Watchable the week of May 17, 2021

SHOW OF THE WEEK: In Treatment (May 23, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

I approached this new iteration of the beloved HBO series a bit like one of Dr. Brooke Taylor’s new patients: warily.

It’s been just over a decade since Gabriel Byrne sat in the chair as Dr. Paul Weston, doling out psychotherapy in his New York (and before that Baltimore) office, working through his patients’ knotty problems and, in his off hours, on his own.

It didn’t take long for Dr. Taylor, played by Uzo Aduba, to win my trust. Aduba, who came to prominence playing a mentally ill inmate in “Orange Is the New Black,” ably fills the therapist’s seat. 

I had forgotten the pleasure of this two-hander of a show, of watching a pair of actors simply talk to each other and, in doing so, reveal interesting things about the human condition.

It’s rewarding to watch as Brooke kindly but firmly peels back the layers of self-deception and prods the walls of her patients’ resistance — with insight she doesn’t always extend to herself and her own issues.

Speaking to the Television Critics Association earlier this year, Aduba called the role “one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had in my life” and “also one of the most satisfying, fulfilling experiences,” for which she credited her fellow actors.

The diverse ensemble is indeed a capable one. It includes Anthony Ramos (“Hamilton”) as a young Hispanic man employed as a caregiver to a young white disabled man; Quintessa Swindell as a young Black woman trying to figure out her future; and John Benjamin Hickey (“The Big C”) as a white-collar ex-con whose therapy is mandated as part of his release.

Executive producers Jennifer Schuur and Joshua Allen have deliberately positioned this update as a fourth season of the original “In Treatment” rather than a new version. 

So, for instance, Paul Weston is still out there, unseen other than as a name on a computer or phone screen, as Brooke’s supervisor and “America’s therapist” during the pandemic.

Updating the series — moving it to Los Angeles and to the present day — allows timely issues to be part of the give-and-take between Brooke and her patients.

Besides the pandemic — Brooke works out of her home because her office building is still closed and treats one patient via video — the show also touches on topics like being Black in America, class differences and white male rage, but not in ways that feels intrusive or forced.

Truthfully, arriving at this point in our collective unease, “In Treatment” feels a little like a dose of TV therapy.

Line of Duty (May 18, BritBox)

Season 6 of this fan favourite crime show was never going to be just another instalment. It comes amid two years of pent-up demand and suggestions that there won’t be a Season 7.

And in the U.K., where the season has already aired, it was a ratings blockbuster for the BBC.

So does it live up to the hype? Mostly yes with a teaspoon of no.

First off, if you don’t know your OCG (organized crime group) from your CHIS (covert human intelligence source) I’d advise getting up to speed on past seasons before you dive into this one.

As the season begins, things could be better for Anti-Corruption Unit 12. Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) has moved on to Hillside Lane Station and doesn’t seem eager to maintain ties with AC-12; Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) is still popping painkillers like M&Ms for his back pain (from being attacked in Season 4); and Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) is on thin ice with the police brass (although when is he ever not?).

Steve and his new partner, Chloe Bishop (Shalom Brune-Franklin), are investigating potential corruption in Hillside’s probe of the murder of a high-profile journalist. The main antagonist is DCI Jo Davidson (guest star Kelly Macdonald of “Trainspotting,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “No Country for Old Men” and more), who’s working under DS Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle), an AC-12 detractor whom we first met in Season 1. 

Buckles is just one of the past characters who turns up this season, which is full of callbacks and name checks that fans will appreciate.

Also to be appreciated is the committed work of the main trio of actors. Without Arnott, Fleming and Hastings, a.k.a. the Gaffer, and their dogged dedication to outing “bent coppers,” “Line of Duty” would never have inspired the devotion that it has.

My one quibble is that I found the finale anticlimactic, which is all the more reason to hope for a Season 7.

Short Takes

Cher & The Loneliest Elephant (May 19, 8 p.m., Smithsonian Channel)

Celine Dion sang that “Love Can Move Mountains”; another world famous pop star used her passion to help move a multi-ton bull elephant. This doc tells the story of the rescue of Kaavan, an Asian elephant who was kept for 35 years in deplorable conditions at the now mercifully closed Islamabad Zoo in Pakistan until three women started a campaign to free him: Cher, American vet trainee Samar Khan and Anika Sleem, a Pakistani expat living in Toronto. It took five years, a court verdict and the dedication of a virtual village of animal experts and others to carry out the difficult task of moving the massive, and at the time potentially dangerous, animal to a sanctuary in Cambodia — in the midst of a pandemic no less. In his new home, Kaavan will be able to roam free with his own kind, as elephants are meant to do, instead of being shackled in a tiny enclosure. Keep tissues handy as you watch; I’m certain you’ll need them.

Hindenburg: New Evidence (May 19, 9 p.m., PBS)

The science series “Nova” has one for the history buffs: an episode that re-examines the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. The footage of the German airship exploding over an airfield in Lakehurst, N.J., is among the indelible images of the 20th century, so it’s fitting that an old reel of film unseen by investigators at the time is what spurs re-examination of the cause of the fire that brought the Hindenburg down, killing 36 (amazingly, 62 passengers and crew lived). Lt. Col Jason O. Harris and author Dan Grossman find an answer to the mystery of what sparked the flames with the help of Germany’s Zeppelin Museum and a Caltech professor of chemical engineering, but I won’t spoil things by telling you what they discovered.

Odds and Ends

As usual, Netflix has several new offerings, including second seasons of Spanish murder mystery “Who Killed Sara?” (May 19) and autobiographical comedy “Special” (May 20), Season 3 of Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None” (May 23) and the Zack Snyder zombie film “Army of the Dead (May 21), which I did not review (hey, I already took one for the team by watching all four hours of “Justice League”).

A show I previously recommended when it debuted on BritBox is available on Hollywood Suite as of May 20. “The Pembrokeshire Murders” dramatizes how a team of detectives in Wales solved two murders two decades old by re-examining the forensic evidence. Luke Evans stars.

Amazon Prime Video has the anthology series “Solos” (May 21) from David Weil, the man behind the high-profile Nazis-in-America show “Hunters.” This one is packed with some big name actors essentially performing monologues, among them Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and Anne Hathaway. I’d love to tell you what I think, but reviews are embargoed.

NOTE: The dates and times listed here reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible against broadcast and streaming schedules, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of series reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste.