Shrinking Season 3 review: My heart cant take it
There's something relentless about Shrinking to me. It's just so genuine. Without being contrived, with timely jokes, with a knowing Jason Segel smile and... for f***'s sake! Why am I cry-laughing?! Again!?
Over multiple seasons, Shrinking has served up simply superb comedy that punches you in the heart and makes you deeply re-appreciate the people around you, flaws and all. Created by Segel, Bill Lawrence, and Brett Goldstein, Shrinking expertly reflects on the absurdity of grief, makes one hell of an argument for forgiveness, and celebrates the complexity of relationships. It's almost outrageous to see human connection rendered so magnificent, with facetious lines like "f*** you for being emotionally healthy right now" and "playing the Dead Mom Card" delivered with a whole heart. Every episode makes me want to scream and hug someone, which I would do, if I wasn't still sitting on this station bench dumbfounded by the Season 2 finale.
Season 3 picks up exactly where we left these now lived-in characters and ponders the courage it takes to move forward — after loss, in a relationship, through illness. And once again, Apple TV's series hits home, and I don't actually think I can handle it.
Shrinking Season 3 is all about the fear of moving forward
The first season of Shrinking focused on the immediate aftermath of Tia's death and how her nearest each coped with it — especially her husband Jimmy (Segel), daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), and best friend Gaby (Jessica Williams). Season 2 moved their raw grief into both anger and forgiveness, bringing Goldstein out of the writers room to play the man whose drunk driving accident killed Tia. Now, Season 3 focuses on a theme of moving forward and the courage it takes to do so, as well as the power of asking for help (in therapy or otherwise) — Shrinking's constant underlying theme.
Probably one of the hardest relationships for audiences to understand will be the family's acceptance of Louis (Goldstein), a connection established in Season 2 in which Alice, Jimmy, and his best friend Brian (Michael Urie) forgave the man who caused their pain. Honestly, such a bond feels like it should be unbelievable, yet the show has spent the time with these characters, developing in them forgiveness through shared trauma. Thanks to Shrinking's impeccable writing and performances from Segel, Maxwell, Urie, and Goldstein, I actually buy it. And without spoiling anything, Season 3 does acknowledge the tension here.
It's not the only forward motion in the third season; Jimmy considers finding love again, Alice debates college in Connecticut (as "passionate girl dad" Jimmy pretends he's not dying inside about it), Sean (Luke Tennie) enjoys a casual dating life and semi-resolved father issues, Brian and Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) prepare for parenthood with help from the proudly domineering Liz (Christa Miller) and delightful Derek (Ted McGinley).
As Shrinking's powerhouse of a cast member, Williams chews up scenes as Gaby yet again, as she leans into an actually healthy relationship with other Derrick (Damon Wayans Jr.) and yearns for patients with higher stakes problems. When Williams enters a scene, her scene partners struggle for my attention, with her flawless delivery and comedic timing one of the show's best elements. Nobody delivers a compliment or a takedown like Jessica Williams.
And then there's Harrison Ford.
Shrinking Season 3 sees Harrison Ford at his best
Without a doubt, Season 3 sees Ford at his absolute best yet as curmudgeonly genius Paul, as he navigates his increasingly visible tremors and cognitive changes from Parkinson's disease. The show quite literally has Paul saying "Fuck Parkinson's" multiple times, and you can feel it. In episode 1, the show includes a moving cameo by screen legend Michael J. Fox, who uses humour to unpack some of the symptoms of Parkinson's, ones he personally faces in real life.
Last season, an ever-stoic Paul eased into being vulnerable with his friends, family, and partner Julie (Wendie Malick) about his neurological condition, and this season, Ford keeps Paul in the same furious state of disdain toward talking about it. However, he finally (and reluctantly) requests help from Jimmy, asking, "If you see me sinking, pull me up," a request that echoes the show's theme song lyrics
This fear of leaning on others for help remains one of Shrinking's core explorations; Paul is insistent on "not being a self pitying sh*thead." Alice fears leaving her "frighteningly loyal support group" for college on the other side of the country. And Louis finds baffling support in people whose lives he impacted so deeply.
It's this humans-will-surprise-you magic that makes Shrinking so wonderful, a laugh-out-loud comedy that reminds you that asking for support and supporting others in turn is an everyday superpower. An adamant champion of human complexity for three seasons, this show is so good it boggles my brain.
Shrinking Season 3 is now streaming on Apple TV with new episodes Wednesdays.