Shrinking is a frustrating show. There's bones of a good comedy, and pieces of interesting characters, but when it comes down to it, it's a Bill Lawrence comedy. So if you like his other shows like Scrubs and Ted Lasso, then Shrinking will be up your alley. Otherwise, it's a little bit of a frustrating watch because I think it could be much stronger.
I'm mainly going to focus on the negatives in this review, but I want to call a couple pluses.
Sean is a fantastic character. His storyline is the most well rounded and grounded part of the show. He's actually probably the very best character I've seen from any Bill Lawrence show. Luke Tennie brings a lot of nuance to the character and knocks it out the park.
I also think Harrison Ford's character and storyline is a solid B-storyline. I do feel like they're kind of wasting his performance somewhat (gruff and low energy is pretty much all you get), but Harrison has a few moments of really good comedic timing that kills it.
So what's frustrating? I think one of the things I struggle with is Bill's characters are constantly brimming with "LOOK AT ME, I'M QUIRKY OR DAMAGED" energy. You see this in Scrubs. You see this in Ted Lasso. You really see it in Shrinking. So most of the characters are two-dimensional caricatures that get more annoying the more you see them, because they never really get fleshed out much more than at a surface level.
The dialogue is a mess. It's got that constant "LOOK AT ME, THIS ISN'T NETWORK TV, I CAN CURSE AS MUCH AS I WANT" energy. Look, I love crude comedies. Always Sunny, South Park, Rick & Morty are in my pantheon. But have you ever known anyone who seems like he/she is constantly cursing, because they're trying too hard to sound cool and edgy? The dialogue for Shrinking is just bleeding with this energy. We get it. You're not on NBC anymore. You can say the F word as much as you want. At least use it in a funny way. Also, "greasing the peach" is dumb. Everyone knows peaches are butts.
Also, this is neither here nor there. I love the energy that Jessica Williams brings to her character. I think she owns Gaby, and that's 100% her performance. But I struggle with her character in that it feels like white people writing what they think are black voices intended for white audience consumption. I appreciate the on-screen diversity, but I think they could use some more diversity in the writers room too.
Anyway this got long. TL;DR if you like Ted Lasso, you'll like this show. And if you didn't, you won't.
I'm mainly going to focus on the negatives in this review, but I want to call a couple pluses.
Sean is a fantastic character. His storyline is the most well rounded and grounded part of the show. He's actually probably the very best character I've seen from any Bill Lawrence show. Luke Tennie brings a lot of nuance to the character and knocks it out the park.
I also think Harrison Ford's character and storyline is a solid B-storyline. I do feel like they're kind of wasting his performance somewhat (gruff and low energy is pretty much all you get), but Harrison has a few moments of really good comedic timing that kills it.
So what's frustrating? I think one of the things I struggle with is Bill's characters are constantly brimming with "LOOK AT ME, I'M QUIRKY OR DAMAGED" energy. You see this in Scrubs. You see this in Ted Lasso. You really see it in Shrinking. So most of the characters are two-dimensional caricatures that get more annoying the more you see them, because they never really get fleshed out much more than at a surface level.
The dialogue is a mess. It's got that constant "LOOK AT ME, THIS ISN'T NETWORK TV, I CAN CURSE AS MUCH AS I WANT" energy. Look, I love crude comedies. Always Sunny, South Park, Rick & Morty are in my pantheon. But have you ever known anyone who seems like he/she is constantly cursing, because they're trying too hard to sound cool and edgy? The dialogue for Shrinking is just bleeding with this energy. We get it. You're not on NBC anymore. You can say the F word as much as you want. At least use it in a funny way. Also, "greasing the peach" is dumb. Everyone knows peaches are butts.
Also, this is neither here nor there. I love the energy that Jessica Williams brings to her character. I think she owns Gaby, and that's 100% her performance. But I struggle with her character in that it feels like white people writing what they think are black voices intended for white audience consumption. I appreciate the on-screen diversity, but I think they could use some more diversity in the writers room too.
Anyway this got long. TL;DR if you like Ted Lasso, you'll like this show. And if you didn't, you won't.