Harrison Ford and Jason Segel are shrinks on the brink in the Shrinking trailer
Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, and Jessica Williams would like to be your new Ted Lasso
Aux News Segel
How would you like your therapist? Depressed, sullen, and detached? How about grouchy, disinterested, and detached? If you’re one of the sad people needing help on Apple TV+’s Shrinking, you’re in luck.
The latest from Scrubs and Ted Lasso creator Bill Lawrence, Shrinking is a new dramedy that Apple hopes will take over the “isn’t this nice” water cooler conversations after Ted Lasso ends. The series follows a grieving therapist (Jason Segel) as he grows increasingly disillusioned with the profession. After an evening of night swimming and pill-popping, he turns to his old therapist, played by Harrison Ford, who will presumably teach him how to be a good therapist through the magic of being mean to him. That’s the Harrison Ford way.
The trailer hints at what those new methods might be. Instead of allowing his patients to reach conclusions on their own, a manic Jason Segel yells at them until they make the right choice. Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, and Lukita Maxwell round out the cast, playing concerned friends and family who will inevitably have hard conversations with Segel as he self-destructs.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Jason Segel in a more grounded comedy. His post How I Met Your Mother work has been a variety of character studies (End Of The Tour), a Lost-inspired prestige puzzle box (Dispatches From Elsewhere), and as a supporting player on HBO’s Winning Time, playing Lakers coach Paul Westhead. Shrinking puts him back in his Apatow-ian wheelhouse, with grounded, neurotic characters at an existential turning point.
Ford, however, is working the most he has in years. Following his run of revivals, including two Star Wars sequels, a Blade Runner sequel, and the upcoming Indiana Jones, he jumped to television, leading the Yellowstone spinoff, 1923, with Helen Mirren. He’s also slated to take over the role of “Thunderbolt” Ross in the next Captain America movie. In the MCU, Ross was played by William Hurt, who died last March. Weirdly, Ross was also played by fellow Yellowstone spinoff artist Sam Elliott.
Shrinking premieres on Apple TV+ on January 27.
18 Comments
This looks like it has potential, but could also drown in melodrama. Basically, it’s a coin flip between this being like Ted Lasso season 1 and Ted Lasso season 2.
Is there something up with Harrison Ford? Like, did Indiana Jones 5 rekindle his love of acting, or did his doctors give him two years to live?
Presumably his therapist came up with an unorthodox new approach to shake him out of the rut he’s been in
synergy
Price of weed went up
He probably had “a guy” for the last 50+ years and now he’s supposed to walk into a store? Like a commoner?
He used to be “the guy.” (At least according to a couple of contemporaries who knew him back in the day.)
So he’s starting up his own legal weed business?
Now this produced a genuine “funny because it’s true” lol
Crashed planes don’t fix themselves.
It’s just his recent flight of fancy. And considering that it is less dangerous to himself (despite his trend on set injuries) and to others than his past hobby of flights in the actual air, we should all be thankful.
This is great and all but as he seems to be the only living person who knows what to do with the Muppets, Jason Segel should really just be doing Muppet shit for the rest of his life.
“Dracula musical!!!”
Wait – at the end, was that Ted McGinley, the patron saint of shark jumping?!
That’s what I was thinking, too. A quick IMDB search says yes.
What do you think of our shrinks on the brink? Will they stink and just sink and be gone in a blink? Or slink off for a drink, totally in sync? Rhymes are my kink.
This looks great. I can’t wait to watch it next week.
Does it feel like everything since How I met your Mother has been variations on “Jason Segel is kinda sad”?