As in the first four seasons of Couples Therapy, a number of couples agree to go to an office-like soundstage in New York and have their therapy sessions with Dr. Orna Guralinik recorded, in exchange for free therapy. Also like the first four seasons, we see the four couples that producers thought were the most interesting, then clips of the couples that didn’t make the final cut.

COUPLES THERAPY SEASON 5: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “I question sometimes the man I married, because our views are so different,” a woman tells Dr. Orna Guralnik in a therapy session. Her husband shakes his head in disagreement.

The Gist:  Marjorie and Jason, who have been married for 11 years, have severe political differences. It’s pretty obvious that Jason voted for Donald Trump and Marjorie didn’t. Whenever discussions get political, which seem to be all the time, they tune each other out. Guralnik tells them to spend at least a few minutes listening to each other about what issues the other is most passionate about. When Guralnik asks Jason about what Marjorie’s issues of interest are, all he could come up with was “women’s rights.”

Sienna and Chris have been married for 13 years; the two of them are trying to make it work after Chris cheated on Sienna. He talks about how, when they argue, he can go emotionless at times. But the clinical way he talks about his infidelity enrages Sienna.

Shay and Clinton have been together for four years. Clinton is autistic and has ADHD, but only got diagnosed when he was in his 30s. There are times when he gets overwhelmed when they have a disagreement and he goes silent. She also doesn’t want to be his only form of support, even though he spent his entire life not really being able to relate to other people.

Nessa and Drea are married for 11 years, and together on and off for 20. Nessa feels like their marriage is holding her back from the fully-realized person she knows is in her, where she can do things like travel and other things she’s wanted to do as she’s gotten older. Drea, on the other hand, likes having the sturcture of the family around her, though she seems to resent having all of the domestic duties in the family unit on her while Nessa works. They have a young child together, and they want to keep the family unit together.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Couples Therapy Seasons 1-4. A British series called Blue Therapy predated this series, but it’s far less insigtful.

Our Take: It feels like the producers of Couples Therapy are trying to impose a bit of a theme for Season 5, and it doesn’t always fit what the couples are presenting. The theme is how divided and disconnected we are as a society; in one of the interstitial segments where we see a series of people interacting with each other, they’re all interacting with their phones instead.

We get it; we’re in our bubbles, just seeing the information that appeals to us. And no couple brings this theme to the fore more than Marjorie and Jason. It seems that their entire dispute is that she’s disgusted at his support of Trump and he doesn’t understand why. They feel like they’re going to be the least insightful couple of the four, but they can always surpise us as Guralnik digs things up.

The couple that’s most intriguing to us is Clinton and Shay, because it seems that there is a fundamental disconnect between them about Clinton’s autism. Because he only got diagnosed in his 30s, Clinton is still learning how his neurodivergence feeds into how he relates to other people, inckluding Shay. And it seems that Shay is in the same situation as anyone who has a neurodivergent loved one, where it takes time to understand all of the ways it can affect how their loved one relates to the world. What we hope is that Guralnik can take this into account and guide Shay to figuring out that when Clinton is “inconsistent” with his emotions, as Shay describes it in one scene, it’s more of a function of how his brain works than anything personal against her.

As usual, though, all four couples have more than enough for Guralnik to sink her therapeutic teeth into, so to speak. We’re looking forward to seeing her doing her usual with all four couples, where she listens, catches thrown-away remarks and follows up, and really digs into each person’s history in order to find out the genesis of the behaviors they bring to their relationships.

Performance Worth Watching: As soon as we saw Clinton bopping away when he sat on Guralnik’s couch with Shay, we knew that he was neurodivergent. Hearing him confirm that he’s ADHD certainly is going to add layers to the relationship issues that Guralnik has to dive into.

Sex And Skin: Chris talks about how his paid-for “platonic cuddling” sessions turned into physical affairs, and we wondered why in the hell he was seeing the platonic cuddling in the first place.

Parting Shot: A montage of the couples either driving or sitting on benches in parks as the song “Easier” by Mansionair plays.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Sienna, because she got properly enraged by how clinically Chris talks about his infidelity. She readily admits that it caused an emotional breakdown that led to her getting intensive outpatient treatment for three months.

Most Pilot-y Line: “My input will be briefly listened to, then trumped-out if it’s not agreed with,” says Jason about disputes with Marjorie. We’ve never heard the verb “to trump” used in quite that way before.

Our Call: STREAM IT. As usual, Couples Therapy presents fascinating couples with issues that many in the audience can relate to, with Guralnik ready to take on the emotions of their disputes and search for solutions.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.