With all due respect to the individual selective tastes of one’s own view on what is funny and what is not, let me be bold enough here to stake a claim to what I believe to be the best comedy on TV right now: Apple TV’s hit show “Shrinking.”
Now in its third season, the Jason Segel-Harrison Ford-led comedy, based on a psychologist’s office and all of its friends and clients, is a truly great watch.
The humor is subtle, not silly. But on the other hand, not too subtle. It is not slapstick by any means, but you will be slapping yourself at least a couple of times per show at some of the funny lines or situations the characters get themselves caught in.
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Segal is the lead character, Jimmy, a single father whose wife was killed a few years back in a car crash. He is a psychologist by trade, and a good one (albeit with some “ unique” strategies), but one who is definitely in need of some help himself, as he is still trying to find his way after the tragedy of losing his wife and now having to try to take care of his high-school-age daughter.
Harrison Ford is absolutely brilliant, showing off his rarely used, but finely tuned, comedic skills. He is the head of the psychologists’ office, but is in the mid-level stage of Parkinson’s disease, and it is slowly getting worse. He plays the grumpy curmudgeon role perfectly and, as stated above, with classic understated humor.
The supporting cast and the outside-the-office storylines are nothing short of brilliant!
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Jessica Williams plays the third psychologist in the office, Gabby, a high-energy, strong-willed young lady who’s not afraid to give it right back to you. She won an Emmy award for her supporting role in this show and often carries the scenes and “steals the show”—but only in the best of ways.
Lukita Maxwell plays Alice, the daughter of Jason Segel’s Jimmy, and she nails the role as well, having a sort of love-hate relationship with her dad throughout the show. Much more of it love, to be fair, but the usual high-school-girl drama adds to her conflict with the well-meaning, but often off-key and out-of-tune Segal as her father.
Ted McGinley and Christa Miller play Jimmy and his daughter Alice’s next-door neighbors, Derek and Liz, and they are hilarious—both together and in their interactions with the rest of the characters, most of whom are a very close-knit group of friends.
Luke Tennie plays a major part as Sean, a young African-American who seeks help in the psychologist’s office, but through his charisma and likability soon gets taken in and becomes part of the “family.”
Michael Urie and Devin Kawaoka, as Brian and Charlie, are great also as the gay couple that makes up this very close—if not slightly dysfunctional—family of characters.
There are other characters and story lines as well, and the casting for the show is done to perfection.
But it is the writing and the delivery of the lines from this outstanding cast that make it so good.
The show is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. Sometimes mild laughter, sometimes just a satisfying smile—but the humor of the show shines brightly from all angles.
What makes us laugh is a very individual thing, no doubt, but trust me here. “Shrinking” on Apple TV will help you get “your grin on” for sure.
