Marvelous Geeks

Shrinking’s “Honesty Era” is exactly what the title promises it’ll be—an episode for hard truths and significant changes. Written by Zack Bornstein and directed by Jamie Babbit, “Honesty Era” pushes toward the turning point into the halfway mark, leaving viewers with comforting beats that’ll hold us over while the more challenging narratives start to unravel.

While we don’t see the immediate continuation of Brian’s conversation with Louis in “Made You Look,” we see advancement from all the seeds writers are planting to create more riveting and relatable stories. This week, Summer learns the truth about Alice and Connor sleeping together, Brian and Charlie start talking about adoption, Jimmy and Gaby put aside their issues, Liz goes through a breakdown, Sean confronts his father, but it backfires, and Paul’s ex-wife (guest starring Kelly Bishop) gives him an essential piece of closure. In more ways than one, it’s a gripping episode that continues to place characters in the front seat. 

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Apple TV+’s Shrinking returns with a near-perfect episode that expertly balances humor and grief with thoughtful narrative arcs that are sure to make the sophomore season a riveting success. Written by Rachna Fruchbom and directed by Randall Keenan Winston, the thematic focus on human fragility ensures that each of our main characters has a meaty route toward growth and a better understanding of themselves. 

When we last saw these characters, they were floating slightly above rock bottom. We knew that Grace’s decisions in the Season 1 finale would change much, but the subtlety of how everything pans out is where the episode shines best—the quietly catastrophic ending throws us straight into unruly tides.

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Shrinking Season 1 concludes with the type of finale that wraps most arcs up beautifully while leaving some understandably lingering questions in the air. Since the show will return for a second season, it’s only natural that it’d do an organic job depicting that trauma, heartaches, and grief cannot be fixed overnight. As much as the show makes plenty of beautiful progress, it also understands that in order to unravel the chaos, it must continue to dig deeper and push harder.

Still, in every sense of the word, the series proves that it’s the kind of show that will continue to get better and stronger, bringing nuanced and meticulously thoughtful arcs to our screen every time. It’s sharp, innovative, and profoundly vulnerable in allowing itself to carve a space for mental health conversations and the importance of crafting a narrative that harps on the idea that sharing emotions isn’t a weakness. But the finale leaves us in dire straits, even after thoroughly satisfying moments.

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Shrinking Season 1, Episode 9, “Moving Forward,” is aptly titled as the penultimate of this arc. It’s an episode that loudly and quietly explores the perils of grief through moments that demand to be felt. While the show is far from over, with a renewal announcement that thankfully came last week, there are stepping stones here that equate to healing.

Where Derek retires, Paul makes a significant decision regarding his relationship with Meg, and Jimmy takes time to grieve again while celebrating Tia’s birthday. But the thing about grief and life and humanity is that even when all three intermingle, they do so apart from each other. One cannot exist without the other, but they don’t all work together either, setting human beings on different trajectories as they move on, taking everything day by day. In the grieving process, we’re all told that one day at a time is the best way to go, but sometimes amid that, our complexities force us to forget things. Our humanity becomes the problem, making an even bigger mess of things before we clean them up.

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We’re nearly a quarter into the series, and Shrinking Season 1, Episode 7, “Apology Tour,” dives deep into making amends. Or, at least, it attempts to because we all know that apologizing for something and putting action behind making matters right are two vastly different conceptions. And after a night of highs like in “Imposter Syndrome,” nearly everyone’s due for some sort of an apology.

Yet, as the show accomplishes best thus far, it shows us the progress that’s made, which sometimes veers from point A to Z seamlessly, while other times, you take a couple of steps back and reevaluate. Shrinking “Apology Tour” gives us examples of both situations, showcasing the complexities of progress through well-written, hilariously organic character arcs. It’s a series that continues to get better and more promising, and a quiet episode as poignant as this, written by Brett Goldstein, is proof of it. We went from a big party to a small gathering where the intimate moments reveal what’s important and what’s working.

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Shrinking Season 1, Episode 6, “Imposter Syndrome,” is an absolute game changer. It’s a brilliant, quietly evocative episode that brings to our screens an unbeatable message, which seamlessly proves why the show is outstanding. Stay open—two vulnerable people will always find a way to connect. Vulnerability as the key to unveiling strength and the solution to maintaining nearly every relationship is something we’ve been screaming about for ages here at Marvelous Geeks; it’s the foundation of our website.

And for Shrinking’s “Imposter Syndrome” to address vulnerability while simultaneously taking a page from the book of subtlety by showcasing how the fastidious feeling makes its way into our daily lives is no small feat. Annie Mebane nails this show’s emotional and hilariously moving appeal with exceptional ease in an episode that’s all about trying too hard.

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If last week’s “Fifteen Minutes” was all about timed crying, then Shrinking Season 1, Episode 4, “Potatoes,” is about coming to terms with the words we can’t say aloud—the confessions that don’t come easily and the ones that do. It’s about rebuilding and rewiring and learning to understand that everyone suffers from something on the inside, no matter how okay they seem.

It’s about messing up and coming clean while revealing stubborn traits many of us carry, whether we’d like to admit it or not. Would I chew on a raw potato just to get back at someone else? No, but it’s entirely understandable and completely (albeit ridiculously) human to showcase Jimmy doing so. As much as Shrinking is a series about grief, its central theme focuses heavily on reconnecting with people, and in this episode, it’s not merely about Jimmy and Alice, but it’s about Paul and his daughter, Meg. And reconnecting or relearning how to bond with someone is seldom an effortless stunt, especially after prior complications or internal battles that people are still fighting. Through a surprising turn of events and some awkward conversations I would personally avoid like the plague with my family back when I was a teen, Shrinking’s “Potatoes” manages another winning episode.

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