Shrinking Review Episode 1-2: Apple Tv+ A New Comedy That Makes You Feel Good
Cast: Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Michael Urie, Luke Tennie, Lukita Maxwell, Tilky Jones, Lilan Bowden
Director: James Ponsoldt
Streaming Platform: Apple Tv+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Shrinking is the new “feel good” dramedy from Apple TV+, in the wake of the little cult jewel Ted Lasso. And it is no coincidence that Bill Lawrence is producing with Warner Bros, already behind Ted Lasso and that Lawrence is co-creator with Brett Goldstein and the protagonist of the series Jason Segel. A series that makes you feel good, broadens the heart and spirit, makes you smile, amuses, and moves by relying on the charisma of Segel and on Harrison Ford who puts himself on the line in the role of the grumpy and grumpy old man. Shrinking debuts on Apple TV+ on January 27, 2023, with the first two episodes and then continue with the remaining episodes released weekly.
The time of comedies that made you laugh, without half measures, seems long gone. The expansion of humorous series that have to do with more than dramatic themes, here and there tinged with authentic sadness, has led American critics to coin the term sadcom, sad comedy. Shrinking, the new comedic product from Apple TV, one of the most anticipated streaming releases of January on the platform, is a perfect definition of this sub-genre. The two creators of the show, Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, are almost the godfathers of this approach to rice with very bitter drifts, as they told us in an exclusive interview with the creators of Shrinking.
Shrinking Review Episode 1-2: The Story Plot
Shrinking is about Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) a psychologist who, after spending a year pining and completely canceling his life for the sudden death of his wife, decides to make a change in his professional life: instead of listening and not judging his patients decide to start giving active advice to change their lives. Reading only this premise, the series seems to be nothing new: the theme of mourning and its acceptance which leads to a change in the protagonist’s life is a theme already used and overused in a thousand other television products, just think of the series Netflix After Life by and with Ricky Gervais, and but Shirking is not that: it’s a series about the inability to move forward. All the characters within the series have something that blocks them and keeps them glued to the comfort zone they have built over the years, whether this is mourning as in the case of Jimmy, or something else as in the case of the other characters with whom he will interact throughout the episodes.
The series created by Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel and Brett Goldstein, like all the series of the creator of Scrubs, presents us with human characters and with problems that we can easily relate to creating a very strong bond between the viewer and the characters. Even with those that might initially be more unpleasant such as, for example, that of Liz, Jimmy’s neighbor played by the ever-present Christa Miller, always present in the comedies written by her husband, they turn out to be increasingly pleasant episodes. Among them is Paul, a surly psychotherapist with health problems to deal with played by a tough Harrison Ford, ready to get involved more than usual. In the first season of Shrinking, we follow a slow, predictable deepening of the small and big problems that the three protagonist therapists and their families are facing, with a corollary of bizarre patients in tow.
Shrinking Review Episode 1-2 and Analysis
Predictably Ford’s presence obscures the rest a bit, but the truth is that Shrinking never manages to give a memorable flash or to escape the graveyard of well-intentioned series but is unable to get out of an average that smacks of mediocrity. There isn’t the unsettling novelty of Ted Lasso, the balance between the comic and the dramatic side doesn’t work. Worse: the psychoanalytic aspect is very predictable, sometimes banal. Therefore, the paw is missing, sometimes even the wickedness that leads a series to unlock itself. After a very introductory first installment, Shrinking kicks off with solid but a little too uniform writing. Not even the usual, impeccable Apple production – always at a high level on the technical side – can hide the fact that Shrinking is neither particularly innovative in its history nor in what it says.
The most obvious problems of the series are two. The first is that Harrison Ford proves to be a rather uncomfortable presence: good and charismatic yes, but the main cause of a certain rigidity of the title towards the revered master he hosts. The second is that the challenging mission of laughing at a man broken by his wife’s death and his inability to get over it is never really resolved. The answers that Shrinking gives are partial and trivial. I wanna hear myself think again. I would like to have time again to stop and reflect on my life, on what is happening to me, I would like to go back to connecting with my emotional part, with the others around me. An unexpected depth is what Ted Lasso returns to give the public, Bill Lawrence. A series where you want to embrace the protagonists and especially Jason Segel’s Jimmy. Perfect supporting as the protagonist.
Segel is anyone’s ideal sidekick even when he is the protagonist himself, he has an innate ability to make himself available to others, to accompany the viewer through the story with his physicality. A teddy bear that is impossible to portray as an anti-hero, as in the first episode where we see him succumb to a dissolute life. But luckily, it’s just a ruse to make Jimmy understand how he hit rock bottom and then go back up through the affection of others. Just like Ted Lasso, Shrinking is never an excessively loaded series of sugar and good feelings, it pushes you to look for the good behind the blanket of sarcasm, and it prefers a joke to a pat on the back.
Jason Segel after having transported us into his mind with the magnificent and perhaps underrated Dispatches from Elsewhere decides to show us another side of human suffering, the one capable of emerging from the shadows with the strength of the community. Shrinking is praise of being together, of living with others, of the desire to always take a step forward without basking in one’s malaise. A sincere series, of pure and unfeigned sincerity. The characters live as human beings and not just as figures on a screen. Apple TV+ demonstrates, once again, that it has a refined taste in selecting elegant, cultured, profound, and above all never banal products. While elsewhere the effect, the sensation, and the construction of the trend of the moment are pursued, Apple TV+ pursues the quality, and the research in a spasmodic, almost obsessive way, giving life to a catalog in which week after week there is a new product and unmissable.
Shrinking works because the cast built by the production is spot on. Jason Segel is perfect in the role of Jimmy and Harrison Ford, who must have seen The Kominsky Method, is a Paul who does nothing to hide his years, the wise old man with those who owe, grumpy with others, able to dose every single word but also not to be afraid to show one’s fragility. Christa Miller whom Bill Lawrence takes from the years of Scrubs is perfect as the neighbor Liz (and her husband is hilarious in his brief but effective appearances). Jessica Williams is Gaby, Jimmy’s friend and colleague while Lukita Maxwell is Alice.
Shrinking Review Episode 1-2: The Last Words
With Shrinking Bill Lawrence hits the mark again. The creator of Scrubs and Ted Lasso offers us a new sweet and delicate series with human and extremely relatable characters led by Jason Segel who after several years of Drama returns to Comedy and with a Harrison Ford in a different role than usual but who will win the hearts of viewers. Shrinking is a TV series that makes you feel good, entertains and moves without ever being mawkish, enriched by an impeccable script and excellent protagonists. With Shrinking Bill Lawrence has done it again, the creator of Scrubs and Ted Lasso offers us a new sweet and delicate series with human and extremely relatable characters led by Jason Segel who after several years of Drama returns to Comedy and with a Harrison Ford in a different role than usual but that will win the hearts of viewers.
