I hope Brett Goldstein hangs onto this hot streak for as long as he can. Or, if we’re lucky, it never ends. Just like Ted Lasso, his and Bill Lawrence’s new Apple + show, Shrinking, is a hit.
I should mention that Jason Segel also had a hand in creating this comedy, but he has the luck of being it’s lead actor, too. Maybe I haven’t been paying attention, but I felt like Segel has been fairly absent from the industry as of late, so it was nice to see him on screen again in a big way. He plays Jimmy, a therapist who’s been struggling with the unexpected death of his wife for the past year. In his grief, or lack of really processing it, he’s been neglecting everyone in his life including his daughter. That kind of sucks and the fact that she even remotely tries to forgive him is something. It’s also proof that even the most highly educated psychological minds still have lives. And lives are messy sometimes.
As he’s coming out of his year of grief, he starts taking some seriously unconventional routes with his patients. The most intense comes in the form of new patient, Sean, who is not dealing with the PTSD from serving overseas. It culminates in Sean moving into Jimmy’s pool house and blurring the lines of patient and friend, but Sean was probably my favorite character in the series. He keeps it real and is charming as hell. To be fair, the rest of the cast is pretty damn likeable too, but as an Ugly Betty fan I cannot begin to tell you how happy I was to see Michael Urie crushing more comedy gold. Even the overbearing Liz had such a degree of loyalty that eventually I loved her, too. That’s a testament to good writing and character development.
Admittedly, Harrison Ford and the work of his career has basically been non-existent in my life, so I was kind of surprised to see him pull a comedy off this well. He’s grouchy for sure, but reminds me of my grandpas, so of course I loved him, too. It was also really interesting to learn that Goldstein based him off his own father who is also suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The relationships in this show are its strong suits, but they come in all different shapes and sizes. Gaby is a really, really good friend to Jimmy, and I am dying to see what happens with the two of them in future seasons. I know a second one is already confirmed, but it remains to be seen how long of a future this show has.
If you want another feel-good-but-sometimes-bad comedy, then look no further than Shrinking. It’s by no means Ted Lasso, but those guys have a really good formula working for them at the moment.