Written by Brian Gallivan (who also plays Stuart)
Directed by Randall Keenan Winston
Shrinking is back! And it’s a packed season opener. Which may be explained by the fact that this was originally produced as a two-parter, as the credits reveal – unclear if they needed an extra episode that would have gone beyond their original season order and combined this, or they just decided to trim this down for other reasons. But do not glance at your phone even once this episode, or you’ll likely miss some important plot setup for the rest of this season. (But you shouldn’t do that anyway, this show is too good!)
We start with Paul (Harrison Ford) struggling with his progressing Parkinson’s. He meets fellow Parkinson’s patient Gerry (Michael J. Fox) at the neurologist. It was about time Fox showed up on this show, given he’s worked with Bill Lawrence since their Spin City days (including a memorable stint on Scrubs) and he’s one of the most visible people living with the disease. It’s always good to see him.
Their new philosophy is “Fuck Parkinson’s”. Paul also vows to “suck the marrow” out of what’s left of his life, including taking Jimmy (Jason Segel) on a joyride (on a race track) giving Segel plenty of opportunity to ham it up. Paul and Julie (Wendy Malick) also want to get all their paperwork in order, and Jimmy suggests it may be easier to just get married – and that’s what they’ll do!
Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley) are meanwhile back to their own blissful married life (after she kissed someone else last season). She briefly gets insecure when Derek keeps making secret phone calls and Brian (Michael Urie) suggests he may be cheating on her cause of the “one year rule” where he’s allowed to do what she did to him. The phone calls however turn out to be their son Matthew (Markus Silbiger) who got fired (again) and is moving back in, an immediate menace who eats everything in sight.
Otherwise, Liz is her usual self, meddling in Bryan’s adoption process, as him and Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) are preparing for their baby to arrive. They still have not discussed what role the child’s birth mother Ava (Claudia Sulewski) will play in their lives. They decide she will have regular visits, even after Brian originally wants to make it a closed adoption.
Sean (Luke Tennie) is still hooking up with Paul’s hot neurologist Dr. Sykes (Amy Rosoff), but they decide to break it off, as he was just her post-divorce rebound and Sean agrees he, too, should look for something more serious. We’ve arrived at the overarching topic of this episode, and presumably this whole season: moving forward.
“If you’re not growing, you’re not living,” Paul advises sagely. He talks to Sean about “The Field”, “an intelligent energy force” and how “life is a conversation with the universe” – it feels oddly spiritual for him, but perhaps that’s also part of his own journey with Parkinson’s.
Gaby (Jessica Williams) is still dating Derrick (Damon Wayans Jr) and they say “I love you” to each other, even though he keeps sounding “like Morpheus”. She also feels unfulfilled in her current job, wanting to work with more challenging patients. But wasn’t she also lecturing? Or was that a temporary gig? It sounds like she’s going to move forward away from their shared practice this season.
In the meantime, she plans Paul and Julie’s wedding, against their will – or as it turns out mostly Paul’s will. Of course he caves at the last minute, realizing Julie wants this, and making good on his own promise to fully enjoy his life. Jimmy officiates and Paul’s daughter Meg (Lily Rabe) also attends – but without her husband nobody likes anyway. She flirts with Jimmy and says she wants to spend as much time as possible with her father… will this turn into more? Will she move to LA?
Notably, Jimmy also still meets with Louis (Brett Goldstein, thank fuck for that five o’clock shadow), the man who’s responsible for his wife’s death. They’re now the two on the park bench. He also urges him to “restart his life” – before the accident, he used to be a graphic designer, but has since worked as a barista at the (apparently terrible) coffee shop we saw him in last season. “I was finally feeling okay where I am, I don’t want to risk messing with that”, he admits. I keep saying Shrinking shows up whenever I need it to, given the first season aired during the 9 weeks of my hospitalization for depression (read my old recaps for that sob story). And yes, apparently it is doing it again. I am fine and much has changed, but in many ways, I feel that I am only taking certain steps towards my future now. It takes time.
Alice (Lukita Maxwell) gets paid a visit by Wesleyan’s soccer coach. She’s thrilled, but Jimmy is starting to feel sad about her leaving for college soon. Her match (with everyone cheering her on) goes well. Lawrence & Goldstein apparently have not had enough of football scenes, even after working on Ted Lasso together for two seasons. (The fourth season, albeit still without Lawrence, will deal with a women’s team and premiere this summer, as was just announced today.)
Speaking of off-screen connections, Mo Welch, Brett Goldstein’s opener on his stand-up tour, plays the appropriately lesbian Wesleyan coach here. She does want to sign Alice, but Alice declines. She’s too afraid she isn’t ready to leave her support system behind, and wants to lie to everyone that the coach turned her down. Thankfully, Sean knows the truth and rats her out. She fixes it later by calling her and playing the “dead Mom card” one last time. It’s been a crutch Paul has told her she should stop using. As a friend of mine said, over a year after, it’s no longer that her Mom just died – her Mom is dead. Moving forward.
Funniest line: “I look like I’m pleasuring myself to your financial troubles.” / “So the neighborhood was her vagina?” That whole Mr. Rogers exchange…
Biggest woof: At the end, Paul has his first hallucination that Gerry warned him about. Are we going to get a lot of random Michael J. Fox this way?
P.S:
The sexy wink – we’d all still hit that, Harrison. Gaby meanwhile wants to do Julie (and I still want bisexual Gaby to be a thing).
P.P.S:
Liz is wearing an “I Love LA” charity sweater in one scene– Shrinking films on the Warner Bros. lot but their on-location shoots take place in Pasadena and Altadena, including the outsides of Jimmy and Liz’s houses and the park we see regularly. The wildfires back in January 2025 hit Altadena, a historically Black neighborhood, particularly hard, also affecting several people who worked on the show; some even lost their homes. Several of the filming locations also got destroyed or devastated. The production of this season also had to adjust to it (more on that here.)
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I will cover Shrinking Season 3 weekly on Wednesdays. Find all my Season 1 & 2 recaps here. I also previously covered Ted Lasso Season 3, and reviewed Superbob and All of You.
