(courtesy IMP Awards)
I am lucky to have a wonderful family.
Well, “Congratulations you!” might well be the response from most people but what on earth does this have to do with a review of the first six episodes of Shrinking third season?
As it turns out, quite a lot in fact; not necessarily personally, but in the general sense that in today’s world, there is a great deal of discussion about the relative merits of your biological or blood family versus your chosen family or the village of people you surround yourself with that are often closer, or at least every bit as close, as your actual family.
Chosen families are often held up as intrinsically better, and to an extent that’s true since who we choose to be with and what we choose to share and live out with them can feel more authenticate and honest than it is with the people we grew up with.
What is wonderful beyond all measure about Shrinking, and this holds even more in its third season which is heavily focused on moving forward after two seasons of dealing with the aftermath of trauma and then hesitant but meaningful trips towards healing, is that it embraces, with characteristically witty dialogue and refreshingly intimate moments of emotional introspection, the idea that it is possible for a happy and successful to spring from both places.
In fact, while Shrinking‘s wittily close ensemble dynamic is even more vibrantly alive and nurturing than previously, and honestly that’s saying something in a show that has taken the benefits of everyone knowing everyone, and knowing them well, very seriously, as various characters begin to finally move on from just keeping their heads above water and starting to swim, the joyous, no-holds-barred benefits of having a close knit network of whatever stripe become plainly evident.
It can be hard when all you’ve done for ages is tread water and pray you don’t drown to look up and realise land is close and you might be able to swim to it; maybe not straight away but eventually and while you’d think that would be a no-brainer, slam-dunk decision to make, you’re not thinking rationally at that point and a cost benefit analysis is the furthest thing from your mind (unless you’re Gaby, played by Jessica Williams, one of the three therapists at the heart of the show and then, of course, you gather your village in your loungeroom and pro/con the sh*t out of the decision-making process).
Which is why you need people around you who love you but who also know you need a nudge, or an outright push, to get where you need to go.
Take for example Alice (Lukita Maxwell), the daughter of goofily unconventional and heartfelt therapist Jimmy (Jason Segel) who is talent spotted in one of the episodes at a soccer game by coach from Wesleyan, one of the premier sporting colleges from the east coast.
It’s a huge opportunity, and while, yes, it does mean moving all the way across the country to study and follow your sporting dreams, it’s too huge a dream to pass up; but ———- SPOILER ALERT !!!!! ———– that’s precisely what Alice does, suddenly too afraid to move on because it means leaving the weirdly safe confines of survival mode.
So, she says no, tells her dad she was rejected by Wesleyan, rather than the other way round, and while it sounds good in the echo chamber of her and dad’s shared trauma and messy aftermath, it’s patently not true and it’s up to Sean, a one-time patient of Jimmy who is more like family now (he lives in the huge backyard cabin so that helps), to call bullsh*t on it.
Alice initially feels like he’s betrayed her but the truth is, in the heavily interconnected, mutually supportive and humourously loving world of Shrinking, Sean does precisely what he needs to do, thus proving why you need family, of whatever kind, around you to love you in the way that will do the most good for you.
There are other similar moments through the six episodes available so far, such as when Jimmy is encouraged to enter the dating pool two or so years after his wife’s death in a car accident to varying degrees of success, or when Jimmy’s overly close but loving neighbours Derek and Liz (Ted McGinley and Christa Miller) need a huge push to show some tough call to a sweet but wayward son.
It can be super heard hearing those words but as Shrinking beautifully demonstrates again and again with its characters, all of whom are gloriously and wonderfully sucked into a mutually supportive network where truth is always delivered with wit, direct words and a little goofy absurdity, you only ever benefit from people holding you accountable and moving you on.
And that’s what this third season is all about.
Brian (Michael Urie) and Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) finally get to be dads, with their surrogate Ava (Claudia Sulewski) becoming a close part of their family, and thus the wider chaotically wonderful Shrinking group, and Paul (Harrison Ford) stepping forward into both ———- SPOILER ALERT !!!!! ——— retirement and marriage with Julie (Wendy Malick in sharp comically adept form).
Life is rarely still or unchanging but it often has been for many of the people in Shrinking who have experienced great trauma and who have had to, alone and very much together, hang in there until finally, in this richly hopefully and optimistic season, reluctantly and the happily moved to embrace the rest of their life.
It’s funny, it’s exciting, it’s melancholic and it’s empowering leaving the old things behind, however sad and painful, and Shrinking season three mines it all beautifully up a series of interlinked stories that are goofy and thoughtful, heartfelt and comically flippant and which remind us that while can get darkest before the dawn, the light does eventually return and it’s up to us to draw back the curtains, open the door and walk out into it, no matter however how daunting it may seem, because it will be GOOD and we will be all the better for it.
Shrinking streams on AppleTV
And more behind the scenes …