Heeb

It all started with a bat mitzvah.

HBO’s latest drama, In Treatment, that is. The series (premiering tonight), about a psychotherapist (Gabriel Byrne) and his regular patients, is based on the Israeli hit Be’ Tipul, which debuted in 2005 and soon became a hit. It found its way to HBO via Israeli love goddess Noa Tishby, who heard about it at a niece’s bat mitzvah in Tel Aviv. Tishby is a co-Executive Producer on the new show.

HBO has also acquired the rights to another Israeli series called A Touch Away.

"I don’t know what’s in the drinking water over there, but for as tiny as that country is, they make some interesting television shows," Carolyn Strauss, president of HBO, Carolyn Strauss, told the New York Times.