Country of origin United States Original network Showtime | No. of episodes 10 | |
Original release July 23 (2013-07-23) – September 24, 2013 (2013-09-24) | ||
The third season of the American Improvisational comedy television series Web Therapy premiered on July 23, 2013, and concluded on September 24, 2014, on Showtime. The series stars Lisa Kudrow as Fiona Wallice, a therapist who has conceived of a new form of therapy: the titular "web therapy". This season contains the webisodes from season five of the web series.
Contents
Plot
Fiona takes some time off and relaxes at a beach resort in California where she meets Jackson Pickett. After having a romantic night with him, she tries to push him away but he imagines a future between the two of them. Jackson reveals that he is part of a company who wishes to invest in the musical and successfully convinces Jerome. Fiona finally shows him her true colors and he backs away for good. Fiona gets to meet the songwriter for the musical, Franny Marshall whose songs are threatening to Fiona's appearance. In an attempt to save her image, Fiona gets Franny drunk and replaces the original songs with more enlightening ones. Thinking that there is hope in these songs, Franny submits the songs but ends up with the musical losing its investors and Franny getting jobs with famous pop stars.
Net Therapy, a cheaper replica of Web Therapy, turns out to be a major success. Jerome continues work for Fiona's mother and reveals to Fiona that Google wants to buy Net Therapy for a price in the million's. Austen helps Fiona out and swoops in, buying Net Therapy and decides to shelf it. Jerome feels insulted by Putsy and wants to work at Web Therapy again. Fiona agrees to this with the plus-side of paying him much less.
After the disastrous campaign, Fiona is investigated for the misuse of campaign finances and suspects that Ben, who is living with Kip in New Mexico, is behind this. Fiona needs to find out if her theories are true and goes to Robin who illegally documented the campaign. Fiona goes through the video footage and needs passwords that are located in Kip's briefcase which was sold on eBay by Karen Sharpe. Fiona successfully scams the briefcase out of her and is able to exonerate herself and send Ben to prison.
Fiona continues her branch of therapy by treating her ex-husband who went through a sex-change, an online gambler, a couple who has never met in person, and a woman who has trouble with an office romance. Meanwhile, Fiona goes to Richard for help controlling Robin when she obtains information about Austen cell-phone hacking civilians and discovers that Richard married Robin a while ago. Richard's new job, working for drug lords, puts him in danger and he and Robin eventually get sent into the witness protection program.
Austen and Gina are anxiously waiting for the baby to be born with Gina taking advantage of the money and jets. Jerome finds several clues and one big one that leads him to the conclusion that the baby is his own. After the baby is born, Austen is shaken to discover the baby is not his. He has a revelation and proposes to Fiona. When she accepts, he reveals that he gave away all his money and his castle. Fiona is even more horrified to hear that the two of them will be living in a mud hut deep in Africa. Fiona breaks up with him. Later, she learns that when Austen was giving away his money, he gave a million dollar check to the baby, and Jerome, raising the child, was able to keep the check and raise the baby with Gina, buying the house next door.
Kip and Fiona are near the end of their divorce, but when they discover that the problems they had increased when they were apart, decide to call off the divorce. Putsy is writing a book on senior abuse with Fiona as the bad guy. She also reveals that she will be moving in with Fiona, having been given approval by Kip. The book turns out to be a success. Fiona contacts the publicist of the book, Gareth Pink. Gareth tells Fiona that he and Putsy will be getting married soon and the two will bring down Web Therapy together.
Main cast
Production
On November 16, 2012, Showtime renewed Web Therapy for a third season to consist of 10 episodes, which premiered on July 23, 2013. Guest stars for this season included, Matt LeBlanc as Nick Jericho, an online gambling addict; Meg Ryan as Karen Sharpe, a hoarder who has an unhealthy obsession with Kip; and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Steve Olson, a paranoid lottery winner. Other guests stars this season include: Steve Carell as Jackson Pickett, a quasi-religious cult leader who takes an interest in Fiona; Megan Mullally as Franny Marshall, the composer/lyricist of the planned Broadway musical of Fiona's book; Billy Crystal as Garreth Pink, the publicist of the book that Fiona co-wrote with her mother; Chelsea Handler as Chris Endicott, Fiona's ex-husband who is now a woman after gender reassignment surgery; Sara Gilbert as Sylvie Frank, a distraught marketing specialist; Nina Garcia as herself, Mae Whitman as Blair Yellin, and Darren Criss as Augie Sayles. Dan Bucatinsky, Victor Garber, Alan Cumming, Jennifer Elise Cox, Lily Tomlin, Julie Claire, Michael McDonald and Tim Bagley are also set to reprise their roles this season. Rashida Jones, who made one appearance for each of the previous two seasons as Hayley Feldman-Tate, did not reprise her role for this season.
Unlike the previous two seasons, where each season contained both the original sessions from the web series and new scenes shot afterwards specifically to link the sessions together and introduce new storylines for the TV series, this season was filmed as one season specifically for television broadcast and is being broadcast in two forms: a series of webisodes and a series of television episodes. However, the wrap-around scenes and the sessions featuring Steve Carell, Billy Crystal, Lily Tomlin and Nina Garcia are exclusive to the TV series.