‘This is why I hate to come out of my office...’
I’ve never understood the adoration for Ted Lasso. It’s not funny. It’s not compelling. The characters are annoying. It doesn’t understand football. Apart from that, it’s great… The reason I invoke Ted Lasso here is because Shrinking was also created by Bill Lawrence (as was Scrubs) and for my money, it’s a far superior television show…
Shrinking is ostensibly about Jimmy Laird (Jason Segal) and his attempts to move on from the sudden and tragic death of his wife whilst also remaining a good father to his teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell). The stellar supporting cast includes Lawrence favourites Christa Miller and Neil Flynn as well as Jessica Williams, Brett Goldstein and Harrison Ford (!).
If season one involved a lot of table setting, this sophomore season is where all that set-up finally pays off. Shrinking is often laugh-out-loud funny (how could it not be considering the talent involved) but season two takes a darker turn when Jimmy begins to interact more with Louis (Goldstein) – the man who accidentally killed Jimmy’s wife in a car crash whilst driving drunk. Lawrence has always been adept at combining humour and tragedy (Scrubs never fully received the credit it deserved for pulling off that particular uneasy balancing act) and in the final few episodes here, Shrinking goes from being a promising TV show to the cusp of greatness.
Shrinking isn’t at the level of Scrubs just yet but any show that features Harrison Ford grumbling and swearing his way through every episode simply can’t be ignored – excellent television.
