Shrinking started out as a showcase for Jason Segel, who plays the titular shrink at hand. It's Jimmy's tragedy, and the growth he develops from overcoming his trauma characterises much of season 1 especially.
But it wasn't long before Harrison Ford's supporting role in Shrinking began to overshadow Jimmy, delving deeper into what life was like for his boss, Paul, as he came to terms with suffering from Parkinson's disease.
Season 3 marked the biggest shift in this direction yet with an hour-long premiere driven by Paul's wedding to Dr. Julie Baram (Wendie Malick), the neurologist treating his disease. Inappropriate? Technically, yes, although these crazy kids make it work anyhow.
What wasn't inappropriate, however, was the way that this episode opened with them practically naked in the bathroom together.
The scene itself is pretty straightforward. Paul's just shaving and chatting to his future wife while she prepares to take a shower. Pretty typical stuff for a couple their age who are living together. What's not typical or straightforward, however, is the fact that Paul is doing all this shirtless.
Harrison Ford is no stranger to a cheeky flash of pecs or torso. His open shirt in Indiana Jones launched a thousand ships, after all. But that was decades ago. He's still an iconic movie star, of course, even now at 83 years old. Yet how often do TV shows this mainstream depict older bodies so naturally like this without there being a very specific reason for doing so?
Shrinking co-creator Bill Lawrence told People last year that Ford was actually the one who requested to be shirtless in this scene:
"[Ford] called me up and he's like, 'I’m not going to shoot this…' If I’m shaving, I have to be shirtless." 10 push-ups later, Ford shot the scene that wound up in the season three premiere.
This striving for realism is a nice touch, but the by-product of doing so is what's really important here.
On and off screen, there's a tendency to sideline people of a certain age or forget them entirely. When they do show up, it's usually in smaller roles that play into tropes around kookiness or memory loss. What you don't get to see all that often is the simple fact that older people are still people.
It may seem simple, but yes, 83 year olds take their clothes off to shave or use the bathroom, and 83 year olds also flirt with their girlfriends. As Shrinking reminds us in scenes like this (and many more prior to it), senior citizens aren't sexless or incapable of romance. It's just that TV usually shies away from that aspect of their lives, flattening them out into broader stereotypes that few audiences would even question.
There are some exceptions, of course.
The latest season of Bridgerton gives Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell), the family's matriarch, a chance to find love for a change instead of endlessly matchmaking her kids. And Just Like That also celebrates love and sex for women in their fifties (one of the few things that show actually had going for it).
Yet there are even fewer examples of what this looks like for people who have grown past middle age once they retire.
A Man on the Inside touches on romance and even sex somewhat with Ted Danson's lead, but it's a lot harder to think of examples where lust and nudity come into play like they do in Shrinking. Grace & Frankie paved the way in some respects, although that show is long gone now.
That's not to say Paul and Julie are clawing at each other in every episode. None of the characters really do that, regardless of age, because it wouldn't fit the tone of this show. But what Shrinking does so well is organically remind us that people can still be sexual or attractive to others once they reach a certain age.
It's in the flirty remarks that Paul and Julie share. It's in the occasional kiss or body language the actors embody. And it's there in the big moments too like that big wedding smooch that closed out episode one of the third season.
Scenes like this prove that Paul and Julie's relationship is just as important as any other in the show, romantic or otherwise, easily slotting in alongside different narratives drawn from all walks of life. In fact, their connection is often the most interesting of the lot, especially with the depth that comes from navigating illness and finding love later in life.
Shrinking started out as Jimmy's show, but the shrink we all keep tuning in for is his boss, Paul. And given Jimmy's own love and admiration for Doctor Rhoades, we reckon he'd be ok with that.
New episodes of Shrinking air on Apple TV on Wednesdays. Seasons 1-2 are available to stream now on Apple TV. You can sign up to Apple TV now.
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