones material.

There's no denying we need the writers back as soon as possible, but for the next nine weeks "In Treatment" will see viewers through the strike's fallout and provide a little withdrawal therapy.

Remotely interesting: Attention, young men with singing talent: Nickelodeon holds an audition for male singers ages 15 to 21 starting at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Chicago Academy for the Arts, 1010 W. Chicago Ave., downtown. Aspiring entertainers should be ready to sing 16 bars of their favorite pop song and dressed to "show off their personality." For details, see the Web site www.thesearchinfo.com.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards go off as scheduled at 7 p.m. Sunday, simulcast on TNT and TBS. … The Sundance Channel runs a special on "Best of the Fest," from the Sundance Film Festival, at 8 p.m. Sunday.

The "Doctor Who" spin-off "Torchwood" returns for its second season at 8 p.m. Saturday on BBC America. … Antwan Lewis has replaced Juan Carlos Fanjul as lead reporter on WGN Channel 9's "Fugitive Hunters" series, which recently saw its ninth suspect apprehended, in Mexico.

End of the dial: Thanks in large part to the Bears, WBBM 780-AM unseated WGN 720-AM as Chicago's top-billing station last year, according to the accounting firm of Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. 'BBM-AM grossed $47.5 million in ad revenue, WGN-AM got $43.5 million, and WTMX 101.9-FM, WGCI 107.5-FM and WUSN 99.5-FM filled out the top five.

WGN-AM concludes its three-part series "Changing the Odds," on kids with parents in prison, with a final segment airing at 7 a.m., noon and 5 and 11 p.m. today.

Waste Watcher's choice

Tom Cruise's "Top Gun" was one of the biggest movie hits of the '80s, but it's never been the same since Quentin Tarantino deconstructed it as "a story about a man's struggle with his own homosexuality" in "Sleep With Me." For that matter, Cruise hasn't been the same either. See him confront heterosexuality in the form of Kelly McGillis at 7 p.m. today on AMC.