Apple is once again trying to attract new users to its in-house streaming service Apple TV+ with a top-class series. This time it’s Jason Segel (“How I met your mother”) and Harrison Ford (“Star Wars”) who are supposed to lure users in front of the television. The new format is called “shrink” and is a dramedy, a mixture of comedy and drama.
Disturbed Psychologist
The plot: Jimmy (Jason Segel) has not gotten over the accidental death of his wife. Every night he fights his pain with alcohol, pills and other things. He no longer lives up to his role as the father of a teenager. His neighbor Liz (Christa Miller) takes care of his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), who is also grieving and who hardly speaks to Jimmy anymore because of his behavior. Almost everyone is annoyed by the behavior of the widower. Suddenly and unexpectedly he changes his work as a psychologist and follows unconventional methods to help his patients.
Jimmy’s grumpy but fatherly boss Paul (a now 80-year-old Harrison Ford) and his overexcited colleague Gabby (Jessica Williams), who was also his wife Tia’s best friend, vehemently advise him against it. But Jimmy now applies his new, radical method to his work and always tells his patients directly and bluntly what he thinks. He is particularly fond of a war veteran with aggression disorders, whom he even takes in at his home.
“Ted Lasso” makers at the start
“Shrinking” is penned by Jason Segel and “Ted Lasso” creators Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs”) and Brett Goldstein. The trio demonstrates a good instinct for the right relationship between comedy and tragedy. However, it is unclear whether that is enough to lure users to Apple TV +.
After all, the service, which as usual relies almost exclusively on original goods that Apple can produce at high cost, has one advantage: at 7 euros a month, it is still cheaper than competitors like Netflix or Disney+. However, in addition to new productions, they also have a significantly larger selection of repertoire material from “Friends” (Netflix) to the strips of the “Star Wars” series (Disney +).
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