Shrinking Review

Shrinking is built from the same materials as Ted Lasso, a broken man, a found family and an insistence that people are fundamentally kind, and it wears them lighter. Segel's Jimmy is a mess whose breach of professional ethics the show treats as therapy for him rather than malpractice for his patients, which is the premise's central evasion and the price of the comedy. What makes it work is the cast around him.

Harrison Ford, in his first television comedy, is superb as a gruff analyst facing Parkinson's, and gives the show its best scenes; Jessica Williams is the standout as a colleague who steals every episode she is in. The daughter, the neighbour and the patient turned friend are all given real arcs. The writing is generous and funny without being especially surprising, the plots are soft, and the show resolves conflict quickly because it would rather everyone got along. It is comfort television made with skill, and honest about that.