ok season 3 is coming to an end and i have the feeling that the series itself is ending. I am going to rank the sessions - best to worse-best is most reveting, best acted and best written
the best
Adele
Blair underwoods character
Laura
Young girl season 1
Gina
The avg- some great moments
Cancer patient season 2
Sunil
Oliver
Frances
The worse- never got to feel for any of these patients
The couple season 1
the lawyer from pauls past season 2
walter
Jesse
From best to worst . . .
Sunil - Season 3, Monday
Alex - Season 1, Tuesday
Sophie - Season 1, Wednesday
Laura - Season 1, Monday
Mia - Season 2, Monday
Gina - Season 2, Friday
Jake & Amy - Season 1, Thursday
Adele - Season 3, Friday
Oliver - Season 2, Wednesday
Gina - Season 1, Friday
April - Season 2, Tuesday
Walter - Season 2, Thursday
Jesse - Season 3, Wednesday
Frances - Season 3, Tuesday
Best: Sophie - Overall, the most emotional and brilliantly written session.
April - Consistently extremely painful, yet I always highly anticipated this one.
Alex - The most thrilling and exciting session in the show's history, and the most surprising.
Sunil - Probably the strongest performance ever on the show besides Gabriel Byrne, and he brought out Byrne's best too.
Adele - Paul has never been more interesting as a character than in these sessions.
Laura - Criminally underrated, I always looked forward to these and the side of Paul they brought out.
Walter - Never quite met my high expectations, but had some beautiful moments.
Oliver - Perhaps the most heartbreaking of anyone's endings.
Gina - Often interesting, sometimes not, they ran out of ideas for these and I never adored them. S1 < S2.
Jesse - Intentionally frustrating, but a well-crafted story that didn't really have a peak for me.
Jake and Amy - Some great moments, but Amy frustrated me a lot. The weak link in season 1.
Mia - Frustrating, and less interesting than most others, but by no means bad.
Worst: Frances - The only one I just didn't care about at all.
Outstanding:
Sophie
Oliver
Mia
Sunhil
April
Jesse
Amy & Jake
Solid:
Alex
Walter
Gina
Adele
Laura
Could barely care:
Frances
Sunil
Alex
Sophie
Jesse
Laura
Gina
April
Amy and Jake
Walter
Oliver
Mia
Adele
Frances
Aww, poor Frances. Her character was so concerned about what others thought about her. She was constantly doubting herself. Ironically, looking over these boards, it seems like she was one of the least-liked characters of the show.
~~~~~
The important thing is the effort, not what we achieve.
-Persona
Essential
1. Alex
2. Jake and Amy
3. Gina
Superlative
4. Sophie
5. April
6. Adele
Standard
7. Sunil
8. Oliver
9. Mia
10. Jesse
11. Laura
Subpar
12. Walter
13. Frances
Best sessions?
Wonderful question about a series I always felt was criminally underrated.
I ultimately loved and cared about all the characters, but definitely had some favorites, both among characters and sessions.
(NOTE: I love that so many responders had favorites who were at the bottom of other lists -- that's the magic of this series. It dared to look at these characters bravely and closely, warts and all.)
My favorites:
The "big moment sessions" as follows (spoilers!):
Alex's incredible final session
Jake and Amy's final session (I love the wonderful sleight of hand from the show -- that it is Amy, not Jake, who is more fragile and invested -- yet she's the one who tanked it)
Mia's final session -- an often opaque frustrating session, but her final session made me cry. It was lovely and revelatory. Beautiful.
Gina's sessions
Adele's sessions (Almost more than Gina's, because Paul was so awful to Gina yet Adele kept him in check)
Walter's incredible monologue to Paul (I think it was his penultimate session) -- John Mahoney was amazing.
April's final session with Paul
Sophie's final sweet session
Sunil's electric final session
Jesse's first session
Frances's last session
Oliver's session when Paul made him the sandwich
While Frances and Oliver are at the bottom for me, with Jesse, it really doesn't matter. I adored this entire series and found it quietly riveting, moving, and fascinating.
I think for me the surprises were the best part -- Paul having an anxiety attack at going to meet Laura, Walter's heartbreaking revelation, Alex's incredible moment of self-honesty, that last sweet moment with Mia (Paul at his best) or with April, etc. The realization that Jake was far more willing to leave than manipulative Amy ever expected, even Paul's petty behavior with Gina (poor Gina, he was always at his worst with her).
This show truly captured the complexity of what it means to be human. It was gorgeously done and I still miss it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I keep thinking I'm a grownup, but I'm not.
I don't understand all the love for Sophie from you and others. Not only have many nominated her for the best session, but as the best character.
The actress did a good job, but to me kids aren't that interesting. Their id is still too well developed. Sophie behaved like a mean brat to both the Dr. and her mother. She threw tantrums when anyone dared suggest her father might be at fault.
It was hard to take her seriously as an Olympic-aspiring gymnast because she wasn't muscular and didn't seem to take her sport as seriously as someone on the Olympic track would.
At least the writers didn't add child sexual abuse from the father to the root of her problems, I'll give them credit for avoiding that cliché.
Sophie (9) Mia Wasikowska was wonderfully complex as Sophie and it was great acting from her and a totally believable story that progressed logically and had a wonderful resolution.
April (8) Alison Pill was fantastic as the angry April but the basic premise of the story seemed a bit of a stretch for the sake of creating the necessary drama.
Paul (7) Consistently great acting. A very complex character who was at times (eg with Sophie and April) quite wonderful and at other times (eg with Alex and Gina) quite despicable. The writers dropped the ball with Paul in season three I thought where he seemed to have lost half of his IQ.
Alex (7) Blair Underwood was great but the character of Alex was a little cliched and I kept wondering why he wasn't seeing a Navy psychiatrist instead of Paul.
Gina (6) Good for Gina! She stuck it up the constantly whining, abusive and self-obsessed Paul with her tell-it-like-it-is book. Priceless! It's such a shame they wimped out on the post-book confrontation between she and Paul though.
Sunil (5) Sunil was an interesting character thanks to the actor playing him. But after a terrific build up his story ended with a whimper rather than a bang (worse luck!).
Amy & Jake (4) Amy and Jake were annoying at first but sympathetic characters by the end. Not surprised they got divorced as they didn't have much in common.
Mia (4) Good acting but Mia was a bit of a "barren woman" cliche. "You owe me a baby" (?).
Walter (4) Good acting and a solid character but not one I could identify with.
Laura (3) Good acting but her character was hard to believe.
Adele (3) Gina-Lite.
Oliver (2) Oliver just struck me as a very ordinary boy who had been neglected in some ways while being over-indulged in other ways.
Frances (2) Getting old is a bitch.
Jesse (2) The usual angst ridden adolescent homosexual cliche.
The players of The Game are the scum of the earth
Alex (7) Blair Underwood was great but the character of Alex was a little cliched and I kept wondering why he wasn't seeing a Navy psychiatrist instead of Paul.
But Alex was under review by the Dept of Defense as to whether he was fit to resume flying or not. I think that process would have been entirely "in house" and not the sort of thing that would have been farmed out to a civilian psychologist even for his professional opinion let alone allowing him to "make the call". From everything I know of Defense practices and attitudes that just doesn't ring true.
Now if Alex had consulted Paul privately that is another matter but the Dept of Defense would unlikely have even wanted to see his "report" on Alex.
As for your general disapproval of my post it seems to me you are confusing your feelings with my opinions.
The players of The Game are the scum of the earth
Alex's review -- whether actually by the "Department of Defense" or no, officially, was a matter of set, fairly routine administrative steps. Alex actually acknowledged that fact ASAP in his first meeting. Note: I am the daughter of a career US Navy pilot -- yes, military members would often seek domestic feedback because it would not instantly become a matter of public record.
Meanwhile, you seem confused on Alex consulting Paul "privately." Alex's consultation of Paul is in fact private and specifically noted as being so. It's why he chooses Paul (versus a military advisor). His consultation of Paul is visible but allowable to the military, but he is also given additional privacy that would not have been available to him if he had consulted a Navy therapist.
Thanks for the debate. And FWIW -- I'm not confusing my feelings with your opinions -- I simply disagree with your opinions, and have predictable, varying emotional responses to them.
Cheers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I keep thinking I'm a grownup, but I'm not.
I already finished the first and second seasons and am halfway through the third season. Despite the fact that I haven't finished season 3 yet, I'm almost sure that my final ranking of the sessions will look something like this:
Very interesting/good/engaging:
1. Laura
2. Jesse
3. Sophie
4. April
5. Alex
6. Sunil
Interesting/good/engaging:
7. Mia
8. Jake and Amy (they left me cold/numb at the beginning, but their storyline got better close to the end)
Borderline boring:
9. Frances
10. Oliver
Boring:
11. Adele
12. Walter
13. Gina (season 1)
14. Gina (season 2)
BEST
Adele
Gina
Sunil
April
Sophie
Alex
Jesse
Laura
Oliver
Walter
Jake & Amy
Mia
Frances
WORST