NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
At the beginning of season one, my colleague Mark asked, “Would Losing Jimmy Hurt The Show?” regarding Shrinking. As we approach the season 3 finale, I think he might be on to something. All the love in the world to Jason Segel and Lukita Maxwell, but the story has evolved beyond the Jimmy and Alice story. Alice is off to college, and Jimmy is stuck in limbo. Should the show take a page from its fellow Apple TV comedy and work in a soft reset for season 4?
Shrinking, like Ted Lasso, was only supposed to be a three-season run. Both quickly shot up to the top of their streaming list and instantly became fan favorites. The truth is that Shrinking probably doesn’t get the love that Ted Lasso does. Still, it is every bit as good, if not better at times. Ted Lasso season 4 is moving on with a women’s team after their soft reboot. What could Shrinking learn from this?
With an amazing cast over the past three seasons, the show has moved past character-centric into an ensemble cast. No longer do the “secondary” characters feel like they take space in the protagonist’s (Jimmy and Alice) lives. As an audience, we’ve come to love Sean, Gaby, Liz, Derek, and Brian’s stories just as much. Even Summer’s one-liners and pop-ups have become a charming part of the show.
So the real question is, how do they pull it off? Paul is moving on. While Harrison Ford’s character is one of the funniest parts of the show, Gaby is likely going to be in charge from here on out. Her story has completely pivoted, and she could not only be the “new Paul” but also the “new Jimmy”. While her struggles might not be the same as Jimmy losing his wife. However, she has her own personal life that isn’t perfect.
With her mother needing home health care, her grief and guilt over Mya, her constant reservations about Derek 2, and her need to let her sister nurture her own life, Gaby is juggling a lot and will now be taking over the practice. Heck, we don’t even know if she properly grieved for Tia. Soon enough, she could be facing her own “compassion fatigue” in the same manner as Jimmy. Unless the show writes Paul out completely, he could be her lifeline from time to time. He can keep her grounded, only a phone call away.
Who could she take on as patients? It would be great if the show could explore Summer a bit more. Maybe Liz guilts Gaby into being a guiding light for her ever-drifting son Matthew. They’ve made it clear that Jorge seems to think all he has is the food truck. Maybe he takes it over for Sean and struggles without him, so he turns to Gaby. With such a brilliantly cast show, they’ve left so many threads to pull that carrying on shouldn’t be too hard.
But where does that leave our characters like Brian and Charlie, Liz, and Sean? This could also be another potential setback for Gaby. Each of those characters has its own pitfalls. It wouldn’t be too hard to write a story where everyone keeps turning to her, and she struggles to be their catch-all for emotions, spiraling from a lack of separation between work/home life. It’s a heavy burden to be the one who empathizes with everyone and needs to be the caretaker. People gravitate to Gaby, and it could end up being too much.
Even if the show pivots from Jimmy, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some place in the story. Maybe he finds his way back to Sofi, making the occasional appearance. Maybe he distances himself from his former practice and opens his own space, cutting ties with the life that hurt him the most and moving on. He could just as easily still be a part of the show without shoehorning him in once his story is complete. If Jimmy gets the closure he deserves, it will be hard as a writer to find his place in the show. Using Ted Lasso again, that would be like bringing Jamie Tartt in for comedic effect when the show has pivoted to the women’s team.
We love Jimmy and Alice as characters, but if Shrinking was always meant as 3 seasons, then their stories should be coming to an end. That doesn’t mean the show doesn’t have so many more to tell.
