When it was originally on: 2023-present

Original network: Apple TV

Where you can stream it now: Apple TV

Had I seen it before: Nope, haven’t seen any of this show.

What IMDb says: A grieving therapist starts to tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge changes to people’s lives – including his own.

Why I picked it: If you’re the dude who created Scrubs, that’d be enough to make you a big deal. If you’re the dude who created Ted Lasso, that would also be enough to make you a big deal. When the same dude created both, any show he makes thereafter is worthy of attention. I love including those All-Star creators where I can and well, I’ve already reviewed Scrubs and Ted Lasso in previous go-arounds. Shrinking is also co-created by Jason Segal and Ted Lasso collaborator Brett Goldstein, which just makes it an even more enticing prospect.

Shrinking also epitomizes a certain kind of show I like to include on these lists: the acclaimed show that hasn’t quite gone mainstream. This has a 93 on Rotten Tomatoes and Season 2 was up for the Best Comedy Series Emmy. Yet I’ve never experienced a person in my actual life say “OMG you need to check out Shrinking” even though they have three seasons out now. And the success of Severance and Ted Lasso lead me to believe that there are enough people with Apple subscriptions for that to be possible. Is there any particular reason Shrinking hasn’t quite “made it” as a mainstream hit? We shall see.

What I liked: “What is it like to try and be a therapist when you’re going through your own shit?” is already a great premise for a series, and I’m seeing the Scrubs-esque tone here. The show is still a comedy at its core, but also not shying away from the inherent sad realities of its premise. It’s a hard tone to get right, but the writing and the cast made me feel like I’m in good hands.

The other big part of Shrinking‘s premise is “what if a therapist was not bound by the ethical rules of being a therapist?” There are potentially interesting relationships to be cultivated from this gray area between therapist and friend, and I already love the arc they did between Jimmy and Sean, just within this pilot. But on some level, you know this can’t go on forever, and personally, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. In a delightful turn of events, that shoe actually drops at the end of this pilot. It’s reassuring to know that Shrinking isn’t the story of Jimmy fixing people by tossing off the shackles of ethics rules, but a story of how a well-intentioned dude is going to make things messier and more complicated by trying, even if there are some positive changes along the way too.

What I didn’t like: I wish I could’ve gotten a little more insight into the daughter character, Alice. There’s one brief “I lost her too, Dad” speech, and that’s basically it. Oh, and she plays soccer. Everything Alice says in this speech makes total sense, and I’m excited to see where this father-daughter relationship goes as the series progresses. But it being the only thing we know about her? The pilot (much like Jimmy) just seemed thoroughly uninterested in Alice, and then expects forgiveness if there’s one nice moment with her at the end. Not a dealbreaker, but I wish they would’ve given her a scene or two to give her a little more depth, especially in an Apple show where TV doesn’t have to fit specific 22-minute or 30-minute molds.

Do I want to watch Ep. 2?: Yes. Genuinely bummed I can’t keep watching until the end of the month as per The Rules, and may put on some Scrubs to try and scratch the same itch.