TL;DR – This is a delightfully sad, yet also uplifting, series of broken people doing broken things, yet finding the strength to be better in each other.  

Disclosure – I paid for the AppleTV+ service that viewed this series.

Shrinking Review –

Recently, there has been a running theme of there being a lot of good shows on AppleTV+ that absolutely no one is watching because the channel cannot seem to advertise anything that is not Ted Lasso. Now, while I have jammed with a lot of the sci-fi that they have, like Silo and Foundation, I think this would be an excellent time to see what else the service has to offer. The first stop in this exploration is a show that has been heavily recommended to me, and with that cast, I can understand why.  

So, to set the scene, it is late one night, like 3 a.m., and Liz (Christa Miller) and her husband Derek (Ted McGinley) are trying to work out who is going to go down and tell their neighbour Jimmy (Jason Segel) to turn off their music and stop making noise in the pool. Jimmy clearly looks to be an emotional mess who is trying to self-medicate via illicit substances and people you hire late at night for their professional services. That looks even worse in the morning when you see that disaster unfold with his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) ghosting him, there being no petrol in his car, and a bike that does not quite fit. The good thing is that it looks like Jimmy is going to therapy until you realise that he is the therapist.   

I think what makes this show work as well as it does is that the writing has created a bunch of deeply broken people, all from factors mostly external to themselves. Jimmy is coping poorly with the loss of his wife, Alice, who lost a mother and now has a father who can’t cope. Paul (Harrison Ford) has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and Gaby (Jessica Williams) is going through a divorce that feels amicable but might not be. Liz has hit a significant transition point in her life and is struggling to cope, and Sean (Luke Tennie) has been traumatised from war and is struggling to keep his anger under control. This is a series all about what you do when you get handed a lousy lot in life. Okay, everyone but Brian (Michael Urie), but you need some positive energy in there somewhere.

But while these are broken people, finding comradery in themselves, that does not mean they are not rightly called on their rubbish. Paul has had a lousy relationship with his daughter Meg (Lily Rabe), always prioritising work, and she was right to throw that in his face even though he was struggling. Liz is a nosy, bossy boot at times that inserts herself in other’s lives, which can usually be for good, being there for Alice when no one else was. However, that can also cause actual harm when she gets things wrong and messes with people’s lives.

There is a vulnerability that comes from a lot of the narrative, which could have felt false if not portrayed with some authenticity. Jason Segel has played characters that have hit rock bottom before, usually for comedic effect. But here, this is not rock bottom but someone who has been broken, and he captures it in a way I have not seen bar the ending of one episode of How I Met Your Mother. We have all seen Harrison Ford play a gruff older character before, but this is the first time I felt real vulnerability in his performance. I think this might be some of the best acting he has given in a while because it needed some range. All of this works because Bill Lawrence and his team have decades of work behind them in creating works that can live in the comedic and dramatic worlds all at once.

The main throughline throughout this first season is Jimmy deciding to take on a more active therapy style with his patients. Sean has anger management issues; okay, let’s take him to a boxing ring to work through it. There are some authentic explorations on the ethics of what he is doing, and indeed, the wisdom of getting so involved in his clients’ lives. However, it does seem to produce some good results, and I think we all know what it is like to bite your tongue and not go into that diatribe with a friend who won’t change. However, there is a good reason why we don’t do that, and from the moment Jimmy told Grace (Heidi Gardner) forcefully to grow a spine with her husband Donny (Tilky Jones), you had a gut feeling it was going to end poorly, and oh it did.   

In the end, do we recommend Shrinking Season 1? Well, there is a lot of language and other items that could understandably be off-putting for some. I found it to be a fascinating romp from start to finish. Not every plotline worked, but on the whole, it was a joy to watch, and I look forward to seeing the second season later this year.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Shrinking yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Shrinking
Directed by – James Ponsoldt, Ry Russo-Young, Randall Keenan Winston & Zach Braff
Written by – Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel, Brett Goldstein, Brian Gallivan, Rachna Fruchbom, Bill Posley, Annie Mebane, Wally Baram, Sofi Selig & Neil Goldman
Created by – Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel & Brett Goldstein
Production/Distribution Companies – 3 Chance Productions, Corporate Mandate, Doozer Productions, Warner Bros. Television & AppleTV+
Starring – Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell, Christa Miller & Harrison Ford with Ted McGinley, Heidi Gardner, Lilan Bowden, Kimberly Condict, Devin Kawaoka, Rachel Stubington, Lily Rabe, Wendie Malick & Tilky Jones and Asif Ali, Miriam Flynn, Gavin Lewis, Neil Flynn & Brian Howe
Episodes Covered – Coin Flip, Fortress of Solitude, Fifteen Minutes, Potatoes, Woof, Imposter Syndrome, Apology Tour, Boop, Moving Forward & Closure