Spoilers for Shrinking Season 2 are ahead. If you aren’t caught up, you can stream the series with an Apple TV+ subscription.
There’s no easy way to talk about death, and Shrinking Season 2 really hones in on that point. While the first season was about Jimmy finding himself again after the death of his wife, the sophomore season introduces us to the drunk driver who killed her, presenting a whole new set of challenges for Jason Segel’s character, especially when it comes to telling his daughter Alice about it all.
Of course, in a real Shrinking way, Jimmy breaks the news that the driver showed up at his office to his daughter in a surprisingly funny way, making for a great scene in the series. So, when I had the chance to chat with Jason Segel about his project on the 2024 TV schedule and this big moment between the father and daughter, he told me why it’s a great example of how the show balances comedy and drama, saying:
That is a really good example of what I think is really great about the show, all modesty aside, is that we're dealing with pretty big and heavy issues at times, but we always do it through the lens of how clumsy it ends up being in real life, you know?
Life is clumsy, and this scene illustrates that perfectly and hilariously.
After spending the first half of the episode stressing about how to tell Alice that the drunk driver who killed her mom (who is played by Shrinking’s co-creator Brett Goldstein) came to his office, eventually he works up the courage. However, it's at an incredibly poorly timed moment as Lukita Maxwell’s character was celebrating passing her driver’s test when he broached the subject of their dead loved one. The conversation went like this:
Jimmy: Speaking of cars, do you remember what happened to your mom in one? Oh goddammit, goddammit!
Alice: What?
Jimmy: I’m sorry. I’ve been trying to find a way in. That was not it. Sweetie, the other driver from your mom’s accident came to my office.
Then, the scene ends with Derek piping up from his balcony to poke fun at Jimmy asking “Speaking of cars?” To which Jimmy jumps up and down and throws a tantrum about his neighbor spying on him.
Overall, this whole situation is equal parts funny and tragic, and that’s kind of Shrinking’s whole thing. Segel elaborated on that point further, saying:
Like in a drama, it would be a dramatic scene of, ‘Let's sit down and talk,’ but that's not really how it goes in real life. You work up your courage, and then you get it wrong, and the phone rings in the middle of the speech, you know what I mean? And so I think that we all try to write things that are reflective of how clumsy life is.
The Shrinking cast is made up of brilliant dramatic and comedic actors, and they’re able to handle issues like death, grief, medical issues, family drama, marriage and more with humor and heart.
At first glance, you wouldn't expect a show whose main characters deal with things like death, grief, Parkinson's and PTSD to be funny. However, Shrinking is genuinely one of the funniest on TV right now, because it leans into the natural clumsiness of life.
It’s a hard balancing act to pull off moments like the one Segel and I talked about, but it makes for an amazing product – which is probably why Shrinking was just renewed for a third season and is considered one of Apple TV+’s best shows.
Now, it’ll be interesting to see how Jimmy and Alice continue to navigate through the grief of losing their loved one while also dealing with the driver who hit her. To see how that plays out, you can stream new episodes of Shrinking every Wednesday on Apple TV+.
