Summary
Shrinking returns in Season 3, and it is perhaps the best it has ever been. “My Bad” is a masterclass in comedy and drama, with a last-minute gut-punch just for good measure.
Over the years, I’ve said some pretty hyperbolic stuff about Shrinking. Fair warning: That isn’t going to change in Season 3, since this premiere is arguably as good as the show has ever been. It’s an hour-long spectacular that feels like a finale, tying up a whole bunch of character-driven subplots, calling back expertly to every gag and beat that seemed like a throwaway, delivering major laughs and more than a few tears, all with a last-minute gut-punch for good measure. And it’s only Episode 1!
I think I have a fairly good idea of where this season is going to go, and I’m already dreading it. Things are mostly pretty happy in “My Bad”, but the signs are all there that there is some tremendously emotional trauma to follow. We’ll get through it together, hopefully. But there’s so much to go over in the meantime, so let’s just get on with that.
Oh, Paul
In case it wasn’t obvious, what I was alluding to above was Paul’s worsening Parkinson’s disease. It has now gotten so bad that he can’t even brush his teeth. But there’s always someone worse off, which he’s reminded of at the neurology clinic by another sufferer named Gerry, who is further down the road but hasn’t lost his sense of humour. He warns about the severe hallucinations that are coming, but he also imparts a new philosophy on Paul: “F*ck Parkinson’s”. Simple, but catchy.
It takes Paul all episode to realise what this means. It might be mistaken for driving a Porsche very dangerously around a track with Jimmy wailing in the front seat, but it’s deeper than that. It’s about allowing himself to really live for however long he has left. And it’s about finding someone to live with, which means committing to Julie.
Paul has already committed to Julie, technically. He’s even amending his will, through Brian, so that she’s a beneficiary. But that turns out to be a more complicated process than anyone realised. At first, Jimmy’s throwaway idea that they just get married to alleviate the bulk of the paperwork is a joke. But everyone quickly latches onto it because it’s clearly what they both want. And that gives this premiere its general shape.
Alice Is Leaving the Nest
If the Season 2 finale was all about new beginnings, the Season 3 premiere is all about those fanciful ideas actually coming to fruition. The way this manifests for Alice, for instance, is her college future. She’s in the running for a soccer scholarship in Connecticut, but that means performing well in a big game. Luckily, she has plenty of support.
Naturally, everyone shows up at the game, and Alice has a great performance. It’s enough to impress the coach, who, despite being slightly weirded out by most of her support system, wants to recruit Alice. She even visits her at home with a pitch. But Alice unexpectedly turns her down.
Luckily, Sean knows the truth, so when Alice tries to lie about having been “rejected”, he rats her out so she has to tell Jimmy the truth. And when Jimmy tries to blithely accept Alice remaining at home despite her leaving being best for both of them, Sean tells him he’s making a mistake. It’s time for Alice to leave the nest. Jimmy and Sean even allow her to deploy the “dead mom card” one last time to convince the coach.
Planned Parenthood
With Ava now heavily pregnant, parenthood is getting extremely real for Brian and Charlie. And Liz, obviously, since she’s hyper-focused on evolving her controlling nanny role into a full-on third parent, even though her actual son, Matthew, is forced to move back home after losing his job. But Brian and Charlie have also characteristically avoided some important details, and no, it isn’t the colour scheme of the nursery. They haven’t decided how much involvement Ava is going to have.
Stuart — who is hilarious, by the way, and should be in every episode — thinks they could have annual or monthly visits. Liz thinks they should have no visits at all. Brian, unusually, is inclined to agree with Liz, but that means telling Ava that they want her to have nothing to do with the child she’s about to give birth to. And they can’t.
Ava is lonely and vulnerable, and even though it’s inevitably going to cause clashes, Brian and Charlie are much more inclined to welcome her into their odd little family than to keep her at arm’s length. Liz, in a rare moment of tenderness, toasts Brian for his good decision-making. She’d have done the same thing.
Wedding Planner
Naturally, Gabby goes way overboard planning the non-wedding wedding. She runs the whole thing like a military operation, forces everyone to be involved, and turns Liz’s yard into one of the most idyllic and well-lit venues imaginable. Eventually, even Julie, despite Gabby’s questionable — and constant — sexual overtures, gets into it, which makes it a little upsetting that Paul doesn’t.
Not immediately, anyway. But when his sourpuss attitude genuinely upsets Julie, Paul apologises — on one knee. And in so doing, he allows himself to follow Gerry’s advice, to say “F*ck Parkinson’s” and embrace the rest of his life, challenges and all. He dances at the wedding. He almost sheds a tear at Jimmy’s surprisingly sincere speech. He even gives Jimmy the most sage advice he can — to not be like him, to not wait as long as he did to restart his life.
It’s a truly lovely sequence. Again, Shrinking Season 3, Episode 1 feels like a finale. But it isn’t, as we’re reminded right at the very end. When Paul sneaks into the kitchen, he’s surprised to see Gerry there. Only, Gerry isn’t there. He’s one of those hallucinations he was warning him about. However much Paul might be learning to enjoy his life, he can’t escape the fact that he doesn’t have too much of it left.
