Shrinking: Episode 4-12

December 27, 2024 2:05 PM - Season 2, Episode 4

Since the individual discussions started dying down, here's a "rest of the season" post for Shrinking discussion.
posted by jenfullmoon (4 comments total)

Thanks, jenfullmoon! (good to see you!)

I'm late to the show and basically watched S1 and S2 back to back. I'm a pretty tough critic but found myself really liking this show and these deeply flawed people trying to find ways to be better. Honest and funny at the same time.

So I really wanted to love the finale, but... gotta admit, I thought E6, "Last Drink," the flashback episode, was so damn near perfection that the finale paled in comparison. Too neat and clean and deus ex machina, even if the machina delivered a couple of powerful scenes.

When the credits rolled, my wife said, "They should end the series right there." And if I wasn't so looking forward to what should be a tremendous season from Harrison Ford, I'd agree.
posted by martin q blank at 2:42 PM on December 27 [2 favorites]

I think this show mostly gets by on the tremendous strength of its ensemble cast, and is otherwise probably a little too slight and pat in its structure to ever land an emotional hit past a certain point (with a major exception to everything surrounding Harrison Ford). but damn is this a likable cast and a set of mostly well-drawn characters who you want to root for. just a very pleasant hang-out vibe, like Lawrence's other work at its best

and to be clear I don't intend "pleasant hang-out vibe" at all as damning with faint praise; I think lots of television fails miserably in attempting to cultivate exactly this sort of feeling. (latter-day How I Met Your Mother comes to mind thanks to some of the casting overlap here).

I think Brett Goldstein is a bit of a casting miss, though that is very likely my own "it is hard to buy that Roy Kent is this sad" bias. but he reads flatter to me than I think the character probably needs to in order to be properly affecting. (I also thought his breakup scene in the flashback bit was not only unnecessary but about as perfunctory as it gets -- about half a click from him just saying out loud "we need to break up so I am sufficiently sad by the time we roll around to present day, look that's what it says right here, in the script")

in general if I were to complain about the show it's just too pat all around with its plotting and its tone can't really sustain some of the swings it teases. e.g. there was simply no way the show could emotionally survive having Louis kill himself. at its best it still does this but also earns it, which I think it does when Jimmy shows up at the end

a much more minor nitpick is just a very TV thing, which is how funny it is that Gabby has all her friends and family show up for thanksgiving and it's just a list of the cast and guest stars of the season. I was half expecting some of the other patients to show up. such tiny universes these fictional series create

anyway. a great show for modeling the kind of adult friendships we all wish we had, and also a great show for at least one laugh-out-loud bit per episode (in the finale it was Gabi and her sister having a moment genuinely believing Derek had kidnapped a random black woman)
posted by Kybard at 4:26 PM on December 27 [1 favorite]

Friend of mine describes this as the Most Bill Lawrence Show Ever and I kind of don’t disagree. Don’t get me wrong — I love Scrubs, and also this, so I have no complaints overall. I appreciated how the show has had enough of a bittersweet tone with endings that I was willing to believe in the moment that they might actually end the second season with Louis jumping in front of a train, like how the first season ended with an attempted murder. I guess in retrospect the lack of a “viewer discretion is advised” screen at the start of the episode à la Foundation was a subtle tell.

I really enjoy this show, and I look forward to another season of everyone making bad choices and bouncing off one another!
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:51 PM on December 27 [1 favorite]

This show is the best thing on tv right now. For those who have watched at least through S2E10, I highly recommend watching this Paley Center panel made up of the full cast and hosted by Zach Braff. It seems like they all deeply respect each other and love working together. At the end of the panel, Bill Lawrence actually said exactly what martin q blank said above, about the S2 finale feeling like a series finale. He said the show was planned as 3 seasons, centered on grief, forgiveness, and moving forward. He also said they are trying to think up new stories beyond that original arc, because they want to keep telling stories with these characters but recognize that Jimmy can’t wake up in S4 and regress in his grief. I really hope they come up with more beyond the original arc; I will watch this show as long as they continue putting it out.
posted by bluloo at 9:23 PM on December 28 [3 favorites]