Shrinking Review – Jason Segel and Harrison Ford
Shrinking Review – There’s a lot to like about Shrinking, the new Apple TV+ comedy from the makers of Ted Lasso, but nothing to love.
Ted Lasso, whose third season will debut in the next few months, is a culture clash comedy about a Kansas gridiron coach who is airlifted onto a British football team.
Its chatty, can-do message about the essential goodness of people and the power of self-belief is made palatable by lots of jokes in which Londoners walk up to Ted and call him w—r, which they will do.
Shrinking, starring Jason Segel as a broke West Coast psychoanalyst and Harrison Ford as his itinerant colleague, is more engaging than Lasso.
Still, in this case, the schmaltz is un-tempered by that salacious dose of sarcasm.
Shrinking Review – Jason Segel and Harrison Ford
It all makes for a strange, lasso-lite brew: there’s a lot of diction and bluff, no topics are off limits, some funny jokes, and some strong performances, yet ultimately it lacks impact.
If the question of the perennial Shrink is “How does it make you feel?” with shrink, the answer is “not much.”
The Shrink begins with the premise that Segel’s Jimmy Laird has left life after the untimely death of his wife.
He hasn’t been paying much attention to his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), drinking too much, and at work, he’s decided to tell his clients the plain, candid truth about his life instead of covering it with good behavior.
To prepare for delirium. That they want to hear he suddenly orders a longtime customer, for example, to leave his partner immediately because he is misplaced control. And wouldn’t you know it, the psychologically cautious approach works, at least in the beginning.
After Life fans will have noticed the similarity in the set-up, but where that series at least dared to stick with Ricky Gervais’ over-the-top philosophy (if only we could all be honest with each other!), never shrinking decides what it’s about.
Ford is excellent as Jimmy’s old work partner Paul, a sarcastic chronic grappler with Parkinson’s and copious issues to sort out.
Ford could easily have been the main character of the series: most of the best scenes feature funny arguments between Ford and Segal, but often they’re undercut by another sentimental set-piece as more rock music swells behind the montage of people. There is some healing and learning.
Thanks for visiting US Map of State