Show Therapy: 'Shrinking'

Exploring our feelings about the wonderful, maddening Apple series.

Television is magical, and also it is frustrating. Cueing up the same show, week after week (or streaming it all at once), we sometimes become overwhelmingly aware of a series’ shortcomings. Simply saying that a bad show is bad, or a mediocre show is mediocre, is not particularly interesting, for us or for you. But there is a particular tranche of television series that are often good, sometimes frustrating, and occasionally confounding. This is where we come in.

Welcome to Show Therapy, a new occasional feature where we text-chat about a show we (mostly) like but are struggling with, and try to get to the bottom of our feelings. Why don’t you take a spot at the end of the couch, lie down, and tell us how you’re really feeling right now?

It’s only fitting that our first series up is Apple TV’s Shrinking, which follows a group of friends, several of whom are therapists who work in the same office. Shrinking recently finished its second season, in which therapist Jimmy (Jason Segel) continues to struggle with his grief over the death of his wife in a drunk-driving accident. The series makes a number of … surprising decisions to that end, including the introduction of the drunk driver, played by co-creator Brett Goldstein, as a character.

Itching to Hang Out

Saul Austerlitz: Thea, do you want to kick off with the critique of Shrinking you shared with us some time back?

Thea Glassman: I think my biggest issue with this season was the tone. It slid so uncomfortably quickly from drama to comedy in a way that felt like they were too scared to live in the sad moments.

Even for just a FEW more seconds.

SA: Amen to that.

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong: I would watch a show about therapists and their friends hanging out. I don’t need the other thing, really.

SA: When Brian (Michael Urie) did his little funny-story bit about meeting the man who killed Jimmy’s wife in a drunk-driving crash, it made my skin crawl.

TG: Some things don’t have to be funny and that’s ok!

SA: There was a whole lot less therapy this season.

Less Jimmy-ing, more jokes about Jimmy-ing.

TG: Oh god, if I had to hear the phrase “Jimmy-ing” one more time.

You can feel the writers itching to make this a full-on hangout show.

JKA: In my interviews with Parks and Rec writers, I asked about how they balanced the emotional with the funny, and they said they had to resist getting out of the gooey moments too quickly with a joke.

SA: I think part of the challenge was they introduced SO MANY CHARACTERS.

TG: And then didn’t know what to do with half of them.

JKA: Gaby is great, and Jessica Williams should be on every show, but I don’t need to know her mom and her sister.

SA: This reminds me of the latest season of The Sex Lives of College Girls, which kept introducing new characters in an attempt to replace Reneé Rapp.

Shrinking also seemed to overload us with characters, when what I think we mostly wanted was the tight core of therapists and friends hanging out.

TG: It’s like the idea of Friends suddenly introducing three new characters to the nucleus group. We want the same people we fell in love with from the start and that’s it.

JKA: Like why do I now know Gaby’s entire family and Sean’s dad?

SA: And Liz’s kids and Paul’s girlfriend and…

JKA: And Sean’s former Army mate.

And Paul’s new doctor.

Honestly, it’s sort of hilarious.

Halfway Into the Water

SA: And the thing is, I actually really like Shrinking!

I think we all do.

JKA: I absolutely adore the core cast.

I will watch these people talk to each other all day.

TG: Yes!! I WANTED to watch every week even if it was through gritted teeth sometimes.

It can feel like such a comfort show.

I liked that they gave Derek (Ted McGinley) more to do, and found some interesting layers there for him, like his discovering that Liz (Christa Miller) had kissed someone else.

And they sat with the sadness too, which was great!

Like, Derek didn’t immediately start making a joke as soon as he found out.

JKA: I swear to God, after all the stuff with the guy who killed the wife, I thought he was just going to join the friend group too.

Did either of you watch Cougartown?

SA: No.

TG: I didn’t either!

JKA: This is an understandable life choice.

But! It was very fun.

It had nothing major to say except these people are fun friends who banter and drink wine and are fond of each other.

SA: Let’s go on the record as saying that hangout shows are the best!

TG: I hate when people say, after you write a book, everything you should have done differently, but my pitch to the writers would have been to explore Jimmy coming to terms with his fractured relationship with his wife after her death.

Because it hinted that there was something amiss.

SA: I think this show is interested in going halfway into the water on everyone’s mental and emotional lives.

And should either go deeper or stay out of the water.

TG: I think so too

JKA: Yes! So they keep introducing more characters instead of going in.

I Would Like Her Skincare Routine

TG: Cobie Smulders?!!?

For one second?

JKA: I love her. I forgot how pretty she is.

TG: I would like her skincare routine, and also, she is such a breath of fresh air.

SA: The show has brought back performers I really like and had somewhat forgotten about, like Christa Miller, and reminded me how good they are at exactly this.

JKA: I love how Christa Miller does one thing VERY WELL.

SA: Liz is sometimes irritating and meant to be so but is fantastic.

I loved the scenes with her failson.

Where she is so gooey and kind, and then bad-mouthing him the second he leaves the room.

JKA: I am a sucker for a character who acts like a bitch but is actually a softie.

TG: Her rocks ❤️

What do we feel like worked so well last season and not this season?

SA: I think I cared more about Jimmy’s emotional life last season.

TG: The therapy stuff was really interesting too last season!

SA: Yes! I liked all his patients.

And they basically dropped that.

JKA: It was so weird how they had that huge literal cliffhanger at the end of last season and then dispensed with it so quickly.

So many shows end up doing this, I think, where they start with a cool concept like that and then drop it to focus on the characters.

TG: I remember when she pushed him off the cliff I was like, “Damnit, I already am concerned about where this show will go next season.”

SA: I just laughed out loud.

I always think about the thing a writer once said to me, that the end of one season is a problem for next season’s writers, not them. This was the epitome of that.

Three Shows in One

JKA: I think there’s like at least three shows here.

One is these therapists helping their patients.

One is these people hanging out.

And one is Jimmy and Alice (Lukita Maxwell) grieving.

SA: And I think tied to that is this question of realism.

Is it a show about people’s real feelings, or is it a show where someone doesn’t know what their spouse’s job is?

TG: And you can absolutely feel that struggle.

JKA: God when I think about this season, I keep remembering things and there is SO MUCH.

Like Sean (Luke Tennie) getting beat up on purpose.

TG: Omg, I blocked that out.

JKA: I would really like to go on record saying that it’s okay for a show to have one streamlined premise that is not some big dramatic thing.

Not everything needs to be a grief-com.

And I say this as a huge proponent of death and grief done right.

For some reason therapy seems like a good concept for a show, but doesn’t stick.

SA: In Treatment and Couples Therapy were both very good shows about therapy, in my opinion.

JKA: I need to watch that!

Big fan of couples therapy, like in real life.

SA: Shrinking can’t quite match what either of those therapy shows are, because it doesn’t care enough about what goes on in that room.

A Rolling Scrubs Reunion

TG: I feel like Paul (Harrison Ford), this esteemed therapist, would not be going along with these techniques and when he does, it frustrates me.

JKA: That makes me so mad.

TG: With that said, I was so charmed by that thing when he becomes friends with his patients.

JKA: Oh, the janitor from Scrubs (Neil Flynn)?

TG: Lolol yes!!

SA: I love that Shrinking is just a rolling Scrubs reunion.

Like, when is Zach Braff turning up as someone’s brother?

JKA:Is literally every comedic actor ever going to be on this show?

SA: As long as Apple signs those checks!

It’s funny that there’s so much here that we’ve hardly talked about the world-famous movie star who is sorta the star of the show.

JA: Hahahahaha.

SA: Harrison Ford is great here, and a great comic actor.

JKA: Also, I absolutely love that they’re casually depicting Parkinson’s.

SA: He also is the Guy Who Doesn’t Want to Hang Out on a hangout show

TG: Love that he was randomly married to Emily Gilmore.

JA: Oh my god, I already forgot that.

SA: I am going to print out a laminated card to carry in my wallet for this show.

JKA: We need to make a chart.

Can’t Shut Up and Calm Down

SA: I think the show is aiming, at its best, to tell stories of wounded spirits trying their hardest.

JKA: Yes, and how they help each other get through life.

SA: And that idea, of telling stories about fundamentally decent people, really speaks to me, even if it is imperfect.

JKA: Like they each have different strengths and weaknesses that they lend to each other.

TG: Right. That’s why, at its best, it feels like a hug of a show.

JKA: I thought Michael Urie’s speech to the mom about “the village” was beautiful.

SA: We all need to be carried sometimes.

And we all need to carry other people sometimes.

JKA: It would actually be fine if the show just relaxed into that.

The entire show feels like Michael Urie’s character.

Like it can’t shut up and calm down.

SA: I think he is the character that I struggle with enjoying the most.

JKA: I wish they’d let him chill a little.

SA: I know he is meant to be hilarious, but…

TG: He was so wonderful in the first season!!

Zero Chemistry

TG: Do you guys think Gaby and Jimmy will ever be a thing again?

JKA: I hope to God not.

There is zero chemistry there.

I understand the temptation; they are of similar age and both on the show …

So they should be the will they/won’t they, but it doesn’t work.

SA: It must be so interesting to work in TV, and realize that certain storylines just don’t work.

And it has to do with chemistry or other ineffable things you can’t measure or quantify.

JKA: To be honest, this is why I love writing about TV.

It’s way more dynamic than making a film.

TG: That is always so fascinating to me — and then the unexpected characters who surprise them and they decide OH! Let’s make this a thing!

JKA: Derek is such a treasure.

SA: He makes me happy every time he comes onscreen.

TG: Truly.

SA: Same for Christa Miller.

I am sure she has been in other stuff, but I felt like I hadn’t seen her since Scrubs.

JKA: She was on Cougartown.

I’m sorry that I keep talking about Cougartown.

SA: I knew I was forgetting something.

All this reminds me of the Friends principle.

That we just like spending time together with characters that we like, and sometimes that’s all you need to make good TV.

JKA: I would guess that it’s harder to sell that now.

It’s crazy, but just saying “here’s my comedy with Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, and Harrison Ford” is not enough.

TG: Nelson Franklin, who I interviewed for my New Girl book told me, “There’s less opportunities for people to experiment with funny shows. That used to be the philosophy — make a bunch of pilots, all kinds of different pilots, and we’ll see which one is funniest. That experimentation, that discovery process, is gone.”

I will say it is nice to have a show to looking forward to clicking play on every week and I feel that way with Shrinking! And very few other shows.

SA: Likewise.

JKA: I do miss it when I’m not watching it.

Wish List

SA: Are there other shows that we feel similarly about?

I felt the same about the late Somebody Somewhere.

Which was obviously a far superior show, all told.

JKA: Oh definitely, and such a similar feeling.

TG: I have an intense love-hate relationship with Emily in Paris.

SA: I’ve actually never watched.

JKA: I do not think I recommend this for you, Saul.

I love it and it’s so bad.

TG: Though Saul, I would love to hear your feedback on it.

JKA: Man on the Inside is a good example of a high concept that stayed on track.

SA: And just the right amount of bittersweet.

TG: Should we make a wish list for season three on Shrinking?

And put it out into the universe?

SA: I’d like Jimmy to see some more patients, and invest himself in them, but in a more functional way.

TG: I hope for more interesting therapy storylines, smaller stories, less tonal shifts

More Gaby and Other Derek (Damon Wayans Jr.).

JKA: I would be fine with focusing on that, and maybe some of [Jimmy’s] dating life.

TG: Yes! Bring back Cobie.

JA: And Gaby and Liz can give him advice on that.

SA: Maybe Derek should become a therapist?

JKA: Oh, I would like that for him.

TG: Yes, and then be a couples therapist to Gaby and Derek.

JKA: That’s perfect.

TG: Until next season!!

Do you have complicated thoughts about this season of Shrinking? Share them with us in the comments!

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