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+
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