After the second season of “Couples Therapy” aired on Showtime last year, a publicist hired by one of the couples reached out to offer an interview. “Couples Therapy” may be a high-minded nonfiction show but it falls into the reality TV space nonetheless and the publicist’s inquiry drove that home. The show depicts real therapy, on camera, for all the world to see, and you have to wonder what motivates people to take part. It’s clear each couple wants to find an exit ramp from their interpersonal misery. But is there some attention-seeking also fueling their participation? That’s certainly the case with any other reality show, why should it be different here? The possibility lurks in the shadows, but it sits alongside your own voyeuristic compulsions as a viewer. It’s all kind of ethically messy and no one comes out pure from this endeavor, but who wants purity anyway?
That said, the idea of two people in crisis baring their souls on TV, and then hiring a publicist to promote themselves some more, absolutely soured me on that particular couple. But it didn’t turn me off from the show itself, which is back for a third season.
The more I think about the series, the more I realize the couples aren’t the draw (and woe to those who think this is a star-making opportunity). Are they in a better place months or even years after their therapy ends? Hard to say. They are all unique and exhausting and dealing with very recognizable, human-scaled problems. What makes the show such an outlier is that it allows you to watch two combative people in an unscripted environment, trying to figure out what’s going on, with the help of a therapist. That last part is key and it’s why the person I’m actively invested in is the show’s therapist, Dr. Orna Guralnik. She is the one constant throughout each episode, and each season. Her office on “Couples Therapy” may be a set, but it doesn’t look like one. The cameras are carefully hidden. The lighting and colors are soft, the furniture lived-in. It feels serene and cozy — a place where you could spread out on the couch and get lost in a book for a few hours.
