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Shrinks (Apple TV+)
Harrison Ford says he continues to work at 82 because it gives him 'essential human contact'. But if she's going to star in sitcoms like Shrinking, she'd better join a bowls club.
Shrinkage is one of the worst American comedies. It's laborious and original, the characters are stereotypical, the sets are too fake, and the dialogue is elbow-deep in schmaltz.
Ford plays a psychiatrist with Parkinson's disease who mentors a middle-aged colleague named Jimmy (Jason Segal), whose wife was killed by a drunken driver.
If that doesn't sound like a bundle of laughs, wait until you meet Jimmy's housemate Sean (Luke Tenny), an ex-military man with anger management issues and PTSD.
Still not laughing? Try this one-liner, delivered in Ford's best gravelly mumble: 'Anytime Sean feels out of sorts, he seeks outside help.'
The psychotherapy setting should be fun. Biggest US sitcom centered on two psychiatrists – Kelsey Grammer's Frasier (David Hyde Pearce's version, not Nicholas Lyndhurst's lampoon sequel)
Shrinkage is one of the worst American comedies. It's labored, the characters are stereotypical, the sets are too fake, and the dialogue is elbow-deep in schmaltz.
To give Sean the 'tools' to help with that disorganized feeling (I think there was something in my gas boiler as well), Ford teaches him the 'reversal of dissociation' therapy: imagining what he fears most and 'moving towards the pain'.
It's not only funny, it's terrible advice. Naturally, this works wonders for Sean – he has an epiphany, stops tormenting himself with guilt, and finds the courage to tell his boss that he doesn't want to be interviewed on his friend's podcast. What lump in the throat, what?
Earlier this month, Ford told Vanity Fair, 'As far as I'm concerned, everything I do is a joke.' Granted, he's delivered some of cinema's best wisecracks since Humphrey Bogart's peak, as Han Solo and Indiana Jones. But witty writing requires witty writing, and that's where contractions abound.
This is doubly frustrating because the psychotherapy setting is supposed to be fun. The biggest US sitcom centered around two psychiatrists – Kelsey Grammer's Frasier (David Hyde Pearce's version, not Nicholas Lyndhurst's lampoon sequel).
And mob boss Tony's tense confession sessions with his therapist on The Sopranos infused that masterful crime drama with dark humor. Shrink and fail to deliver anything like that. Instead, it's a mishmash of raunchy sex gags, humdrum domestic scenes and psychojargon.
Characters often appear unexpectedly and other characters overreact – a cheap and repetitive device to create 'humor', even if it doesn't seem like a running joke.
It's a mishmash of raunchy sex gags, humdrum domestic scenes and psychojargon.
Characters often appear unexpectedly and other characters overreact – though this doesn't seem like a running joke.
Jimmy and his next-door neighbor, Derek, hop or skip on the spot, like all the dads in American comedies. Their teenage children – played by actors in their 20s – serve no other purpose than to be supportive and wise beyond their years.
Naturally there's a gay best friend: his name is Brian (Michael Urie), and he's also friends with Jimmy's neighbor. Why can't they have their own gay best friend? I can't imagine them being in short supply in California.
It's hard to guess what Harrison Ford found so humorous about shrinking. But he might be smiling to himself since his agent told him what Apple was willing to pay.
