Shrinking balances emotional beats of melancholy and humour

Shrinking does exactly what you want a dramedy about radical honesty to do – balance humour and pathos.

Shrinking was co-created by Jason Segel. Picture: Apple TV+

Therapists are intriguing characters. They carry the burden of our neuroses and traumas as if these sage beings can make everything better with a few wise words.

Considering our own therapists can’t drop the veneer of pure professionalism and emotional stability, the only time we see them as messy humans is in fiction. It’s reassuring to know that they’re every bit as conflicted, flawed and damaged as the rest of us.

Perhaps that’s why there’s been so many therapists on screen, from Frasier and The Sopranos to In Treatment and Good Will Hunting. We want the glimpse into their lives away from the notebook.

Apple TV+’s new series, Shrinking, delves into what happens when a therapist’s life is falling apart, and how his turmoils end up impacting on his clients.

It’s a funny and tender story about Jimmy (Jason Segel), a therapist still coping with his wife’s death. He’s so consumed by grief he’s outsourced parenting his teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) to his next door neighbour Liz (Christa Miller).

At work, he’s been giving unorthodox advice to his patients, taking candid approach such as telling one of them to leave her abusive husband. Not in a coaxing, suggestive way, but in a full-on, “He’s not going to change, you have to leave him!” approach.

Shrinking still image Picture: Apple TV+

That radical honesty is more likely to be found in the self-important halls of a tech company, and not so much a therapy office – and it’s going to have flow-on effects for both Jimmy and his clients.

And his newfound candour is puzzling his colleagues in the practice, Paul (Harrison Ford) and Gaby (Jessica Williams).

That may be the narrative framework, but Shrinking is really more of a hang-out show. The nuggets are just as likely to be found in casual interactions as they are in significant story beats.

Each character is well-drawn, with their own subplots and inner lives, such as Paul’s recent diagnosis with Parkinson’s.

Shrinking is one of two TV series Ford is currently on (the other is Yellowstone prequel 1923), the first time he’s done TV since the 1970s, and he’s slotted into the ensemble so easily.

Ford knows exactly where to pitch his performance without outshining his co-stars. He has presence but he’s generous. It’s a great role which allows him to be the straight man in a comedy but one which gives him room to be a little bit cheeky as well.

For a story fuelled by grief, Shrinking expertly balances a hard-to-hit tone. It can be melancholic and hopeful, gloomy and absurd.

Harrison Ford is part of the show’s ensemble cast. Picture: Apple TV+

One of the most compelling recent fictional therapists was Ted Lasso’s Dr Sharon Fieldstone, a sports psychologist who was crucial to Ted confronting his repressed traumas in the second season.

This was a character who blew in, low key shook up the status quo and facilitated Ted’s journey while also revealing parts of herself the audience could connect to.

Shrinking shares a lot of the same DNA as Ted Lasso, not least because it’s streaming on the same platform. It’s created by Segel, Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein. Prolific TV writer Lawrence is one of the brains behind Ted Lasso and Goldstein is, of course, both a writer on Ted Lasso and on screen as Roy Kent.

Both Ted Lasso and Shrinking have that mix of absurdly funny physical humour with heartfelt emotional pulses.

Ted Lasso was grounded by kindness and decency while also taking on the more complex challenge of mental health, and while therapy and openness is at the heart of Shrinking, it’s the play between honesty and too much honesty that it’s most interested in.

Shrinking is streaming now on Apple TV+

Originally published as Shrinking balances emotional beats of melancholy and humour