2 days ago
Who's going to lie down on the couch? 'The Sopranos,' the first TV series to tackle mental health
A man suffers a panic attack. On the advice of his general practitioner, he consults a psychiatrist. She diagnoses him with clinical depression, and he begins therapy. Over the course of their sessions, he talks (a lot) about his mother, with whom he has a complicated relationship. He discusses his wife, his son and daughter, his own childhood, the memory of his deceased father and his work. Nothing particularly remarkable.
Except that the protagonist of The Sopranos – whose first episode aired on January 10, 1999, on the American network HBO – is not an ordinary patient. Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) is a mafia boss, head of a New Jersey "family." This man, who has a string of misdeeds to his name, falls apart when the wild ducks he loved to watch paddling in his pool fly away.
From today's perspective, following an individual's mental health struggles seems unremarkable. Mental health is now everywhere in TV series, with a wide range of patient profiles. En thérapie (In Therapy), created by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache and adapted from the Israeli series BeTipul, with two seasons broadcast on Arte in 2021 and 2022, put a surgeon, a police officer from the search and intervention brigade, a business executive and a student on the couch. 13 Reasons Why (2017) unfolds as an investigation into the suicide of a teenage girl. Atypical (2017) follows a young man on the autism spectrum, while the animated series BoJack Horseman (2014) centers on a washed-up actor dependent on sex, alcohol and drugs.
