Josh Reviews Shrinking Season One

On the Apple TV+ show Shrinking, Jason Segel stars as Jimmy, a therapist whose wife died a year ago.  Jimmy has been in a tailspin ever since.  In an attempt to pull himself out of his rut, he decides to break the cardinal rule of a therapist and start getting more involved in his patients’ lives, in an attempt to do more to help them.  Harrison Ford plays Paul, Jimmy’s mentor and the head therapist in their shared practice.  Paul has problems of his own, having recently learned he has Parkinson’s disease, and trying to mend his very broken relationship with his daughter.  Jessica Williams (The Daily Show) plays Gaby, the third therapist in Jimmy & Paul’s practice, and the best friend of Jimmy’s wife.  The show is created by Bill Lawrence (who created Scrubs and co-created Ted Lasso), along with Ted Lasso star and writer Brett Goldstein and Jason Segel.

I adored this ten-episode first season of Shrinking!!  The show captures much of the essence of why I’ve loved Ted Lasso so much.  It’s a very funny show that can be raunchy, but at the same time it’s a deeply warm-hearted and life-affirming show.  As the series progressed, the show demonstrated enormous empathy for all of its characters, and I grew to know and love every member of this show’s wonderful ensemble.

This is a very special, magical balance for a show to be able to find, and it’s why I loved this show so much.

I’ve been a fan of Jason Segel’s ever since Freaks and Geeks.  I love seeing him in this mode, able to so deftly balance the comedy and the drama.  (It reminds me of his great work in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.)  Mr. Segel is terrific at playing sad (there’s a funny but dark running gag about Jimmy’s having “resting dead wife face”) without being too dour, and he’s able to show Jimmy misbehaving and making bad, self-destructive decisions while still making sure we like and are rooting for this character.

And then there is Harrison Ford.  I cannot emphasize enough what an enormous pleasure it is to love a Harrison Ford on-screen performance again.  Harrison Ford is one of the great movie-stars of all time, and he’s portrayed some of the most iconic characters ever created (Han Solo, Harrison Ford, Jack Ryan, etc.).  And yet… it’s been at least twenty years since I’ve last really enjoyed an on-screen Harrison Ford performance.  He’s seemed stiff and bored in so much of what he’s done in recent years.  And so “bowled away” doesn’t begin to sum up my reaction to his spectacular performance here.  Mr. Ford is loose and lovable and extremely funny.  He still has that gruff Harrison Ford grumpiness, but it’s perfectly deployed here for enormous comedic effect.  Mr. Lawrence & the team of writers have perfectly utilized Mr. Ford on this show… but that’s to take nothing away from Mr. Ford himself, who is marvelous at bringing this character to life.  This is a tremendous acting performance, as Mr. Ford subtly shows us how Paul is struggling to deal with his Parkinsons diagnosis, while at the same time just nailing punchline after punchline.  It’s extraordinary, and it’s absolutely joyous to watch.  (However, it does also sort of make me angry that we haven’t been getting this caliber of performance from Mr. Ford for the last twenty years!!!)

As was the case in most of Mr. Lawrence’s previous shows, especially Ted Lasso, I was so impressed at how well the show was able to develop the wonderful ensemble of supporting characters, to the point that I was completely in love with each and every one of these characters by the end of this first season.  I enjoyed Jessica Williams’ work on The Daily Show years ago, and it’s a pleasure to see her have such an important role here.  She’s hilarious and endearing as Gaby, holding her own 100% against both Jason Segel and Harrison Ford.  (Ms. Williams really shines in her spotlight in episode eight, when she goes to her ex-husband’s art show and hilariously confronts him over the painting she knows is of her.)

We get to know many of Jimmy’s patients, but it’s Sean, played beautifully by Luke Tennie, who quickly takes center stage.  Sean is a former soldier suffering from PTSD that manifests in violent outbursts.  Jimmy winds up taking Sean into his home and basically making him part of his family.  Watching the way Sean slowly heals over the course of this first season was magnificent.  Mr. Tennie is terrific; never shaving off all of Sean’s edges but also showing us what a sweetheart he is at the same time.  Lukita Maxwell is wonderful as Jimmy’s daughter Alice, who is grieving her mom’s death and rightly pissed at how checked-out her dad Jimmy has been for the past year.  Ms. Maxwell is spectacular in the role.  It’d be easy to play Alice as too mopey or too silly; Ms. Maxwell gets it just right, showing us how Alice still suffers mightily from her loss, but how at the same time she’s still a teenager full of life.  It’s a great performance.

Michael Urie steals every scene he’s in as Brian, Jimmy’s best friend whose skills as a lawyer come in handy over the course of the season.  Christa Miller was memorable as Jordan on Scrubs, and she’s fantastic here as Liz, Jimmy’s next-door neighbor who has been basically raising Alice for the past year.  Speaking of scene-stealing, there’s Ted McGinley as Liz’s newly-retired husband Derek, who is so, so funny in every moment he’s on-screen (and who has some of the very best moments of the season finale).  Heidi Gardner (SNL) is terrific as Grace, one of Jimmy’s patients who is dealing with an awful husband.  Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me!) is note-perfect as Paul’s doctor, Dr. Julie Baram.  She has terrific chemistry with Harrison Ford.  Lily Rabe does strong work as Paul’s daughter Meg, as does Lilan Bowden, who appears in flashbacks as Jimmy’s wife Tia.  I was also thrilled to see Neil Flynn (the Janitor on Scrubs) pop up as one of Paul’s patients.  I’d love to see more of him in season two!!

I was interested to see how the show would handle Jimmy’s decision to get involved in the lives of his patients.  There are, of course, many reasons why therapists know it’s a bad idea to cross this line.  Would the show present Jimmy as a hero, despite his breaking this rule that actual therapists know is so vital?  I was pleased with how well the show balanced these issues as the season unfolded.  Jimmy’s life does get better, as does Sean’s.  This is a positive, hopefully show!  On the other hand, the show does not shy away from showing the negative consequences of Jimmy’s actions (most specifically in the deliciously tantalizing final scene of the season finale).

Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Goldstein, and Mr. Segel have masterfully balanced the show’s many tones.  There is real drama and character pain in these stories, and the show doesn’t try to hide that or gloss that over to get to the jokes.  But this is not a dour show; it is sweet and life-affirming in the way that the comedies I have most loved in recent years have been able to be (shows like Ted Lasso, The Good Place, and Parks and Recreation).  It is also absolutely hilarious; without question one of the funniest shows on TV these days.  That the show can hit all of these targets is extraordinarily impressive.

These ten episodes were a near-perfect concoction.  They blazed by far too quickly; I wait with bated breath for season two!  If you haven’t yet watched this show, I highly recommend it.

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