One can only imagine the blank check that Bill Lawrence has from Apple TV+ after the massive success of his “Ted Lasso,” which he co-created and has won the company dozens of awards, putting them on the TV map. He used that cachet for this week’s likable dramedy “Shrinking,” a show that almost brazenly sets up character archetypes and then asks its cast to push through the clichés of their shallow descriptions. That they do so as often as they do is the show’s most impressive achievement and a sign that this little show could end up getting pretty big.
Jason Segel (who also gets co-creator credit with Lawrence and “Lasso” star Brett Goldstein) reunites with his talented “The End of the Tour” director James Ponsoldt, who helms the first few episodes. Segel stars as Jimmy Laird, a Los Angeles-based therapist who really needs to heal himself first. Being recently widowed has sent Jimmy spiraling into bad behavior (although the premiere pushes through this chapter a little too quickly, never really selling that Jimmy got anywhere near a realistic rock bottom that’s mentioned in later episodes). Most importantly, his reliance on drugs and casual sex to assuage his grief has damaged his relationship with his daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), who has had to play more of a parental role in the house than her father and naturally resents him for not being there to help manage her own pain.
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One day, Jimmy decides he’s had enough of the traditional boundaries between doctor and patient, so he starts telling his clients exactly what he thinks of their situation, like encouraging one played by Heidi Gardner to leave her toxic boyfriend and helping another played by Luke Tennie to channel his anger. Of course, neither tactic works, and Tennie’s Sean even ends up sleeping at Jimmy’s place, permanently blurring the professional line. Jimmy’s colleagues know that he’s taking the wrong approach, but they recognize to a certain extent that their friend is dealing with the pain he can’t fix by pushing others to quicker resolutions than therapy typically allows. If Jimmy can’t fix himself he has to fix someone else now.
Of course, said colleagues have issues of their own to deal with. The outgoing Gaby (Jessica Williams), who was best friends with Jimmy’s wife, is navigating the rocky emotional terrain that follows a divorce, while Paul (Harrison Ford) has been stunned by health issues that could signal he’s in his final chapter of life. For those keeping track at home, that’s one character who’s a widow, one who’s divorced, and one who might be dying. One can almost picture those descriptors on a whiteboard in a writer’s room, and the cynic would argue that it’s a bit too easy to give characters such obviously manipulative character crutches on which to lean. And that’s not even including Sean’s PTSD from being a military veteran, Paul’s issues with his daughter (Lily Rabe), or whatever is going on with Jimmy’s incredibly present neighbors, played by Christa Miller and Ted McGinley.
And yet, on this skeleton of transparent emotional beats, Lawrence and company often find what feels like truth. The show is at its best in its minor beats, when it’s allowed to avoid the clichés of its plotting and let this undeniably talented ensemble find the nuance in the characters. Segel finds a way to be likable even as he’s constantly making dumb decisions, and he’s got a good partner in Maxwell in that their father-daughter chemistry is essential to finding the emotional arcs of the first season believable. Tennie is remarkably charismatic (he’s got future star written all over him and balances comedy and drama in a grounded way that really helps the show overall), and Ford leans into his gruff persona in a way that makes it rewarding when he vulnerably deconstructs it later. For someone who has put off doing television for so long, he really fits well here. The standout, however, is Williams, who has been an underrated actress before and deserves to be the breakout if “Shrinking” is a hit. She’s wonderfully alive in the moment, often shattering the clichés just by being so incredibly enjoyable to watch. She balances out Segel’s sad-sack tendencies and Ford’s gloomy demeanor with much-needed light in the center of “Shrinking.”
She won’t be enough for some people to get past how often the writing on “Shrinking” can be reduced to broad character definitions. It’s not only the baggage that each character brings into every episode, but how often they unbelievably talk about the issues of their day in a way that makes it sound like they know they’re in a TV episode. A lot of the dialogue sounds awkward whether it’s people in their 40s (or older in Ford’s case) using “hip” phrases they got from TikTok that they don’t understand in an effort to make the show feel less stiff or too explicitly detailing their current dilemma in a way that doesn’t ring true. It doesn’t help that the production drops in a ton of alt-pop music cues, even having Ford sing along to one at one point. The gigantic music budget of the show has the feel of someone who watched “Garden State” a few too many times and truly believed a song by The Shins could change your life.
At its best, “Shrinking” is a show about how decisions have unexpected ripple effects. One doctor decides to go off-book and that pushes his friends and colleagues to take leaps that they may not have otherwise considered. That’s an easily watchable concept. It treads water a bit too much in the middle of the season after its set-up has kind of drifted away and the writers are content to just bounce the now-established characters off each other, but this is also the section of the first season in which it feels the ensemble starts to gel.
If “Shrinking” is the hit that Apple is surely hoping it will be, the writers simply need to have more trust next season to push this show to live up to the pedigree of its cast and crew. Trust the ensemble to sell character beats that don’t feel so explicitly laid out through dialogue and trust the audience to go on the journey with these people to wherever it may go next without so many obvious signposts along the way. After all, as any good doctor will tell you, trust is the only way therapy can work. [B-]
“Shrinking” debuts on Apple TV+ on January 27.