Shrinking review — makers of Ted Lasso return with feel-good comedy

The first episode of a new comedy on Apple TV Plus opens with a man joylessly indulging in sex, booze and drugs, and ends with someone being beaten up. Welcome to Shrinking, the latest piece of sentimental comfort television from the creators of Ted Lasso.

If the book-ends of the pilot sound a little dark, then it’s because the rest of the 10-part series tells a feel-good tale of emotional enlightenment, self-betterment and support. It follows Jimmy (Jason Segel), a fortysomething psychotherapist who has become all id following the death of his wife.

While everyone seems concerned about him, Jimmy finds himself experiencing “compassion fatigue” at work. One day, after being worn down by an endless stream of mundane problems, he decides to change tack. Shedding boundaries (and ethics), he bluntly starts telling clients what to do and taking them out of the clinic to confront their issues directly. He in turn begins to work through some of his own — not least his strained relationship with daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell).

But what begins as an intriguing, sideways look at the limitations of traditional therapy — and the troubled inner lives of those who treat us — is soon watered down by platitudinous exchanges, unearned catharsis and insistent articulations of feelings. In fact, for a show about psychology, there seems to be very little recognition that there’s even such a thing as the subconscious.

Anodyne though it may be, Shrinking does have the potential to grow on us. Segel is easy to root for as the rumpled leading man with “resting dead-wife face”, and his earnest emoting is nicely offset by Jimmy’s boss and reluctant mentor, Paul, who’s played by a newcomer to TV comedy called Harrison Ford. Crotchety but caring is hardly a strenuous brief for him, but he quickly proves to have a natural instinct for comic delivery.

Other therapy shows such as The Patient may be more likely to keep us on the couch, but none of them can boast Indiana Jones himself belting out a 1990s pop classic.

★★★☆☆

Episodes 1 and 2 on Apple TV Plus from January 27. New episodes released weekly

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