TV Series "Shrinking" S2 — Is Therapy Really Like This? (Part 2)
Published on January 3, 2024 by Zencare Team. Written by David Rothman, LCSW and Allegra Balmadier, Content Manager at Zencare.
Welcome to part 2 of this series! This article contains thoughts from Allegra, Zencare’s Content Manager (and big Shrinking fan) and insights from therapist David Rothman, LCSW. Note that this blog post is full of spoilers — you’ve been warned!
We left off at Episode 6: In a Lonely Place. Sean just landed in the hospital after getting into a fight. Paul and Jimmy try to connect with Sean's dad Tim. Alice finds out about Brian and Louis. Mac, an old flame of Liz's, is introduced — and there's tension.
Episode 7: Get in the Sea
Synopsis: Summer goes viral on Tik Tok with a video calling Alice a “cheater bitch”. Jimmy is ranked as a generous 4 in Gaby’s list of hottest people she’s hooked up with. Jimmy spends a whole day with a client in order to help him through some barriers to help him attend his best friend’s wedding. Liz spends more and more time with Mac behind Derek’s back — it does NOT go well. Everyone gets in the sea to figure out if Brian and Charlie should accept the baby that a mother has chosen them for. Alice gets suspended over a fight at school with Summer. Jimmy catches Alice, Louis and Brian having dinner together.
Allegra: If the sea wasn’t so far away from me (I’m also in Pasadena, where Shrinking is based) and…gross — I’d also get in the sea to help figure out issues! A change of scenery always does me wonders. I also love how in this episode that Alice gets some more perspective on how even though she has problems, like the grief of losing her mother, it doesn’t give her permission to act like other people’s issues are not important. And I love Liz – but I was so icked out by her hanging out with someone she had a relationship with privately, especially when her VERY CHILL husband has a problem with him! Red flags all around! Why did you let it get this far!?
David: I love it when this show shows some actual therapy! Exposure and response prevention therapy is one of my favorite modalities, and this episode does a good job in showing what it looks like; though since it’s TV, Dan (the patient) makes significant progress in a day, whereas normal exposure work can take weeks and has much more gradual progress. Obviously it was played for laughs, but the therapist in me felt bad for the other clients that Jimmy had to have cancelled on for the day just to give Dan a day-long session of exposure therapy. It was really cool to see Dan slowly, but surely, get more and more comfortable with each situation that Jimmy sets up for him. Ignoring the absurdity of Dan swimming in the ocean at the same time with his therapist’s closest friends, it’s really cool to see him be comfortable enough to swim up to Brian to give him some helpful advice. Jimmy does an excellent job of helping Dan realize and integrate his accomplishments; sometimes therapists assume that the progress we see in our patients is also obvious to them, but often it’s not, especially in exposure work! Dan starts out the day afraid to talk to other people, but finishes with him more comfortable doing so and ready to go to his friend’s wedding.
Ugh seeing Derek, who’s almost always joyful and light-hearted, being heartbroken by Liz’s infidelity is gut-wrenching to watch. Liz definitely would have averted the whole thing with more honest and direct communication of her needs to Derek, but I think she does the right thing here by coming clean to her husband, even though it’s a hard conversation to have.
Episode 8: Last Drink
Synopsis: This episode is a whole time jump into the past. We see Louis’s relationship with his fiancée and we see what Jimmy’s life was like before his wife passed and the moments leading up to the accident and months right after. Louis breaks up with his fiancée, Alice tries to connect with Jimmy but he’s in a deep deep pit of grief, depression and substance misuse. Then it jumps back to the current timeline. Now we deal with the repercussions of Jimmy discovering the three of them having dinner, and Liz’s very very short affair. Paul’s Parkinson's progresses a bit more.
Allegra: The beginning of this episode, all I can think about is how you would get through infidelity in a relationship like Derek and Liz’s. But I love how later on we get to see Liz taking ownership and Derek sharing how he should have been there for her when she shared she felt underwater. It’s definitely not an excuse for cheating, but great relationships have great communication. It’s also really hard to forgive, which is a theme we see in this episode. Derek forgiving Liz, Jimmy forgiving Louis. Jimmy trying forgiving himself as well. Forgiveness is SO hard.
David: Paul choosing to share his last drink of alcohol with Jimmy is a huge moment for both characters. Paul is making the choice to stop drinking alcohol for the betterment of his health, which would make any therapist happy to hear! Paul simultaneously shows great vulnerability with and great empathy for Jimmy by sharing his last drink with him; it’s a moment Jimmy needed because he’s been racked with guilt with how he didn’t show up for Alice when his wife/her home passed. It was a beautiful, poignant moment.
Episode 9: Full Grown Dude Face
Synopsis: Jimmy spends time with Sean and his friend Jose. Alice tries to reenter the world by dating and going to a dance with a boy at another school. Gaby’s sister plans to join the Army. Brian starts spiraling because he wants to make a good first impression with a prospective mother putting her child up for adoption, so he gets a crash course in parenting from Liz.
Allegra: This episode’s theme is probably setting boundaries! Gaby trying to set boundaries with her mom and Alice trying to set some boundaries about her romantic relationships. But I think this episode does a great job at covering the importance of having a support system, or a village as Brian says.
David: Like Allegra said, this episode's theme is all about boundaries. For that reason, it’s still strange to see Sean, Jimmy’s former patient, literally living with his former therapist seemingly for the long-term (and this arrangement started while they were still in the patient-therapist relationship!). Every professional therapist watching this show has to silence the “ethics” alarm in their brain in order to enjoy it. Still, there’s a sweetness to the scene of Jimmy, Sean, and Sean’s friend just hanging out and playing cards…like old friends do. Later in the episode, Sean is casually hanging out with three therapists simultaneously: his former therapist, his current therapist (Paul), and Gaby.
It’s fun to see Jimmy openly struggle with his daughter starting to date: one of the hallmark signs of a child coming into their own.
I love the depiction of Gestalt therapy (essentially: asking a client to role play a difficult encounter/conversation) in the scene where Brian sits on Jimmy’s couch (scratch out the part where Brian barges in on Jimmy’s session with a client mid-session; lock your door, Jimmy!). All therapists know it’s a huge no-no to therapize your friends, but in this case, Brian actively asks Jimmy for his help as a friend and his expertise as a therapist. Nice to see Jimmy get some acknowledgement that he’s good at his job from Brian. Side not for therapists: please don’t therapize your friends!
In another highlight of the season: I absolutely love to see Alice reaching out to her father for help, and Jimmy drops everything to go show up for his daughter. Contrast this with the flashback from earlier in the season when Jimmy was too numbed out and intoxicated to help his daughter with her grief, which leads to Liz seeking out surrogate figures in the village that Allegra references. Alice clearly appreciates her father a lot here, even though he breaks his “promise” to not do a drive-by to check in on her.
Episode 10: Changing Patterns
Synopsis: This episode is about roadblocks, and getting in your own way. Gaby starts the process of helping her mom move in with her. Alice believes she’s ready to be done with therapy, she can see the light at the end of her grief tunnel. Julie’s husband, Elliot, passes away and Paul attends the funeral. Jimmy plans to get Alice a car as a surprise for her 18th birthday. ALSO HELLO, THE ROBIN SCHERBATSKY CAMEO!? Paul straight up tells Gaby that she has a hard time putting her needs before other people, Gaby tells Paul that he has commitment issues. Liz is stuck in a shame spiral because she cheated on Derek and they’re trying to get through it.
Allegra: I’m so glad to see that Alice is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, coming out of grief from losing a parent seems incredibly difficult, and so it’s so great to see that therapy was one of the tools she needed to get through it. I also think it might have been incredibly healing for Jimmy to talk about Tia with Sofi in a wonderful, positive and joking way with someone. It was a lovely scene to watch! As per this episode’s theme, you can see little parts of people changing and getting out of their own way. Paul officially invites Julie to move in with him, Jimmy has a good encounter with a woman (even though he’s not ready for a relationship), and Gaby puts her foot down with her mom, even though it made them both sad.
David: There’s a lot less formal “therapy stuff” this week, but we do see a therapy termination between Paul and Alice early in the episode. As with most things in the show, the termination conversation is abbreviated; ideally in therapy, it’s a slower process in which the course of therapy is summarized, feedback is shared, and the client has plenty of time to process the end of the therapy relationship. Regardless, Alice seems to be in a good spot for termination: she feels ready to tackle her life’s problems on her own. I love that Alice works up the courage to tell her therapist she’s ready to stop, and I love that Paul shares he’s proud. Like a good therapist at termination, he also offers his client an open door to return in case she needs it. This coincides of course with her 18th birthday, the symbolic rite of passage to adulthood.
Gaby’s porous boundaries get “exposed” when she agrees to watch her patient’s baby for her…for free! Right before that, Gaby passively calls out how the patient bringing in her baby is a distraction for both the patient and her. Paul’s confrontation with Gaby leads her to finally set a boundary with her mom by stating clearly and definitively that she doesn’t want her to live with her. This is difficult for Gaby to share with her mother, and her mother has a heartbreaking reaction. But Gaby ultimately makes a healthy decision for herself; after all, we can’t expect everybody to react positively to our boundaries.
As someone who used to watch How I Met Your Mother, wow, Marshall and Robin reunion! This show makes a point of showcasing how awkward and uncomfortable Jimmy is in a lot of his social interactions, even with his closest friends. So while it’s still an awkward interaction, both Sofi and Jimmy are equally sweet and awkward with each other. Definitely some chemistry there!
The episode ends with Alice furious at her father for telling Louis to stay away from her and his friends. Alice and Jimmy have a lot of work to do in terms of being open/honest with each other about Tia’s death. Oy, someone get these two in some much needed family therapy!
Episode 11: The Drugs Don’t Work
Synopsis: Paul’s symptoms are getting worse. Sean is seeing someone new, Paul’s neurologist! Gaby and her mom are still experiencing friction after she decided not to let her move in. Derek tries to help Sean by giving him a cheap but very nice place to live, and Sean walks out. Louis encourages Alice to cut her dad some slack. Gaby and Derrick get into a fight about where they stand as a couple. Jimmy hits a breaking point.
Allegra: Sean feeling stuck that he can’t move on from the place where he feels safe, and we learn that it’s okay to not be ready, “the universe will present another opportunity to be ready”. Paul and Jimmy face-off about Jimmy’s need to fix people and the high he gets from it – cue the title of the episode, the drugs eventually don’t work anymore, and when that happens you’re going to have to face what you’ve been running from. Quick question — can you hug your therapist? It was so heartbreaking to see Jimmy hit his breakdown, everything he never processed, piling up and spilling over — along with everything else that has been going on with Alice. I am SO glad he called Paul, hopefully this means it will lead to him facing his trauma properly.
David: Paul sees Jimmy yet again hiding his pain by burying himself in his patients and warning him: “you can’t hide from your trauma”, which is spot-on. Lots of people try their best to “move on”, bury their feelings, hide their feelings, and/or numb themselves from their feelings. Jimmy’s decision to do all the above comes to a head and leads to him relapsing into unhealthy behaviors. I agree with Allegra’s word choice: it’s absolutely heartbreaking to see Jimmy sink that low again. But it’s beautiful when he reaches out to Paul for help at the end of the episode, and Paul warmly embraces him. Tears in the eye.
Gaby is finally confronted by her seemingly always affable and happy boyfriend, Derrick, over her “pushing away” behavior. Gaby is aware of her anxious attachment style: she says to Derrick she “gets scared” when she lets other people in, and then pushes them away. The insight is good, but she needs to translate that into action to make it work with Derrick.
Boundary red flag of the week: my gosh: Paul drops in on his neurologist while she’s off of work, and finds out that his therapy patient (Sean) is dating her. Therapists: this is why you’re ethically obligated to keep your work and personal lives separated! But hey, it makes for good TV.
Q: Can you hug your therapist? Short answer: yes, but when appropriate. For instance, I think it would be inappropriate to hug your therapist after every session. However, a hug between patient and therapist after their last session is fine as long as both parties are comfortable.
Episode 12: The Last Thanksgiving
Synopsis: Charlie and Brian prepare for the baby they’re adopting. Paul plays therapist to Jimmy, as he works through his issues with his daughter and forgiving himself, and Jimmy takes Paul’s advice. Liz finally finds her purpose — no, it has nothing to do with rescue dogs. Louis’s Friendsgiving plans fall through. Everyone celebrates Thanksgiving at Gaby’s.
Allegra: “It’s the act of revelation that’s healing” — DAMN PAUL. I loved this advice. I think this covers a wide range of “revelations”, but the idea of saying something or confessing something out loud is what is healing is a powerful sentiment. It’s so interesting to see someone as self-aware as Gaby, who is a therapist, keep growing and learning more about how being a caretaker has affected her relationships. I think for a lot of people who are super self-aware, it can be really challenging to know exactly what is going on with yourself, but not WHY, and not knowing HOW to fix it.
When Jimmy and Alice finally talk, I think it was really brave for both of them. Alice understands where he’s coming from and forgives him without his revelations. But Jimmy doesn’t take the easy way out, and he shares everything with Alice — about how he thought he was going to rise to the occasion when his wife died, and so when Louis came into their lives, it was a symbol of how Jimmy let Alice down, and how much of a bad father he was. I think it was really brave of Jimmy to not take an emotional shortcut.
David: There are so many good quotes from this episode but I especially love it when Aliyah (Gaby’s friend) is giving advice to Gaby about reaching back out to Derrick: "Bravery isn’t about not being scared, it’s about being scared and doing it anyway”. YES, YES, a thousand times YES. This is an idea that’s central to my approach in therapy: a lot of clients think they have to rid themselves of negative emotions in order to do something they really want to, but the truth is that’s usually impossible. The trick is to make room for the negative emotion, even ally yourself with it, and do what you want to do deep down in your heart anyway. Gaby putting herself out there paid off in the long-run as shown by Derrick and her mom arriving together at her Thanksgiving at the end of the episode!
Things got really dark for Jimmy at the end of the last episode, and thankfully Paul is there for him; Paul is right: Jimmy has to learn to forgive himself or he won’t be able to move forward. Paul has multiple conversations with Jimmy to nudge him towards that so that he can try to patch things up with Alice. Paul is steadily growing warmer and kinder as the series progresses. This leads to a genuine, mature, vulnerable, and soul-bearing conversation between Alice and Jimmy that both of them needed.
I knew once Louis got uninvited to his Friendsgiving that he would go to the train station where he said before he thought about taking his own life there. He tries to text Alice, but Alice doesn’t see his texts because of the no-phone rule at the Thanksgiving dinner. Luckily, Jimmy’s empathy and compassion shine through, and Jimmy pulls back Louis from the train platform and offers him true forgiveness for the accident that kills Tia. Louis needs this for his own self-forgiveness, and Jimmy was able to forgive Louis precisely because he learned to forgive himself. This is a beautifully portrayed mirror to earlier in the season when Jimmy curses Louis out and tells him to leave his office. This was a poignant moment of growth for both of these characters and encapsulates one of the recurring themes of the season: self-forgiveness.
Final Thoughts on Season 2 of Shrinking
Allegra: I love this show. I know that the depiction of therapy and how therapists act is hyperbolic and definitely inappropriate at times — however, I think that this show does a great job at showing imperfection, mental health struggles at all points of your life, how grief affects people differently, how people who seem to “have it all” still seek fulfillment and purpose, and how therapy and having a support system are integral to emotional well-being and growth.
I hope that for people who haven’t engaged in therapy or who haven’t spent much time thinking about their mental health, they see this show and see how going to therapy, or therapy tools and practices can make visible, positive changes in your life. And that you don’t need to have “something wrong with you” in order to see a therapist or to benefit from therapy! Therapy can very much be a preventative tool — where you learn coping skills, communication skills, and how to move through any life challenges that come your way. And it can also be helpful to have a person, who has no skin in the game, to talk to — even though Alice knows Paul and Paul is a therapist, she benefitted greatly from their “chats”.
I’m very excited to see what Season 3 has in store for us and for the characters in Shrinking. I am hoping to see more of Louis’s growth — particularly if they’ll showcase how he might treat his depression and suicidal thoughts. I also would love to see how Charlie and Brian enter into parenthood, and all the struggles that come with it. I also would love to see more of Jimmy Jimmying himself — I think he needs to do a lot more work on himself, and what we’ve seen from him in the last episode is just the start.
David: This is such a beautifully written show that absolutely nails the blend between comedy and drama. I loved the core theme of forgiveness that ran through this season. So many characters went on forgiveness journeys:
- Jimmy forgiving himself
- Alice forgiving Jimmy
- Alice forgiving Louis
- Louis forgiving himself
- Jimmy forgiving Louis
- Derek forgiving Liz
- Derrick forgiving Gaby
- Sean forgiving his father
- And probably more!
As a therapist, I love that this show humanizes therapists (perhaps to a fault) and shows the therapist characters as fully rounded human beings with virtues, flaws, and everything in between. Therapists are not paradigms of emotional balance and mindfulness. We are regular people, just like our patients, and just because we’re pros at helping others see and solve their problems doesn’t mean we’re adept at solving our own life problems.
The therapist in me definitely still cringes at the many boundary issues and dual relationships that happen every episode but of course I understand it’s just TV. But I’ll say again: Jimmy is super lucky to hold his license! So for the audience watching this show, please know that most of us are able to hold our professional boundaries better than Jimmy, Gaby, or Paul.
That said, I think this show does a good job of showing therapists in their element giving actual, helpful interventions compared to most other TV/movie depictions of therapists. As Allegra said, I hope that the show can actually inspire people to reach out to a therapist to make positive changes in their lives.
I can’t wait to see what Season 3 brings!