In the 2022 psychological thriller miniseries The Patient , (played by David Alan Grier ) is the former therapist and mentor of the protagonist, Dr. Alan Strauss . While Alan is held captive by a serial killer, Charlie appears throughout the series as a mental manifestation or "imaginary friend" that Alan uses to cope with his imprisonment and navigate his sessions with his captor. Role and Character Significance
: Because Alan is physically isolated and chained in a basement, he "summons" Charlie in his mind to process his trauma and strategize his survival. "The Patient" Charlie(2022)
: In these imagined sessions, Charlie often asks difficult, prodding questions that Alan uses to scrutinize his own past mistakes and his current clinical approach to his captor, Sam. In the 2022 psychological thriller miniseries The Patient