Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Apple TV+
After the events of the last three years, it is hardly surprising that television is fixating on therapeutic responses to trauma and grief.
Therapists on TV have come a long way in the 40 years since The Bob Newhart Show creators David Davis and Lorenzo Music avoided using the word “psychologist” when they pitched the sitcom to CBS. “We had to say personal counselor because the networks were nervous about mental health,” said Davis in a recent oral history. Now, audiences are accustomed to everyone from mobsters to serial killers sharing their intimate thoughts and fears with a shrink—in some cases, the killer is the one is the one dishing out advice.
Those seeking an outlet for anguish in Apple TV+’s Dear Edward and Shrinking have not shed any blood themselves—though death certainly does.