Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

TV: Shrinking violet? No… Harrison Ford’s a grumpy old guy

© Beth DubberShrinking
Shrinking

Ted Lasso became an unexpected hit by combining the macho world of football with kind, upbeat humour. It’s a remarkable achievement given football and tenderness don’t really go together unless it’s the tender feeling you have after receiving a stud to the calf from a furious centre half.

Bill Lawrence, the show’s co-creator has teamed up with Lasso star Brett Goldstein and Jason Segel to recreate that magic in the world of therapy, in Shrinking. Segel is to Shrinking what Jason Sudeikis is to Lasso: the bumbling main character who gets by on sheer likeability alone.

He’s Jimmy Laird (sounds like a Scottish footballer, as it happens) who is a cognitive behavioural therapist who has lost his way after the death of his wife.

Fed up of listening to his patients repeating the same mistakes he decides to be honest with them; in fact he’s so transgressive he demands one client leave their abusive husband.

This isn’t especially transgressive as much as sensible advice, really, but like loveable football manager Ted, we’re establishing Jimmy’s nice guy credentials.

It seems like it might be as likeable as Lasso, especially as it features Harrison Ford doing a TV comedy turn. He’s basically old, cantankerous and likeable.

My therapist once told me to be true to myself. Ford is certainly doing that here…


Shrinking, AppleTV+