On Shrinking, the boys hang out and play nice
Elsewhere in "Boop," Gabby, Sean, and Liz hit an art opening
TV Reviews Jason Segel
Shrinking may not get me on board with using “sadface” in everyday conversations. But it may actually get me to use “boop him” as shorthand for “pattern interrupt.” That’s mostly because none of us laymen ever use terms like “pattern interrupt” even if we sometimes find ourselves basically using that kind of strategy to short circuit well-known and well-worn patterns of behavior.
Not that you’ll ever find me “booping” someone’s coffee off the table. I don’t know how successful that kind of passive aggressive maneuvering would be. (Would that really interrupt a pattern or merely, well, create a big mess, in all senses of the word?) Thankfully, we’re not shown what does happen if/when Grace puts Jimmy’s advice to work. Not well, I’d imagine.
But “Boop,” which gives the episode its title, does end up making for a good overarching metaphor. Like Grace, many of the characters in Shrinking are in dire need of disrupting the patterns they’ve grown accustomed to—and in need of creating new ones. Liz, as we know, has been tasked with trying new things out of the house. (Derek’s argument was solid: She’s had the house all to herself for decades!) And so she finally gets some quality time with Gabby (and, implausibly, Sean).
I know I joke a lot about how Shrinking keeps finding ever more outrageous reasons to arbitrarily bring its disparate characters together. But even I couldn’t have anticipated “art opening” as an excuse to rope those three together. But, as it turned out, Gabby, Sean, Liz, and Liz’s laser made for a great comedic combo. Then again, any scene where Jessica Williams gets to deliver the line “I didn’t say she was blind; I said she was a bitch” will always be A-okay in my book. I was also happy to see that Gabby’s divorce factored again and wasn’t just a dropped storyline. Watching her grapple with what it means to (re)connect with her ex while wishing him the best—and, of course, failing spectacularly at it—was a joy to watch. Even if, yes, we’ve seen many variations on this storyline in many a sitcom before. But it’s good Gabby tried to break away from her pattern. In a way, her divorce was a kind of self-boop. She needed to reboot her life and, breakdown over a nude painting aside, she seems to be doing a lot better. (She might want to examine why she chose to kink-shame her ex all the while claiming she wasn’t kink-shaming him, though.)
Elsewhere, the boys (that’d be Jimmy, Brian, and Paul) got to hang out together and play nice with one another as they sought out where Alice had gone. Again, teenage girl goes rogue feels like a tired sitcom trope (because it is), but there was enough playful banter that papered over the familiarity of this storyline. That’s mostly owed to the chemistry between Jason Segel, Michael Urie, and Harrison Ford, as odd a platonic comedic throuple as you’d hope to get.
Bonus: Their shared moments brimmed with character beats (Brian not wanting Jimmy to officiate, Paul working harder at connecting with Jimmy) and their entire ordeal in tracing Alice down felt like it came with a great payoff for everyone involved. Yes, even Alice, who’s finding out her dad is now firmly gonna be parenting—and doling out “You’re grounded” dictums in the process.
If you can’t tell, I’m still very much having a muted response to Shrinking, even as it seems to have found its groove—a.k.a. creating accessible pop psychology-informed subplots that nevertheless echo classic sitcom ones, all in the hands of very capable comedy performers. (Even Jimmy and Gabby’s conversation with Alice, which felt couched in contemporary ideas of honest parenting, felt like a throwback to “let’s have the talk with our teenage sitcom kid, only this time with more sex puns.”) If there’s tension there it’s because solid mental health professionals seem almost antithetical to sitcom characters: meddling is the bread and butter of the latter, and truly unethical in the former. Try as it might, Shrinking won’t ever be able to square the two well enough if Jimmy is, at his core, committed to his meddling-is-solving practice.
Anyways, stream Japanese Breakfast?
Stray observations
- Describing Grace’s husband as “’80s movie villain” is so accurate it actually made me laugh out loud. Ditto the line “I think your grandpa and your dads are here.” (Also, in case you’re wondering: Chet is played by Sam Bixby, a.k.a. a young actor genetically designed in a “teen heartthrob” lab. You’re welcome.)
- Maybe it’s The White Lotus in me talking but…what exactly is wrong with guys in Vespas? Was this a thinly veiled “Vespas are European by which we mean effeminate motorcycles” joke? Which is to say, was this a tired slightly homophobic (or, at best, femmes-shaming) joke? Because, I honestly don’t get it. Or choose not to, I guess.
- I love when throwaway lines tee up later storylines; it’s why I perked up when both Jimmy and Brian both yelled out how much they hate a certain “Ben.” Am I already fan-casting this nothing of a character because I hope the writers slipped that in for us to revel in whatever petty rivalry they’re all involved in? Maybe.
- (ALSO: MORE HIKING! I mean…I know folks here in the L.A. area hike a lot but this is almost comical at this point.)
- Was this episode worth it just for the fun of seeing Harrison Ford scare a peacock? Jury’s still out. But I’ll admit Ford’s playful approach to Paul and to any and everything he’s been tasked to do in this series so far has been delightful. Sure, “Ford plays a curmudgeon” doesn’t feel fresh; but here he’s also allowed to be goofy and kind-hearted which, I admit, is enough to wish we’d get more of this Ford elsewhere.
- Liz’s “Maman, je t’aime” is kind of amazing. But it also reminded me that she and Derek have kids who they apparently never talk about or refer to unless it serves a B-plot storyline?
- I need this fact-checked: Does Gen Z like Fun Dip? Is Fun Dip experiencing a revival of sorts? Or did Fun Dip never go away? What’s the 411 on Nerds? How about SweeTarts? Ring Pops? Inquiring minds want to know.
26 Comments
i think this show is either growing on me or just has improved. i’ve been watching because the performances are great around the board (i thought Ford was gonna phone this one in but he’s nailing it). but they avoided most of the little expected tropes and seem to have a better grasp of how to use the castloving Gaby and Liz’s friendship and i genuinely just didn’t like Liz (though Christa Miller is killing it) until three or four episodes in
Shows take a while to find it’s groove. It’s not necessarily always the show’s fault, but it just takes a while for the viewer to get to know the characters and the rhythms of the show. Shrinking seems to have found its footing far quicker than most comedy shows which usually requires a season or more to settle in.
oh i know that shows take time to find their footing. I am a Seinfeld nut and I cannot watch the first season, the Simpsons was a completely different show its first 2 seasons than it became, It just didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be from the get-go. Which by itself isn’t even a problem. Honestly, I think the Pedegree of the show being involved in Ted Lasso probably had my expectations too high going in in terms of it being fully formed out of the gate which Ted Lasso was and is one of the few to really pull it off and having a good sentence for almost all of the characters from the first shotAlso, unlike broadcast show this was all in the can before they aired a single episode, so they really found their footing without any external reaction that might help them know what was or was not clicking. Which is very impressiveI actually went back and re-watched the series after this episode because I wanted to see if I felt any different about the earlier episodes. And I really didn’t aside from feeling more sympathetic for Liz from the get-go. it’s helped to see the actual love between her and her husband, who was kind of just there in the early episodes, more fully understand the pre-existing relationships these people had prior to the show.I’m just glad it happened. Both the cast and the writers are far too good.
I think the perennial example is Parks and Recs. It wasn’t necessarily bad per se, but the first season is very ehhhhh compared to everything that followed.
This episode: two thumbs up.
I don’t want to kink-shame, but we all know where those thumbs have been.
Another great throw-away line from this show.
I know I joke a lot about how Shrinking keeps finding ever more outrageous reasons to arbitrarily bring its disparate characters together. But even I couldn’t have anticipated “art opening” as an excuse to rope those three together.Oh, for fuck’s…sitcom characters spend more time together in more contrived circumstances than actual real life people. That’s how TV works.But, as it turned out, Gabby, Sean, Liz, and Liz’s laser made for a great comedic combo.Yeah, you’re getting it! See how that works? The writers have introduced a situation—however implausibly contrived it might be—so that comedy might occur. Generally the funnier the situation the more willing the audience is to suspend disbelief.Next review I half-expect to read “I know I joke a lot about how Shrinking keeps finding ever more outrageous excuses for not depicting Jimmy getting his teeth cleaned at the dentist, but at least six months have passed at this point and I just can’t believe that Jimmy would avoid his regularly scheduled dental checkups. Also, have we ever seen Paul sit down to do his taxes? Are they setting up some sort of IRS audit subplot?”
The writer’s inability to fathom people going to an art gallery together really makes me wonder what the hell they do to be social.
Hiking? With your friends? Inconceivable!
The reviewer seems to have a recurring complaint that the show doesn’t accurately portray real life analogues of these characters. Maybe that’s because most people and situations aren’t really all that funny or interesting? Good thing Manuel isn’t reviewing The Mandalorian.
Pasadena is an unrealistic setting, despite actually existing.
I found and purchased Maman je t’aime!! I had to get L instead of M but it’s a sweatshirt and that’s how the kids are wearing them these days so should be fine.
Still loving this show for low-stakes plots, personally. I know it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but I really feel a connection with this show, it just clicks with me in a way a lot of stuff hasn’t.
It is, in fact, a sit com? The characters on the program enjoy hiking? What…is the reviewer’s problem?
Jason Siegel’s character in The Muppet Movie drives a Vespa, and I think in I Love You Man, too. I think it’s more just a connecting joke about Jason Siegel and Vespas, and hipsters.
OOooooh. That makes it funnier, too.
(Limited exposure to JS here, so didn’t know that about his other characters.)
No need to be offended on behalf of ‘Vespa people everywhere’ or anything. It’s a slight dig on a certain type of hipster: you know how you’d tell your friend “There is no way in hell you are dating fedora-guy. Or goatee-guy. And definitely not “backward baseball hat-wearing-guy!” Pretty solid advice, actually.Also, Ted McGinley is the true “80s movie villain” and will forever be the super hot and evil Alpha Beta frat asshole in The Revenge of the Nerds.
He’ll always be Jefferson Darcy to me.
“Shrinking delivers one sucker punch of a climax”I thought last week was the season finale. Thanks.
This reviewer is DETERMINED not to like this showI don’t get it the entire review was basically nothing but praising the episode with a few criticism (each of which boiled down to not understanding that this show is still a sitcom lmfao)every week i am so happy with the episode and then I come here and am sad that it is getting middling reviewsHOW is this episode a C+ when it was as funny and thoughtful as it was????
The Vespas crack is a California thing . They used to be everywhere in the early aughts. Now they’re passé. Nothing to do with being homophobic or a effete .
Yeah, I would have been surprised that it was a dig at Europeans considering Brett Goldstein’s involvement in the show.
You are fucking exhausting.
How did a trio of over-40 dudes even get in the front door of a college dorm?
C+? Really? Outstanding episode. Love this series. Gaby just kills in every scene.