'The Patient' basement traps Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson in a secluded spot

In Joel Fields and Joseph Weisberg's 10-episode FX series "The Patient," serial killer Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson) kidnaps therapist Dr. Alan Strauss (Steve Carell) in an effort to curb his murderous urges. Chained to the floor of Sam's basement, Alan is constantly guessing how (and how far) to push his captor towards recovery and how to increase the chances of his escape, working from the very limited information Sam offers. during their "sessions" and the conjectures he irons out through an imaginary dialogue with his own (dead) therapist, Charlie (David Alan Greer).

The show puts its audience in the same position as Alan when it comes to this conjecture; a sense of limited perspective is tied to "The Patient". Fields and Weisberg play any easy explanation for Sam's behavior near the vest, leaving the dialogue between Carell and Gleeson (and, equally crucial, the silent pauses between the two) to tend toward articulating those truths. By being so narratively sparing, the show forces us and Alan to strive to capture any piece of context that might save his life. A slight spasm on Sam's face, his ill-fitting clothes, and the particular shade of green of the basement carpet are also loaded with potential meaning. The basement itself becomes an expression of the past misfortune shared by Sam and his mother, Candace (Linda Emond), an indescribably indescribable but unmistakably lonely place that could also engulf Alan.

In order to build a key set whose design is steeped in so much pathos, the show's production team needed more than a dark and spooky place underground. The space should say more about Sam and Candace than themselves.

“We always work a bit backwards,” set designer Lisa Son told IndieWire. “We take the current age of the character and then we take it back. So if Candace is 60, how old was she when she bought the house? And what was this house like? That's when all the decorating comes to life, once we figure out what year or decade they started using and moving into that space."

"The Patient"

Suzanne Tenner/FX

For Son, that meant putting himself and his team in Candace's shoes. "This basement started out as her safe space because she had no control over what was going on...