TV Review : Comedy on a Couch in Billy Crystal’s ‘Sessions’

HBO, already the home of one of TV’s funniest comedy series in “Dream On,” strikes again Sunday with Billy Crystal’s “Sessions.” It’s sexy, salacious and sensational, a comedy no man--and few women--should miss.

Crystal created “Sessions” and writes or co-writes most of the scripts with executive producer Fred Barron and others. Thomas Shchlamme and Peter Baldwin direct.

The first of six episodes airs at 10:10 p.m. Sunday, starring Michael McKean as Dan Carver, an attorney reeling from mid-life trauma, and Elliott Gould as his psychiatrist, the smugly bemused Dr. Sidney Bookman, to whom Carver each week reveals his hang-ups and pours out his sexual fantasies.

Sunday finds Carver anguishing over his impotence and panic when his wife, Carol (Linda Kelsey), comes on to him in bed. The pressure to perform overwhelms him. “At this point I had a fantasy of little pall-bearers with my penis in a coffin (and) people staring down and saying, ‘He went too soon.’ ”

Through Bookman’s deft probing of his childhood, Carver learns he may have a bit of an Oedipal problem. When his overbearing parents (Millie Slavin and John P. Connolly) come to visit, it’s a hoot. Next week, Carver’s masturbatory adventures and relationship with his coarse father are explored in an episode ranging from tender and wise to orgasmically funny.

“Sessions” lets viewers be the laugh track. Swankily written, elegantly staged and perfectly cast--don’t miss Gould’s sly glances or McKean’s subtle throwaways--there is no comedy on television more creative, urbane or witty. This is therapy.