MovieChat Forums > In Treatment (2008) Discussion > Am I the only one who friggin hates Laur...

Am I the only one who friggin hates Laura?


It seems like so many people on these threads love her. I just don't get it. They clearly weren't actually in love with one another. Their "chemistry" was always transparently contrived... and... well... just wrong. He's her therapist. It's just so wrong.

And Laura? How is she in any way appealing? I get that she's pretty. Sure. But she's such a petulant child. A sixteen year old girl pretending to be a 30 year old.

I can't be the only one.

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I agree with you 100%, always hated their relationship and found it contrived.

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I'm only halfway through season one so my opinion isn't fully formed yet.

I wouldn't say Laura is a likable character--nor do I think she was meant to be. As others have pointed out on this thread, her neuroses and disorders were a very effective tool for the writers to highlight Paul's own foibles. I think in certain moments she can be charming and very attractive, but most of the time she is indeed manipulative and entitled. She is a sympathetic (in my opinion anyway) portrait of women who have these same issues--it's easy to judge people and cast aspersions on them for their behavior, but it's important to understand that there is a real human being there who is dealing with what can be a suffocating illness. She needs help and Paul doesn't seem to be capable of giving it to her, since he's going through his own crises in Season 1.

The idea that anyone could watch their episodes and think Paul and Laura could actually get together in a healthy relationship is quite alarming, and speaks volumes about what some people think love ought to be.

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"People either loved us or they hated us...or they thought we were okay."

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Personally I found her segments to be boring, and I found her inauthentic. Other characters seemed natural, and she seemed like she was acting.

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Bump

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the thing I found compelling about Laura and Paul was not so much did they love each other- I always thought it was conscious and sub-conscious self delusion- but the danger always crackling away in their sessions. They verbally tested each other in a way his other season one patients didn't, because they were both heterosexual and of appropriate age. Their flirtation or avoidance of it made the sessions tense. I always found them riveting watching because I honestly thought anything could happen- she could throw a tantrum because Paul didn't respond the way she wanted, one or the other was about to pounce on the other, that the communication would unravel into full arguments. He seemed to want to test himself with her, that he could see the way she could manipulate a situation and wanted to best her, but by engaging he was getting bogged down in her issues instead of seeing them for the smokescreen they were.

such a great series- loved watching two people in a room just talking.

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You are most definitely not the only one.

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