An Open Letter to Gabriel Byrne

Dear Mr. Byrne,

I would like to thank you for the amazing feat you accomplished in the first season of the HBO series In Treatment. Within the confines of specific scripts, dialogue, a particular setting, a cast of colleagues and a group of directors, you created a character named Dr. Paul Weston who, over a period of nine weeks, became a real person to me.

Beyond any direction you might have received and any words written for this part, you made him multi-dimensional and complex, and most importantly, you breathed life into him and made him an engrossing, thought-provoking, and recognizable human being. Such things just do not happen in television, so I applaud your efforts and your achievement with gratitude and appreciation. Needless to say, many others feel as I do, critics and viewers alike.

I understand that you are in negotiations to reprise this role in the second season of In Treatment. I want you to know why it is important, from my point of view, for you to consider doing so, in spite of any reservations you might have or scheduling problems that might be on the horizon. I have two reasons in mind:

1. What happens next? The series began in media res and pretty much ended there as well. We were dropped in the middle of Paul's world, experienced it with him, and then watched as he struggled to come to grips with what was going on in his life. We became part of the other characters' story arcs as well, of course, but Paul is the heart of the matter and it is his struggle that held us. What is going to happen to him? Will he open himself to the future or continue to be chained by the past? Can he become a student of his own teachings--can he examine his past, learn to accept it, and grow to become more than he is? Will he try? We want to know.

2. More importantly, we need this character on television because there is no one else like him. I am an avid consumer of media (film, TV, theater) and I can tell you that I have never witnessed such a sustained and mesmerizing act of character analysis and self-revelation anywhere on stage, on screen, or on the tube. This in itself is enough to warrant bringing him back: a kind of "art for art's sake." However, I will take it one step further: while this character is a positive role model, one who gives of himself to others and is a caring, warm, intuitive, empathetic and trustworthy professional, he is also conflicted, complicated, and prey to all of the frailties of the human psyche that we all face. He is multi-dimensional, multi-faceted, and just about as real as an actor could make him. We need this. We need this kind of portrayal, this kind of art, as often as we can get our hands on it. Selfish, true, but there it is.

It would be naive for me to argue that you did this all alone, in a vacuum. Of course you did not. There is an incredible infrastructure within which you are working to create such a character in a television series. However, I do assert that you brought your particular set of skills, your abilities, and your experience to bear on creating this role and making this character real. No one else can portray him. And he needs to come to life once more. Only you can do it.

You do not know me and I do not know you. Except I think I do know you. Many others feel as I do. And that is the crux of the problem.

We miss Paul Weston. And we miss you. Please come back to him and to us.

Thank you.

Stella

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Read Stella's Stories at http://stellastories.googlepages.com
"If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done." - Ludwig Wittgenstein