'Huff' shrinks from heady story lines

''Huff," a new Showtime series that premieres Sunday at 10 p.m., solves the problem, but sells its therapy soul in the process. Rather than making the professional life of psychiatrist Dr. Craig Huffstodt (Hank Azaria) into something intellectually engaging, the show amps up his patients and turns them into overdramatic caricatures who, like Lara Flynn Boyle's raving maniac on the second episode, could also appear as the perp on ''NYPD Blue" or as the thrashing psych patient on ''ER." After Boyle's character smacks Huff -- Huffstodt's nickname -- and he yells at her, ''Nice ring, you little bipolar whack," you know the show isn't trying hard to be accurate and perceptive so much as riveting. It makes the therapy sessions in ''The Sopranos," even with their crossing of physical boundaries, look like the epitome of realism.

The event that starts the series on its way is also extreme, as it leaves blood and brains splattered all over Huff's office. The violence -- and his possible role in causing it -- sends Huff reeling and reconsidering his role as a caregiver. But the show, created by Bob Lowry, doesn't dive into the specifics of Huff's crisis. He's quite clearly thinking a lot, and he says randomly ''heavy" things to his loving wife, Beth (Paget Brewster), like, ''I'm a psychiatrist who started listening." He also starts talking with a homeless Hungarian man, who may be a figment of his imagination. But the nature of his inner search is left vague; he's a nice guy who is still a nice guy, but with a few added creases to his forehead. Even though it's about a therapist, the show doesn't seem to want to bore us with the nuances of his torment.