We’re Massive Fans Of His

One week, Platonic is taking a field trip to Jeopardy! The next? A road trip. And now? We’re headed to couples’ therapy to meet Charlie’s (Luke Macfarlane) mysterious therapist, aka Sylvia’s (Rose Byrne) new nemesis.

After Sylvia reluctantly promises her hubby she’ll attend a therapy session with him, Platonic Season 2, Episode 7, “The Office Party,” finds her stuck in traffic with Will (Seth Rogen), fully ready to ditch her prior commitment. In her defense, she’s busy setting up Charlie’s company holiday party and trying to make it extra special for the firm. On the other hand, as Will reminds her, “You can’t miss Charlie’s therapy! What if this is what he wants to talk to you about, how you don’t prioritize his needs?”

Once Will makes his case, Sylvia does her best to make it to the appointment on time, but when she realizes she’s going to be late, she offers to FaceTime Charlie and his therapist from the car. And that, my friends is when we first lay eyes on the man, the myth, the legend: Dr. Melfi (a perfect joke), played by none other than Paul Lieberstein, best known as Toby Flenderson from The Office.

“He is a friend of ours. He is married to one of my oldest friends; my college roommate,” Platonic co-creator Francesca Delbanco told Decider over Zoom when asked about the unexpectedly perfect casting choice. “We are gigantic fans of his and think that he is so funny. And it was just sitting there.”

“Yeah. We asked, and we were like, ‘We have this little cameo, would you want to do it?’ And he was totally game and excited to do it,” co-creator Nick Stoller added. “And then he came in with this full, pretty weird character that we were super into, and he spoke so slowly and deliberately. It was hysterical. It made the rhythm of that scene really funny.”

The therapist reveal is downright delightful, as is the sight of a very calm, serious, unamused Lieberstein, who sits on the couch beside Charlie as they watch Sylvia struggle to remove the panda and chicken animal head filters from her FaceTime video. When Charlie hangs up on Sylvia because he refuses to “accept an apology from a chicken,” Melfi commends him, flatly saying, “That was great. I’m proud of you. Solid boundary.” Then, when Sylvia finally races into the office and apologizes for getting hung up with her friend Will, the therapist shoots her an unexpectedly judgmental look and says, “Yes. I’ve heard of Will.”

After brushing off the comment, Sylvia braces to learn why her husband invited her in to chat. Instead, Lieberstein’s character challenges her to explore the real reason why she’s late and what it is she’s avoiding, noting that she “literally chickened out.” (He was really proud of himself for that one.) The two share a hilariously tense back and forth, and by they time they hand the mic to Charlie, Melfi announces they’re out of time and he has another client.

“It was it was amazing to work with Paul,” Macfarlane told Decider when asked about his character’s therapist. “He was so funny. I’m a big fan of his, and [The Office], and all his incredible writing. So it was super fun.”

When the appointment ends, a baffled Sylvia steps back out into the waiting room with Charlie, and the two get real. “There’s no client. He obviously could have kept talking to us,” Sylvia says, and upon the hilarious name reveal, a nod to Lorraine Bracco’s famous therapist character on The Sopranos, she snaps, “His name is literally Dr. Melfi?! What!?”

When Charlie finally voices his disappointment in Sylvia’s lack prioritization, noting she’s always late for his commitments like Jeopardy!, Sylvia sincerely apologizes and it seems the two were back on track. But this is Platonic, so to mine the most comedy out of the moment, Dr. Melfi emerges from his office wearing athletic gear and holding his bike, so naturally, Sylvia can’t resist the urge to put him in his place.

“Didn’t have a client. I knew it,” she proudly declares.

“Why is it, uh, so important to you that I didn’t have a client?” Melfi responds.

“Why were you untruthful about having a client? Do you feel you don’t deserve to go biking? Like you’re running away from it instead of confronting it?” Sylvia says without missing a beat.

“How do you know I’m not biking to a client right now?” Melfi challenges.

“Because that would be insane,” she dares answer.

Before Lieberstein’s exit from the episode, Dr. Melfi says, “Do not diagnose me. Okay? Cause you’re not remotely qualified. Great session. I’ll see you next week?”

Since The Office ended in 2013, Lieberstein’s had several TV and film roles in Bad Teacher, The Newsroom, The Mindy Project, People of Earth, and more. Plus, he remains a brilliant, behind-the-scenes creative, most recently writing and directing on Peacock‘s new comedy, The Paper. But we’ll never pass up a chance to see Lieberstein flexing his acting chops on screen, so seeing him pop in to Platonic for mere minutes and nail this hilariously dry, stubborn, self-important character was a real treat. Fingers crossed we haven’t seen the last of Dr. Melfi (or Toby Flenderson for that matter) on our TVs, because despite how poorly the session went, Macfarlane says he doesn’t see Charlie quitting therapy.

“I hope that audience members pick up on Charlie being such a loyal guy. And even though he was a terrible therapist, and probably a little abusive, and controlling, Charlie still says to him, like, ‘Same time next week? I’ll be back!’” Macfarlane told Decider. “So I definitely can see him continuing to work with him, even though the relationship is not that working out that well.”

New episodes of Platonic Season 2 premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV+.