Earlier this week, Disney Plus released the trailer for FX's upcoming psychological thriller The Patient, starring Steve Carell and Domhall Gleeson, which premieres exclusively on Disney Plus in late August.
The 10-episode limited series was created by Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, who previously worked on another FX series, the acclaimed The Americans. The forthcoming project follows Alan Strauss (Carell), a respected therapist who gets taken hostage by his new patient, Sam Fortner (Gleeson). Sam soon reveals himself to be a serial killer with an unusual demand: for Alan to help him stop his homicidal urges.
The trailer for The Patient shows Alan uncovering the depths of Sam's compulsion and navigating his own trauma while desperately trying to stop Sam before becoming an accomplice or worse: a target. "Successful therapy requires a safe environment, without anything like fear hanging over every session," Carell's character says in the trailer, as he's chained to a chair during one of his sessions with Sam. In addition to Carell and Gleeson, The Patient stars Linda Emond (The Guilded Age), David Alan Grier (Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!), Laura Niemi (This Is Us), and Andrew Leeds (star of HBO's Barry).
"In order to survive, Alan must unwind Sam's disturbed mind and stop him from killing again... but Sam refuses to address critical topics, like his mother Candace (Emond). Alone in captivity, Alan excavates his own past through memories of his old therapist, Charlie (Grier), and grapples with waves of his own repressed troubles – the recent death of his wife, Beth (Niemi), and the painful estrangement from his religious son, Ezra (Leeds)," reads an official synopsis. Besides working as co-creators, Fields and Weisberg serve as writers. The pair will also executive produce alongside Carell, Caroline Moore, Victor Hsu, and Chris Long, with the latter directing the first two episodes. Kevin Bray and Gwyneth Horder-Payton are also on board to helm a few episodes from the series that FX Productions produced.
Carell's latest project, Minions: The Rise of Gru, hit theaters earlier this month. The Minions spin-off prequel —which also starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, and Danny Trejo, among others— earned $426 million worldwide and became the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2022 despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. The success of The Rise of Grue is likely tied to meme culture, with thousands of TikTok fans donning their best Minions cosplay and going to see the film, a trend that has increased its public profile.
The Patient premieres on Disney Plus on August 30, 2022.
Source: YouTube/FX Networks