On Shrinking Season 1 Episode 4, Harrison Ford sings along to Sugar Ray’s “Every Morning.”
Everything else could have been terrible, and it would not have mattered.
Harrison Ford singing along to “Every Morning” is a treasure of a TV moment and should be mentioned many times on the year-end lists.
As funny as it is on its own, there’s added hilarity if you watch Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest since it also features a character singing “Every Morning.” Apple TV+, your willingness to give royalties to Sugar Ray is paying off.
Beyond the Sugar Ray love, Shrinking continues doing well with what it has been doing well.
It gets a lot of mileage out of letting Harrison Ford be funny.
Jimmy continues to be self-centered and proves why rebel therapy is a bad idea.
Jimmy: Where should we start?
Sean: Why do we come all the way here when we can just talk at home?
Jimmy: Sean, my notebook’s here.
Professionally, Jimmy receives no victories this week: Grace won’t answer his phone calls; he mistakenly leads Wally into thinking he’s romantically interested in her and gets into an argument with Sean over Sean’s unwillingness to open up about his time in Afghanistan.
He and Sean patch things up personally, but it remains to be seen if Jimmy can reestablish a therapeutic relationship with him.
Jimmy’s self-centeredness has yet to get tiresome because funniness forgives a lot. How could you not laugh as Jimmy stares down the guy who defiled his daughter while bouncing on a trampoline?
At the same time, the way Jimmy ripped into Liz and Sean shows the tolerance limit for his antics. It’s good it didn’t take too long for Jimmy to realize he was in the wrong with both of them and start owning up to his selfishness.
Liz: I’m sorry. I hate getting people in trouble when they don’t deserve it.
Jimmy: And when they do deserve it?
Liz: Well, that’s my favorite thing.
The most surprising development was the extended interactions between Paul and Brian. Actually, I should say them having any interaction at all was a surprise.
TV shows tend to segment their casts quickly. Once they find pairings they like, the writers tend to devote so much time to them that they refuse to explore other potentially good dynamics. Hence there are jokes about why Phoebe and Chandler from Friends never hang out together.
Shrinking is determined to avert that.
Liz and Paul interacting previously was kind of a surprise, but given Liz’s habit of being overly involved in other’s people lives, it’s not terribly surprising she would actively seek out Paul.
Paul and Brian is a much more unexpected team-up. Brian is Jimmy’s best friend and Gaby’s friend but not a therapist. The friend who has a different profession from the other main characters tends to be a pretty isolating role since they don’t often interact with characters who aren’t the friend.
Paul: Is attorney-client privilege only for criminal lawyers, or is it for pretend lawyers as well?
Brian: Estate law is real law. I’m a real lawyer.
Making Brian an estate law attorney was a great way of providing a plausible reason for him and Paul to have one-on-one time. It also created a situation where he had to open up about his daughter and Parkinson’s when he usually wouldn’t.
Paul and Brian’s interactions are similar to those of Paul and Jimmy. The characters bounce off each other similarly, and they’re equally funny together. They make for a good stand-in while Paul and Jimmy’s professional falling out continues.
However, there is a significant difference in Paul and Brian’s interactions compared to Paul and Jimmy’s that prevent the two dynamics from being identical. Brian is the counselor in his and Paul’s relationship, and there’s another reason why having Brian be an attorney makes lot of sense.
It will be interesting to see if Shrinking will explore the similarities between attorneys and therapists in more depth in the future.
Paul stepping into Jimmy’s shoes continues with Meg’s visit. Their relationship is not as outwardly contentious as Jimmy and Alice’s, but you can see similarities in how both sets of fathers and daughters struggle to connect.
The show continues to do an excellent job of paralleling Paul and Jimmy’s stories without being obnoxiously overt about it.
Liz and Gaby interacting wasn’t new, but they have reached a new phase in their relationship. The antagonism between the two could have lasted longer, but they are way more fun as friends.
It’s ok because I have Derek, and I love Derek so much. But he’s retiring soon, and I can only love him for like an hour and forty-five minutes a day.
Liz
Them as friends should also open up a lot of new subjects to explore, whereas keeping them antagonistic would keep them stuck in the same plotline of whether Liz needs to be less involved with Alice and Jimmy.
As a bonus, watching them make Jimmy squirm was entertaining and appropriate karmic payback.
The show has good instincts for when conflicts should be resolved and when they should simmer.
Speaking of simmering conflicts, Paul shuts down shop talk between him and Jimmy but does not give him the complete silent treatment.
It feels like the show is having its cake and eating it too because they want there to be consequences for Jimmy but, at the same time, do not want to give up the Paul and Jimmy scenes.
However, Paul’s reasoning feels plausible, so the half-silent treatment idea does not come across as a cop-out.
Plus, Jimmy trying to eat a potato like an apple was a great physical comedy bit that received the right amount of screentime.
Over to you, TV Fanatics!
What was funnier — Paul or David from Mythic Quest singing “Every Morning?”
How do you think Jimmy will handle Alice’s feelings for Sean?
Hit the comments below.
Becca Newton is a staff writer for TV Fanatic.