Shrinkingis the new, somewhat psychological comedy coming to Apple TV+. It features Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, and Jessica Williams partying their butts off and sifting through grief as they try to shepherd the world through its trauma. As the small group of therapists attempts to help their patients make it through everyday life, they must contend with their own traumas while Jimmy (Segel) begins to make some unconventional and unethical choices in his therapy sessions.
Thenew trailer forShrinkingjust dropped, giving us a first look at the small Cognitive Behavioral Therapy practice and letting us see just how our protagonist is going to be dealing with his grief. The trailer displays the charming, but direct sense of humor the show has. Jason Segel works withTed Lassoco-creators Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein to make this bright, slice-of-life comedy jump off the screen for everyone who might be tip-toeing around trauma in their lives. When Jimmy becomes frustrated enough to change, he also leaves his ethics behind, and the other practitioners in his office start to get worried about the consequences of his newfound recklessness. We’ll break down the trailer for you as we get our first peek at Jason Segel’sShrinking.
Practicing Therapy
The trailer opens with Jimmy (Jason Segel) talking to several of his patients in his practice for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). He becomes increasingly frustrated by each of their endless excuses. They all seem to be unwilling to do what it takes to change their situation. At one point, a patient, Sean (Luke Tennie), even catches him yawning. Cut to a backyard house party where Jimmy is sitting by a pool filled with girls in bikinis. His neighbor leans over the fence to ask him to stop partying when she forces him to admit that he’s high on painkillers. Jimmy might be spiraling out of control. We see him running his head under a cold tap as a voice from off-screen asks him, “Is this you forever?”
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Kid Cudi’s Pursuit of Happiness comes in. Jimmy shows up at his office the next day to find Paul Rhoades (Harrison Ford) waiting for him. Rhoades is the elder therapist in the practice and has earned a reputation for being a pioneer in CBT and a “blue-collar shrink.” He tells Jimmy that he’s worried about him, and thinks this sort of behavior may be a sign of him acting outdue to the griefhe’s feeling from his wife’s passing. Jimmy thinks he’s been grieving, but Rhoades tells him he’s just numbing the real feelings pent-up inside.
We see Jimmy sobbing while he rides his bicycle straight into a car door. He tells one of his other coworkers, Gabrielle (Jessica Williams) that he isn’t “doing sad-face” he just has “resting-dead-wife face.” And she can’t help but giggle.
Finally, we see the breakthrough moment, where Jimmy is sitting with one of his patients. She is talking about how her husband is continually calling her dumb, but she’s convinced he still loves her. Eventually, Jimmy snaps, throws his papers on the ground, andhits her with some truth. He tells her what’s obvious to him, but she can’t see: that she should leave her husband. And surprisingly, she accepts the advice like it was the simplest thing in the world.
A Breakthrough New Series
Jimmy is now convinced that he can be a better therapist if he is willing to bend the rules a little. The other therapists in his practice, especially Rhoades, push back on this idea. It’s not always beneficial to try and disrupt the mentally fragile. It’s also against a mental health practitioner’s code of ethics to become directly involved in their patients' lives. But Jimmy does it anyway. We see Jimmy helping a client scatter his mother’s ashes and then get chased away by security guards. This type of crossing the line is threateningfor the other therapists. And Rhoades worries that these risky decisions might not just hurt his career, but the whole practice.
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That’s when we start seeing the real depth of these problems. As we hear that Jimmy’s patients are thriving, we see his daughter struggling. When Jimmy lost his wife, his daughter lost her mother, and now her memory of her is starting to fade. We see that as Jimmy gets the tools that make him capable of dealing with these professional issues, personal trauma begins to surface in his life. Rhoades is willing to help in Jimmy’s family life, but he can’t do everything.
The trailer ends by showing us that Jimmy is just starting to make some progress, but there are more challenges around the corner. Along with their patients,the therapists have their own issues. And as Jimmy gets more involved in his patients’ lives, what consequences could he face in this risk he takes of getting too close? The trailer forShrinkingshows a delightful, inspiring comedy worth seeing.Shrinkingcomes out on Apple TV+ on January 27.
