Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Season 1 of Shrinking.Apple TV+ has become quite a surprising competitor among streaming challengers and despite its smaller output of exclusive programs, it continues to find success — with the latest being Shrinking. Starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford, the show focuses on the former one year after the death of his wife and how his outlook on life and work has been flipped upside down. He now approaches his job as a therapist with a new methodology, aiming to tell people what they don’t want to hear in hopes of getting them to change. It’s a bold strategy — but, as he sees early on, his clients find mixed success with the hard truth. Created by Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence, both of whom are behind the massive hit Ted Lasso on the same platform, what this show doesn’t do is follow the same process that made the Jason Sudeikis-led series so popular.

In a world where many of the programs that aim to serve as a course in self-reflection are hour-long episodes with heavy undertones, Shrinking does a 180 in keeping it condensed to a half-hour runtime and instead of using darker imagery to express the struggles that all of its characters are experiencing, it leans into comedy as a means to push the story forward and express its meaning. Shrinking is an unfamiliar show in this sense, and that’s what makes it so worthwhile to watch as it puts a mirror up to its audience, asking them to think long and hard about what’s transpiring on-screen.

Ted Lasso has strayed from norms among television sitcoms in its intent on delivering a message but one that is overwhelmingly positive. It proved to be a welcome addition to the world of streaming when it arrived towards the end of 2020, a point in society when all was down and a major need for uplifting was imperative. Ted Lasso benefited from coming out at the best time possible, serving as a 30-45 minute escape for those wanting a feel-good story that played out on the screen. On the other side, Shrinking isn’t that, despite having the same creative team. Its goal is to get its viewers to not necessarily feel good but to be honest with themselves. There are some serious storylines that develop in the first season, from a widowed father to a man dealing with Parkinson’s disease and another with a divorce. Shrinking doesn’t aim to cheer people up like Ted Lasso and that’s OK, because what it instead accomplishes is a valuable look within, one that is done so in an approachable manner due to the nature of humor as the catalyst for expressing its otherwise gloomy narrative.

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'Shrinking' Thrives In its Creative Way of Storytelling

Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird in Shrinking
Image via Apple TV+

In a show centered on therapy, the lives of those who make a living listening to their patients and offering advice are the ones who are dealing with some serious personal matters in Shrinking — which is made very clear in the first scene of the series. There’s Segel's Jimmy and his grief following his wife’s death, Dr. Paul Rhodes (as played by Ford) who is going through life with Parkinson’s disease, and Gaby (Jessica Williams), who is in the midst of a divorce. It's a brilliant dichotomy that shows the therapists' lives outside their offices. Yet, in order for a show that deals with some weighty topics to land home, there has to be some level of finesse. The writers do a stellar job of allowing these characters to exhibit everything they're dealing with yet never making it feel overwhelming for the viewer. This allows those watching to reflect as the humor that is utilized to push the stories along makes it far more approachable and engaging.

There clearly was an emphasis from the creative team to make the show fun but still be able to stick the landing when delving into the therapist's lives. In the third episode, Jimmy is bothered that Gaby is having a divorce party and never seems fazed that her marriage has fizzled away. He ends up sharing how this is bothering him with Paul, opening up and admitting, “I didn't get to make that choice.” It's a powerful line but one that sums up everything that Jimmy is feeling in his grieving. Nestled amidst this humorous storyline of Gaby throwing herself a party comes this incredible character development — not just with Jimmy but also Gaby, who, upon time for the party to begin with Jimmy's arrival, ends up breaking down as it hits her. Yet, it's not all about her divorce from Nico (Adam Foster Ballard); it's the fact that she's been holding back her emotions about losing her best friend and Jimmy’s late wife, creating a touching interaction between the two that sees the layers being peeled back all while humor is woven in to soften the punch.

The writers do the same with Ford’s character, a gritty veteran in the industry who shows a softer side towards the end of the third episode. Earlier on it was shown how his Parkinson’s disease was making driving difficult for him. Both Jimmy and Gaby have offered to help, but he refuses, citing that Gaby is too much for him in the money – a scene had shown her jamming out in her car to Nine Days' “Absolutely” in a hysterical display. After not wanting to admit he needed help, Paul shows up one morning at her house and sits right in her car. Gaby tells Paul he “can't just be running around Pasadena getting in Black women’s Teslas.” The joke lands, but it quickly turns into a moment that shows Paul finally coming to grips with his situation as he asks if she'd drive him to work. There are plenty of instances through the first few episodes that see a clever blend of anchoring a serious manner between humor, which is exactly why this Apple TV+ series is so easy to fall in love with.

'Shrinking' Is Uplifting in its Own Way

Lukita Maxwell in Shrinking
Image via Apple TV+

Whereas Ted Lasso is on the nose in delivering the feel-good story as Ted does all he can to successfully build his team and get them all to play for one another, Shrinking is much more subtle in its ways of offering inspiration and not everything that's said will strike the same chord for every viewer. There are little moments in the show, like Jimmy trying to hold back his excitement when his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) finally comes down to eat dinner with him, where it may be a fleeting moment, but it has a powerful message. There's also plenty of stuff that will hit too close to home, but it's those narratives that provide real-world value just as Ted Lasso does in its inspiration.

Is it easy to see a widowed father struggling to raise and connect with his daughter or to see Ford's character dealing with worsening Parkinson's symptoms? Absolutely not, but the journey Shrinking is able to take the audience on in delivering the obstacles these characters face and the occasional communication breakdown between them that could have easily been avoided makes for a rewarding finish. It's all stuff that everyday people, unfortunately, deal with, and watching these characters handle the cards they've been dealt is refreshing in its own unique way.

Shrinking is now streaming on Apple+ with new episodes dropping every Friday.