Showtime Web Therapy "Stalk Therapy"

Season two Episode 10 of Showtime’s Web Therapy (which aired Sunday Septeber 2, 2012) is so packed with events (and hilarity) that I don’t think I can fit it all into one review. This show continues to entertain and amaze me as it piles one over-the-top scene onto another. It is a marvel of cleverness and fun. There isn’t one likeable character on the show, yet the show itself is immensely likeable.
 

Episode 10 is named “Stalk Therapy” because a man from Fiona’s past, Newell (played by David Shwimmer) is cyber-stalking, as well as in-person stalking, Fiona.  I’m going to rename this episode, “That’s What’s Gonna Happen” because throughout this whole episode, Fiona is either being told, or telling someone else, what is, or is not, going to happen.  

Here’s the story on Newell. Years ago when Fiona was a college student, Newel’s father, a professor at the college, was tutoring her. They hit the sheets more than the books, and Newell spied on them doing some sexual role-playing that was anything but by the book. Newell says this voyeuristic experience was his first sexual experience. He said that witnessing these sexual hi-jinks ruined his life and warped his psyche. Now, as reparation, Newell wants Fiona to participate in a bit of sexual psycho-drama with him. He tells Fiona that the only way he can be cured is to reenact the sexual shenanigans he witnessed with Fiona and his father. She tells him that it is not going to happen, and Newell insists, “That is what is going to happen. Give it up Newell, no one wins with Fiona.

Except Fiona’s mother, Putsy (played by Lily Tomlin). Putsy believes that she has killed her roommate at the “old-folks home”, and is convinced that she is going to prison. Her sock puppet now has dreadlocks and talks like Marlon Brandon. Mom is sporting tattoos including a tear drop to represent the murder she committed. Fiona tells her mother that it is not going to happen, Putsy is not going to prison.

One of the most deleightful things about this show is the rapid about-face of events. A few scenes later, Putsy is back to her old self. Now she’s dressed like Loretta Young, and is maintaining that her roommate’s death was a suicide. There was a suicide note.  The note was dictated by the roommate and written down by Putsy’s sock puppet. Did it happen that way or not?  No matter, Putsy has convinced the police that it was a suicide.

Putsy is back as feisty as ever. She is going to start a new treatment modality, “Net Therapy,” with four-minute psychodrama sessions with sock puppets.  Fiona tells her that it is not going to happen—she can’t just change “Web Therapy” to “Net Therapy” and change 3-minute sessions to 4-minute sessions and say that she has created something new.  But if Putsy wants to make it happen, she will. She recorded a previous web-chat she had with Fiona during which Fiona advised her about covering up her room-mate’s death. This gives her some leverage with Fiona.

This is the “whatever-mama-wants-mama-gets” moment of the week. As I’ve said before, Putsy is the only one who can outmaneuver Fiona.

Richard, Fiona’s former flame, now works for Kip’s campaign. He tells Fiona that he is in love with a co-worker. Fiona, of course, thinks he is talking about her. Fiona tells him that a relationship with her isn’t going to happen. But, Fiona is not the co-worker he is in love with.

Richard (played by Tim Bagley) is in love with Robin (played by Julie Claire), the young woman who Fiona’s husband, Kip, almost had an adulterous relationship with. They went to a hotel for a weekend, but nothing happen because Kip rejected her when he discovered that she wasn’t a transvestite. Fiona gave Robin a job on Kip’s campaign as a videographer, so she wouldn’t expose Kip’s predilections. Richard and Robin want to have a group session with Fiona. That, Fiona says isn’t going to happen.

One thing that is about to happen is Gina (played by Jennifer Elise Cox) becoming a a problem for Fiona once again. Gina, who worked with Fiona when she worked at Lachman Brothers, a corrupt securities firm, has been tricked into taking a job in Alaska by Fiona. But Austen happens to visit this remote outpost, and he has invited Gina to work in his London office. Fiona is not the least bit happy to have Gina working in close proximity to her paramour and benefactor. Will she find a way to keep Gina out in the boonies where her loose lips (and loose sexual morals) can’t do Fiona any harm? 

So what is going to happen?  Tune in next week for the season finale. 

 

 

This picture of Robin and Richard from www.cbspressexpress.com