A depressed old-school psychiatrist's only way out of jail is to tend to a rag-tag group of characters with 21 century addictions

SYNOPSIS:

It’s supersized, artificially sweetened and hormone-fed. It’s politically correct, but and no longer bio-degradable; We are told that we are special. We have high-tech gadgets, low priced calories and thousands of ‘friends’ in social networks, just as long as we sit alone in front of a HD LED, feeling lonely and not so special. It’s not a problem, though – we have Millions of terabits of hardcore porn to keep us company, resulting in millions of soft erections, but hey – at least we have our alpha males on beta blockers, and self-sufficient professional moms, reading user-friendly manuals for how to raise children that start multitasking from year 2. Life in 21st century is a mess. It’s hard to say if we are the consumers, or are we the ones consumed by it. The worst part is, we’re addicted to it and as addictions go, we are in a constant state of denial about the whole thing. Addictions is a show about all that and how we deal with it, from the perspective of:… ? Jerry Goldweith is an old-school suburban psychiatrist who, after driving one of his patients to suicide, is court ordered to take on a small therapy group of ragtags with various 21st-century addictions. Characters Jerry Goldweith Jerry is (a cliché of) a mess; He is on the wrong side of forty, rapidly losing his hair and still living in the professional shadow of his retired father (also a shrink) whose patients he’s inherited. (He only became a psychologist in the first place in a desperate attempt to get approval from his father.) Jerry has a seemingly happy marriage, with two kids and a big house, but the kids don’t respect him and he’s almost certain that his wife is cheating with Dan the Dentist from down the street and the house is actually his dad’s (although he moved away years ago) The only member of the family Jerry confides in is their old (and almost blind) pug dog - Barker. That is until Barker gets run over in the street by what seems to be the very man Jerry suspects of messing with his wife. (Later Jerry has his dog stuffed and brings it everywhere) Left without his emotional outlet (Barker), the next Jerry loses it with one of his patients and as a result, the patient commits suicide, but not without leaving a note incriminating Jerry in a professional malpractice. This leads not only to Jerry losing all of his patients, but the court puts him on probation as a therapist in an ADDICTIONS group, comprised of only hard cases. Harrold Goldweith Jerry’s retired father is an emotionally cold, precise, logical and over-confident man. In his son’s eyes, as in his own, he is always right. A celebrated author of several psychological studies, he has always looked down on his son who, he believes, doesn’t share his intelligence and his abilities. Cynthia Goldweith After a career as an event manager she was pushed into housewife life by Jerry. Now that the kids have grown up and start being independent, she finds herself bored and starts resenting her husband for that. She does have an affair, as Jerry suspects, but not with friendly neighbor Andrew, rather with Andrew’s son, who’s 21. Although the show centers around Jerry dealing with the group (as well as his battling his own demons), it’s also about them dealing with the life. The Patients: Nina Alexandrovna (omniomania) 35, is a Russian shopaholic trophy-ex-wife who joined this group because she bankrupted three marriages and ruined most of her friendships though her addiction. Realizing that she has a time frame of five years (tops) to remarry and live happily ever after, she’s in the group to work on that. (Now she wants to work on her character for her addiction not to come between her and true love.) Joe Conner 24, had his life eaten away by his World of Warcraft addiction. He was found unconscious and almost dead from dehydration on his computer. But he’s a Comic Con star and doesn’t want to lose that status. Sam Bergman 32, is eating so much junk food, that he almost died twice. He has two boys, 3 and 6 and wants to get somewhat in shape to be able to spend some quality time with them. Mark Jones 28, is a nutritionist and a fitness instructor, who has a tendency of overworking his clients so much that nobody comes back. Has a tendency of seeing every food in calorie types and counts. Fat people are disgusting to him. Jessica Wild 22, is a porn addict to the point that she has no sex, nor social life. She was caught by her religious mother, masturbating to porn played on her phone, in a church, during a service! She will come to realize that her addiction came out of her need for rebelling against her conservative surroundings. Sheila Gonzalez 38, is pretending to be a pothead, but her real addiction is to therapy groups, because she craves the attention of the others and their sympathy, as well as she needs to feel better about herself. Pilot story We open with Jerry as the “patient” in his office, talking to his dog as he would talk to a shrink about his wife cheating. When he gets home, the dog gets run over by the neighbor. He loses it with a patient who later kills himself. Licence on probation. He has to manage a therapy group for 21th century addictions problems. This is a community social service set up in the only room available: a kinder garden at night. Pilot theme: guilt. We follow Sam, guilty about not having quality times with his sons because of his extreme weight. This helps Jerry realizes how much his own problems comes from his daddies issues. Stories idea We will follow Jerry managing the group and in his family life in every episode. The stories will be framed around a theme. Depending on those themes, we will follow home some of the patients who have problems related to this issue, alternating P.O.V.s. What we discover then, is that there’s often a gap between what they tell of their lives in the group, and what their life actually is. Trust: - Sheila has betrayed the group’s trust by not revealing her real addiction. How should the group react? - Can Jerry trust his wife again? Shame: - Jessica boyfriend, also into porn, is ashamed of it and don’t want to talk openly about it, she’s not and they fight over this. - Nina and her self-image / marriage issues. Throughout the series Jerry will be forced to deal with these people’s addictions and create a bond with them, a bond that will perhaps help him to deal with his own life and family. ADDICTIONS is a show about coming to terms with life and the parts you can change in it. The tone is going to be bittersweet, with dashes of black humor, as we delve into 21 century’s problems from the point of view of those who experience them most.