Reviewed by Jackson

I never saw Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist while it aired.  I knew of the show’s existence, but, up until I watched the second season for this review, that was all I knew.  My wife, however, loved the series and said that I must check it out.

I’m glad I did.

Dr. Katz is unlike any other TV show I have other seen.  I personally enjoyed the series’ highbrow humor, but I suspect it is the sort of thing that will grab some viewers while leaving others simply scratching their heads.  There is a dryness and “straightness” to the series I’ve only seen matched in The Office (which, incidentally, took me a long time to get into but now love).

Dr. Katz (Jonathan Katz) is a professional therapist juggling a slacker son, Ben (H. Jon Benjamin), along with his clients (a never-ending stream of comedians playing themselves).  Further complicating his life is Laura (Laura Silverman), his lazy, disinterested receptionist who is more hindering than helpful as he tries to address the needs of his patients.  Even as Dr. Katz pushes Ben to make something of his life, Ben serves as the person the good doctor can talk to himself, an unofficial therapist to the therapist.  What makes the show interesting is that the comedians (which in Season 2 include Steven Wright, Janeane Garofalo, Gary Shandling and Ray Romano, among others) write all their own material for the issues they share with the doctor, providing a wide range of comic styles.

Dr. Katz utilizes a unique animation style called Squigglevision, in which only the lips, eyes and occasionally a few other things are fully animated.  To make the rest of the image more dynamic, the outlines of objects “squiggle”, a motion obtained by endlessly looping five slightly different drawings of the same object.  Hence the person or thing looks like it is moving more than it is.  Further contrasting the “active” elements from the “passive”, people and animate objects are in full color, while backgrounds and inanimate objects are in black-and-white.

At first I found the squiggles annoying, but as I grew accustomed to the style they no longer bothered me.  The technique works much better in practice than one would think reading it on paper.  Since the humor of the show is all in the dialogue, the minimalist nature of Squigglevision lends itself perfectly to the series.  An animation style with more motion would actually have distracted from what was being said.  The sound design similarly centers all attention on the dialogue; there is absolutely no ambient noise, and only those sound effects essential to the story are included in the mix.

Video / Audio / Extras

Computer animation transfers very well to the DVD format since the content has never existed outside the digital realm, and Dr. Katz’s Squigglevision is no exception.  The image is razor sharp, and the colors really pop.  The sleeve says the DVD is full frame (it is, after all, a television show), but there actually is a slight matte—I estimate about 1.66:1.  Audio is Dolby Digital stereo, and like the picture quality, clean and clear.

Special features, however, are lacking, consisting only of an audio commentary and three  “follow-up calls” between Dr. Katz and some of his patients.  These calls, which take place 10 years after Dr. Katz’s original sessions with his clients, are quite funny, perfectly capturing the spirit of the original series.  They also serve to highlight how effective the minimalist Squigglevision technique is, since each call takes place over a single still image of the patient.  The contrast between the static nature of these stills and the dynamism of the squiggles in the episodes is incredibly pronounced.

Final Words

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist is a great show, but it’s definitely not for everybody.  If you never caught it on the air, I would recommend renting or borrowing a copy first to see if it’s your cup of tea.  Anyone who enjoys the show, however, should buy a copy; they will not be disappointed.