In the throes of mourning his late wife, cognitive therapist Jimmy (Jason Segel) throws caution to the wind andgets a little too personal with his patients in an effort to promote their happiness. While Jimmy acts as a psychological Robin Hood, coworkers Gaby (Jessica Williams) and Paul (Harrison Ford) manage their own personal dilemmas. Jimmy’s daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), spends the season taking baby steps to mend her relationship with her father, all the while trying to navigateher new sense of selfwithout her mother. Although they’re all doing their best, everyone inApple TV+’s grief comedyShrinkingeventually oversteps some relationship boundaries.
Relationships Get Tangled in ‘Shrinking’
Fed up with knowing the obvious answers to the problems that his clients have been stuck with for years, Jimmy finally snaps and starts telling them what he really thinks they should do. Paul,Jimmy’s cranky therapist mentor, warns against this kind of “psychological vigilantism” a number of times, pointing out that getting too involved in his patients’ lives could rob them of their autonomy to help themselves. But after noticing much faster progression with his clients, he continues with hisunprofessional tactics and unregulated sessions.
Gaby springs a new patient onto Jimmy, a young discharged soldier named Sean (Luke Tennie) who is in trouble for physical assault. Jimmy gets particularly loose with Sean, and not only because he exposes him to MMA as an outlet for his violence. He also allows Sean to stay at his home after his parents kick him out for getting arrested on assault charges. By doing so,Jimmy creates a dual relationship with Seanwhich inhibits Sean’s comfort with opening up about his PTSD.
One major development fromShrinkingSeason 1 that is likely to appear in Season 2 is thatGaby and Jimmy develop a relationship of sorts. Gaby was originally married to Nico (Adam Foster Ballard), but their marriage had been fizzling out for some time. After separating from her husband, she and Jimmy fall into sleeping together for the latter part of the first season. She continuously makes it known how comfortable she is that she and Jimmy can enjoy a physically intimate relationship without developing feelings for each other. But at the wedding in the season finale, Liz (Christa Miller) mentions that she notices a considerable difference in Gaby’s behavior toward Jimmy and that their relationship may not be as emotionally detached as Gaby claims.
Harrison Ford’s Paul Overcomes His Own Hurdles
While Gaby and Jimmy are getting down and dirty, Paul becomes intimate with Dr. Julie Baram (Wendie Malick), the neurologist helping to treat his Parkinson’s diagnosis. There was some obvious flirting between them during their appointments, but one morning while she was coming to pick up Paul for work, Gaby happened upon the two of them having spent the night together. After Paul invites Julie on an absolute whim to go away with him for the weekend, and she happily agrees to join him,Paul and Julie make their relationship official.
Although he tries to come off as comfortable in his own skin,Paul faces the reality that he is aging more often than he’d like to mention. His Parkinson’s diagnosisstarts to interfere with his sense of securityas an independent adult. However, he finds a helpful emotional coping mechanism in putting on his favorite sad song and allowing himself to grieve for 15 minutes straight (a method he also imparts to Alice). While his coworkers (and a couple of strangers) knew about his diagnosis, Paul especially held off on telling his daughter, Meg (Lily Rabe), out of fear that he would become a burden to her.Paul’s relationship with Meg was already stretched rather thin, which was something that Meg saw as a misstep on her father’s part.
They hadn’t been able to spend much time together since he and his wife had separated during Meg’s childhood. When he finally tells her the news, he feels guilty that she drops everything to ensure he receives the best care possible. She offers to move him into her home but, grateful for her generosity, he declines, and she leaves offended that her father still doesn’t seem to want to make time for her. He smooths things over, though, whenhe decides to attend his grandson’s fourth-grade musical instead of going to his lifetime achievement ceremony in Las Vegas. Paul and his daughter come to an agreement that he will make frequent visits to keep up his relationship with his grandson, and that he will let Julie take care of him while back at home.
What Happens at the End of ‘Shrinking’ Season 1?
Alice spendsSeason 1 ofShrinkinglooking for someone who might truly understand her position. Without her mother around, Jimmy’s empty-nester next-door neighbor, Liz, becomes a bit overprotective of Alice, while Gaby acts as a kind of aunt, as she was her mom’s closest friend. Alice also finds an unexpected confidante in Paul, who isjust as much a mentor figure to Alice as he is to Jimmy. Since Sean starts living in the same house as Alice, the two are able to relate with one another and soon become friends, even though she briefly makes things awkward when she makes a pass at him that goes unreciprocated. By the end of the first season, Alice has dealt with a handful of relationship highs and lows, but it looks like she may finally be coming around to reestablishing a central sense of self that she’s comfortable with.
The season’s largest cliffhanger is that Grace (Heidi Gardner) makes a fatal decision in the final episode that could have serious repercussions on Jimmy’s employment. Jimmy pushes extra hard on Grace when he tells her to leave her emotionally abusive husband. She leaves her husband, but subsequently lies about successfully living independently and is discovered still hanging out with him on regular hikes. In her following sessions with Jimmy, she jokingly mentions having intrusive thoughts of pushing him off of a cliff when his behavior would become abusive.Season 1 ends with her giving in to those thoughts, so Season 2 is likely to follow up on this thread.
Brett Goldstein’s ‘Shrinking’ Season 2 Character Just Got an Eyebrow-Raising Update From Bill Lawrence
The new season arrives on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, October 16.
The only one who seems to have leftShrinkingSeason 1 completely unscathed is Brian(Michael Urie), Jimmy’s lawyer friend. Brian gets married to his boyfriend Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) in the season finale, but there’s some evidence that suggests it could go less smoothly than everyone expects, as Brian often puts himself before others, even Charlie. But even if those instances are just simple relationship issues that shouldn’t mean much, his “everything goes my way” affirmations are likely to face some obstacles in the upcoming season.
The next season ofShrinkingis set up to see the characters moving on with newfound relationships. While Jimmy needs to deal with the fallout of Grace’s actions,he’s on a path to making positive progress with the loss of his wifewhile he allows Alice to continue grieving and growing at her own pace. Gaby can be expected to be reevaluating her relationship with Jimmy while Paul has begun rebuilding his relationship with his daughter, and Liz will be partnering with Sean for his catering business. That might affect Liz’s husband, Derek (Ted McGinley), who is either enjoying or getting bored of his recent retirement. Butafter the Season 1 finale, how long will these characters comfortably stay on the up and up in Season 2?
