In case you think I love everything, here is a prime example of a show that I would have stopped watching after the pilot. But I trudged on, dear readers, for you.
Imagine: A behavioral therapist who has it all: cute kid, hot husband, giant house, PTA meetings, and a hard-earned career. Now imagine that she's bored and wants to become someone else... or someone she used to be. And you may think, Naomi Watts, Billy Crudup, psychosexual thriller... what's not to love here?
First, and I hope this is a recognized factor, Jean Holloway (Naomi Watts) is a terrible therapist. This is the entire point of the show and remains consistent and constant in every episode. She breaks the cardinal rule of therapy; She gets entirely too close to her clients. She involves herself in their romantic, familial and personal lives by creating an alter-ego, in which she is free to make any poor decision with near-zero repercussions. And she seems to pull it off with such ease. No guilt or falseness in her expression when she faces her husband after being intimate with another woman. Maybe I could have rooted for her if she was written as an antihero, but I found myself wanting her to fail, for her secrets to come spilling out, for someone to call out her gross professional misconduct, and for her to face the consequences. It's hard to watch a show when you really don't like, what is supposed to be, the protagonist.
Second, the pacing. This show feels like an eternity, as not much new information is revealed so it barely has enough legs to stand on in each subsequent episode. I kept watching, waiting for anything to happen that would have some effect on the audience, some callback, or some clue as to how Jean Holloway became a master manipulator. Just waiting for a hook was exhausting.
Third, the payoff. There is none. You may be familiar with the literary technique, Chekhov's Gun: "If you see a gun in the first act, it must go off in the third." There are many in this show that could have been developed, but not a single one goes off. I'm almost angry at the time wasted on this.
The positives: There are a few shining moments where the themes of control, identity and escapism, become clear, but it still feels like a graduate school project that just misses the mark. At points, I liked that your are really unsure if Jean is simply losing it, or if she has a plan to manipulate every single person in her life to a fantastic degree. There's always a draw when the doctor becomes the patient. But I'm not sure that's what they were going for in Gypsy.
It's a great cast, and an interesting premise, but it falls short of expectations, as it did not have any overarching message for its audience. Nothing important to say. Perhaps more of an experiment... What if a therapist used all the information she has at her disposal to undermine, manipulate and control those around her? But at what cost? And how far will she go to get what she wants? I'm not convinced Jean Holloway even knows what she wants. And that may be the very reason this show is not worth watching.