Apple TV+'s new comedy-drama Shrinking drops onto our screens with an impressive resumé – it’s written and created by Ted Lasso writer/producers Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein (who was also, of course, the series' breakout star as footballer Roy Kent), along with star Jason Segel.
However, Ted Lasso fans tuning in hoping for a new dose of optimistic, feelgood fun will be in for a surprise, as this show shares more similarities with Ricky Gervais's darkly quirky After Life than it does with the uplifting football comedy.
Segel plays Jimmy, a Pasadena therapist who we first meet partying with two young women in his pool at 3am, much to the annoyance of his sleep-disturbed neighbour, Liz (Christa Miller).
His reckless behaviour isn't exactly what you would expect from a trained medical professional – especially when you realise his teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) is inside the house, sleeping – but we're apparently supposed to excuse the hookers, crushed-up amphetamines and booze because Jimmy is using all of the above to cope with the loss of his wife, who was killed in a car crash the year before.
Jimmy's coping mechanisms have estranged him from Alice – who is spending most dinner times over at Liz's house rather than with her emotionally distant dad – and have led him to just go through the motions at work. That is until he finally snaps in the middle of a therapy session and tells a patient exactly what he thinks – if she doesn't leave her abusive husband, Jimmy tells her, he will no longer be her therapist.
Ignoring all his training – plus any ethics and sense he may have had – Jimmy decides this new brutal approach is the way to go, both for his sake and his patients, and he then tries it with PTSD-suffering former soldier Sean (Luke Tennie).
Sean is having anger issues that usually lead to bar fights, so Jimmy takes him to a boxing gym to, erm, have more fights. You can't help thinking none of this will end well (and, without spoiling anything, there are some less-than-positive consequences to Jimmy’s actions).
Any real therapists watching will probably have checked out in horror by this point, but if you hang in there, the writers do establish early on that these therapy sessions are just one part of the story being told. Shrinking isn't just about Jimmy the therapist, it is about one man's grief, and how he finds a way through it (maybe).
Of course, you could argue that with After Life already out there, do we need another comedy-drama about a middle-aged man mourning his wife, dropping truth bombs and debating the meaning of life? Despite the comedic talents of Segel and a terrific supporting cast that also includes Jessica Williams and Ugly Betty's Michael Urie, the answer could have been 'no'. Until you factor in Shrinking's not-so-secret weapon, Harrison Ford.
In his first TV comedy role (we'll gloss over his cinema comedy performances in movies like Six Days and Seven Nights and Hollywood Homicide as we think Ford would like us to), he's the true reason Shrinking is worth watching, even when it's getting bogged down in its own existential navel-gazing.
Playing Paul, Jimmy's therapist boss who is living with Parkinson's, he only has a supporting part. But Ford's deadpan delivery makes every scene he is in a treat, and a hilarious one at that.
It seems that all those deliciously sarcastic line deliveries he gave in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies were just practice for his pitch-perfect, gruff-but-loveable performance here, and you'll find yourself feeling almost restless when he is off screen, counting the minutes until he comes back.
Wise and grumpy in equal measure, the series gives Ford the chance to remind us what a great and often subtle actor he can be, and has always been, in classic movies like Witness, Working Girl and Blade Runner, and that, at 80 years old, he's just getting better – and funnier.
"I'm a silver fox," he growls at one point, and it's true. He is, and we're here for it.
Shrinking is streaming now on Apple TV+.
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Freelance film & TV writer, Digital Spy
Critic and writer Jo Berry has been writing about TV and movies since she began her career at Time Out aged 18. A regular on BBC Radio, Jo has written for titles including Empire, Maxim, Radio Times, OK!, The Guardian and Grazia, is the author of books including Chick Flicks and The Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Movies.
She is also the editor of website Movies4Kids. In her career, Jo has interviewed well-known names including Beyonce, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise and all the Avengers, spent many an hour crushed in the press areas of award show red carpets. Jo is also a self-proclaimed expert on Outlander and Brassic, and completely agrees that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
