Shrinking finds its sweet spot

It’s not often that a show makes me audibly gasp with its guest stars, but Shrinking did so twice in its latest episode—first with the much-awaited reveal of who’d play Paul’s ex-wife and later with our first look at Gabby’s mom. And if you’re a fan of Gilmore Girls and/or The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, you likely did the same. But we’ll get to that shortly. Because maybe you first gasped during this episode when Summer (Rachel Stubington) all out tackled Alice (Lukita Maxwell) after learning she’d slept with sweet Connor (Gavin Lewis), whom Alice apparently had once described as “one of those little statue boys who peed on fountains.” I certainly did, especially when Alice got pummeled on the boob. 

The altercation, a rare moment of physical violence in a show committed to portraying more measured ways of dealing with thorny emotions, felt like a preface for things to come, namely the violence that closes the episode and which no doubt will unsettle Sean’s story going forward. And to think he was making so much progress. The struggling veteran was working, after all, not with one but with two therapists (who also watch games and socialize with him in ways that are clearly unethical). And that had led him to reckoning more forcefully with why he’s never confronted his father about how abandoned he felt. 

But perhaps Sean always knew deep down that such a conversation could never have any other result than the one he witnesses: Before he can even explain to his dad why he’s so jumpy around him, his father turns the conversation on his son. Didn’t he love him? Didn’t he care for him? Wasn’t that enough? It’s tough to hear hard truths, and so they’re stuck, unable to have a productive conversation that doesn’t devolve into hurt feelings and miscommunication.

Therein lies what makes Shrinking such a fascinating proposition. This is a show that wants to model how to deal with one’s own feelings and process them before they become thorns in the relationships you have with others. Yet those thorns are precisely what make up the bulk of the situational comedy we encounter on television. Comedies of manners require misunderstanding, hurt feelings, and adults acting, well, like children. What’s intriguing about “Honesty Era” is that it finds a sweet spot between a show where everyone is such an adult that you get sweet exchanges where the drama all but evaporates on sight and one where Summer punches Alice in the boob.

Take Paul (Harrison Ford). He’s clearly a man who knows that avoiding confrontation is not a good way forward. And yet that’s what he finds himself doing when his ex-wife Susan (played by Kelly Bishop!) shows up. Why is she suddenly here after all those years since she left him for cheating? The show makes perhaps too much of a meal out of Paul trying to ignore Susan while she and their daughter Meg (Lily Rabe) are hanging out at his house (he even recruits Michael Urie’s Brian for some help extricating him), but ultimately it all ends up being quite simple: “I felt like we should talk again before you die.” She’s long forgotten him, she adds later. There’s no point in wallowing. They can be adults about it all now. She even finds a way to get along with Julie (Wendie Malick).

Similarly, Gabby’s family problems straddle the line between being wildly overblown from her not wanting to hear what is truly happening and quickly realizing that it takes some courage to admit she’s wrong. Sure, she at first gets irked at her sister’s insistence that she show up for their mother (played by Vy herself, Vernee Watson!), whose cataracts are now quite literally endangering her life. (She got into a car accident with a tow truck, after all.) But once the two rehash their knotted relationship, they set a path forward that’s not quite as embittered. Gabby may have had to deal with her sister’s addiction for years, but as Jimmy (a true friend, finally showing up for her without any ulterior motives) points out, that’s no reason to shackle her to caretaking for their mom for the rest of her life.

If Jimmy was decidedly docile yet insightful with Gabby, it’s because he was chastened by Liz (Christa Miller), who explodes at him while on her deck once she realizes everything that’s going awry in her perfectly manicured life can be traced back to him: It’s his daughter who hurt her son, Connor. It’s his failed affair with Gabby that ruined their group hangs. It was his client who became a way for her to find her purpose (and then lose it). And it was his big mouth that got her in trouble with Derek (Ted McGinley). It turns out there is just one person in the world who makes him jealous, and Liz running into him and keeping that from him was a teensy bit of a problem. (Trust Jimmy to spill on the random meet-up in the form of a joke!) The outburst may well be Miller’s most accomplished work on the series so far. Her Liz has always been the stoic, above-it-all character amid a flurry of folks who wear their emotions on their sleeves. So to see her finally break free and let her anger run wild is a thing of beauty—not least because only she could make the concept of a “needy penis” something both hilarious and accurate.

Then again, maybe I also enjoyed that because I often want to scold Jimmy for his many decisions. It was nice of the show to have someone else do the scolding onscreen for once. But of course, the outburst is also anchored by Liz’s need to express her emotions. By verbalizing why she’s mad at Jimmy (it’s healthy, after all!), she’s processing her emotions.

The same cannot be said for Sean who’s at a loss as to how to grapple with his father’s anger and so, when he comes back and sees those petty construction workers from last week throwing a bottle onto the yard (a taunting practice they’ve been doing since their last run-in), he snaps. He follows them, baits them to fight him, and then refuses to fight back. He just wants to be hurt. 

It’s a painful bit to watch because it’s set against the lovely moments of family bonding that take place with Gabby and Paul: “When you’re connected by so much family and love,” as Susan tells her ex-husband, “forgiveness is the easy part.” What might it mean that Sean’s father couldn’t even fathom needing to offer that kind of forgiveness to his son? We’ll no doubt see that incident splinter out since it greatly affects everyone around Sean.

Stray observations

• • Cougar Town reunion! Mac (Lizzie’s old sex friend) is played by the dashing Josh Hopkins, a regular on that Bill Lawrence sitcom.
• • This shouldn’t be the takeaway from the episode but now I really want to own Liz’s “L’Ennui” sweatshirt (which, yes, I’ve already found online—don’t judge me!). 
• • How cute are the matching TL tiny tattoos Jimmy and Alice get? (It’s his way of getting her mind out of feeling like she’ll be the school slut once Summer tells everyone what she did.)
• • Apologies to Gabby but I’m with Jimmy. “Master class on how to choose an appropriate fuck buddy” would be a super popular class.
• • Thank you Shrinking for letting Kelly Bishop say “little baby chicken bitch” to Harrison Ford of all people! 10/10. No notes.
• • Speaking of great line deliveries, Ford keeps finding a way of playing tender notes within his curmudgeon character—like telling his son-in-law (as a way to shut down conversation) that he hopes his girlfriend and his ex-wife are talking about “how I fuck.”
• • Do you think we’ll ever meet “racist Pam,” whose construction/renovation inadvertently set up that final scene? And will she be played by a beloved character actress from a beloved 90s/2000s show?
• • In a similar vein, I love Liz saying Alice is the second person she loves the most (after Connor), which begs the question: Where are her other sons and will we ever meet them?