Shrinking Recap: Bad Decisions

It’s common knowledge by now that Harrison Ford is the best part of Shrinking, so pretty much any major story centered on Paul should be good. Beyond the rare treat of seeing Ford’s gravitas applied in a sitcom-grump role, Paul also serves an important purpose as a foil to Jimmy. Jimmy’s conduct as a therapist tends to be extremely unethical and unrealistic, obviously, but Paul helps us buy into the show’s reality by presenting a levelheaded and by-the-book counterpoint.

But the writers also smartly understand that this show doesn’t work if Paul is always right, as we saw when he met Jimmy in the middle by pursuing a technically unethical friendship with Ray a couple episodes ago (a friendship he reveals this week). “Made You Look” continues further down that path by showing Paul in an even more vulnerable state than in previous weeks, put in the nightmarish position of feeling jealous of Jimmy.

The truth is as much as Jimmy did screw up by overstepping with Sean (to put it lightly), they had (and have) a very real connection. Sean feels comfortable opening up to him about his issues with his dad, and he’s not quite there yet with Paul. Jimmy does his best to resist therapizing his old patient — well, sort of — but in the end, there’s not much of a choice. While they’re on an errand together, Sean gets triggered by the taunting of a few aggressive contractors remodeling the neighbor’s house, blacking out and almost starting a fight. Back home, he emotionally explains the root of his resentment toward his dad: Tim downplayed Sean’s depression and PTSD when he came back from Afghanistan, then kicked him out using the rationale of “tough love.” Maybe their relationship is in a superficially better place now and Sean is still quick to defend his dad lest he sound ungrateful. But the peace between them is tenuous, sustained by Sean repeatedly swallowing his feelings, while Tim obliviously takes the credit for his success.

Compared to our messy protagonist’s usual antics, Jimmy didn’t do that much wrong here. So when Paul snaps at him, it’s clearly coming from a deeper place — he’s worried that the Parkinson’s is starting to take a serious toll on his abilities as a therapist and wounded by the idea that this younger therapist can do his job better. After confirmation from his daughter, Meg, that Paul does indeed have a big ego, he gets unusually candid with Jimmy, admitting his fears. Jimmy gives him the reassurance he needs that he’s still great at what he does, even if it’s harder to take notes now. He’ll be straight with him when it comes time to stop.

It’s a solid story for the two characters, continuing to nicely balance Paul’s voice-of-reason status with the struggles that bring out his imperfect side. And it’s always helpful to have a reminder that Jimmy can be competent.

With Jimmy and Paul taking the central bromance spot in this episode, Brian needs other people to bounce off of during his own crisis. Suddenly his husband is insistent that he wants a baby, something they’d never discussed seriously before. While accompanying Liz on a trip to take photos of shelter dogs on death row (this woman has a lot of spare time on her hands), Brian reveals the real reason for his hesitance: He thinks he’d be a bad dad. Charlie’s earnest entreaty after meeting with an adoption advocate doesn’t totally shift his thinking on that.

Part of me wishes Brian stuck with his initial stated desire not to have kids, just to see what kind of drama could result. But, of course, the story goes for the most heartwarming ending with everyone assuring him that he’d be a great dad. Still, it’s nice to see Brian in a self-aware mode, calling himself vain, narcissistic, mean, and judgmental while reflecting on his own dad issues.

Season two is doing a good job so far of keeping the dynamics fresh and switching up which characters are making mistakes at any given moment. For once, Alice is the messiest of all, frantically hiding what she and Connor did from everyone else. (Her panicked escape from his house is set to the Strokes’ “Bad Decisions,” an obvious but good choice.) This cannot get back to Summer, which means it’s definitely getting back to Summer sooner rather than later.

At least Gaby is on the upswing! A new love interest just dropped: Derrick, played by Damon Wayans Jr., one of the best guys you can get on your sitcom. Derek is the wingman this time, introducing his old co-worker in an effort to help Gaby get her groove back post-Jimmy. She’s resistant at first, but after some pleasant flirting with Derrick and some wholesome encouragement from Derek, she texts him. We don’t see much of the actual date — Gaby has to drop everything to visit her mom in the hospital after a car accident — but the vibes seem promising.

Making Ted McGinley a series regular this year was a good move; it’s great to see Derek develop distinct dynamics with each of the other cast members. My only worry is that the character will shift a little too much away from his true weirdo qualities as he becomes an unlikely beacon of wisdom. Characters like Josh Segarra’s Lance on The Other Two have shown that Wise, Self-Possessed Himbo can be one of the most enjoyable comedy character types, but this episode goes a tad too far with the “Derek is the best” chatter for my taste. I prefer the Derek who spies on Jimmy from his deck.

It does feel like this season’s conflict is on the verge of ratcheting up, even without the obvious foreshadowing of Paul’s warning that “there’s some bad shit headed this way,” accompanied with the visual of Tim discovering Sean’s weird living situation. In the final scene, Louis, a.k.a. Double D, makes contact with another character, Brian, who instantly recognizes him and even goes after him when he sees how distraught Louis is. It’s a bit of an unbelievable choice, but I guess that’s why the script made a point of showing other characters point out Brian’s empathetic nature, right?

I’m more curious than ever about what exactly happened following Tia’s death; as others have pointed out, Louis somehow escaped jail time despite the seemingly clear-cut nature of what happened. With eight episodes to go in this longer season, there’s still much we don’t know, but I’m excited to see it play out.

Progress Notes

• The Liz-and-Sean beef is squashed pretty quickly when they go to therapy together, so that’s nice. But it’s not like she’s working at the truck again, so we might still see a little less of them together in the coming episodes.

• Harrison Ford saying “What — you want me to pull my pants down and make my ass clap?”

• “Maybe we should give them a second.” “Why? This is such an intimate moment.” “That’s why, Michael.”

• “Who’s having a baby?” “Brian.” “You’re not even showing!”

• I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of that adoption-advocate character, who was pretty funny in his short appearance. “I like to make it fun.”

• “We also know her as Racist Pam” is probably the line of the episode.

• “When you give birth to that baby — or, in your case, unbox it …”

• “Can you take the maple bacon out of the oven and then can you open up all the windows so that the house doesn’t smell like maple bacon?” “You can just say ‘bacon’ — you’re in a rush.”