Shrinking SN2 Ep5

A classic mid-season "bridge" episode, "Honesty Era" sees the fallout from several tension-building story arcs, as well as perhaps the kernels of some new ones.

Every season of a streaming show has one, sometimes more than one: a “bridge” episode where not a lot of new or terribly interesting stuff happens, but we reach a sort of waypoint where some storylines find something like a resolution, and also kernels of new ones appear.

Season 5 of “Shrinking” SN2, “Honesty Era,” is a classic example.

One of the things I like about the show on Apple TV+, starring Jason Segel, Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams as therapists, is that there’s not really one big thing happening at any given time, but several littler things that connect back into the show’s theme.

The throughline of the show is that Jimmy (Segel), until recently a very depressed widower with a teen daughter, has adopted an unconventional approach that involves getting personally involved with his patients. This has sparked conflict with Paul (Ford), the older and crusty head of the practice, and an unexpected and brief sexual fling with Gaby (Williams).

Jimmy and Gaby have been beefing for awhile after their breakup, but finally find a more peaceful place when he reaches out with help for Gaby about her tense relationship with her sister (Courtney Taylor), a former drug addict who feels burdened by having to look after their ailing mom (Marla Gibbs, terrific in limited screen time).

If you’ll remember from last episode (spoiler alert), Jimmy’s daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), got busted after sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend, Connor (Gavin Lewis), who also happens to be the dweebish son of Jimmy’s neighbors, Liz and Derek (Christa Miller and Ted McGinley, respectively).

Liz, being the Karen of all Karens, continues to poke her nose it places it doesn’t belong, but in a mostly benevolent and funny way. A new story nugget appears in the form of Mac, an old boyfriend of Liz’, which for some reason sets off the normally goofy, unflappable nature of Derek. I’m not sure if it’s just a one-off for this episode, but personally I hope it continues as it brings a new wrinkle to their harpy/whipped husband dynamic.

Another new storyline, possibly short-lived, is Paul getting a visit from his ex-wife, about whom he has a lot of shame for breaking up their marriage long ago with his focus on his career and philandering. Again, I don’t know if this will continue into future episodes but it’s nice to see Ford get a chance to show a little vulnerability onscreen.

There’s a running string of dialogue about Jimmy’s, uh… man parts, and specifically how he’s been so careless with them since his wife’s death, most recently with Gaby when he should have known it'd threaten the friendship. This leads to some of the show’s signature fast-patter dialogue exchanges, including this one that got me LOL-ing: “So your penis is like Elmo?”

Sean (Luke Tennie), the patient/roommate of Jimmy’s suffering from PTSD rage issues, kind of gets shunted to the background this episode, though the ball does get moved downfield a bit toward the end, and not always in a good direction. He’s working with his estranged dad now on his food truck business — formerly partnering with Liz — and it seems a quick and easy repair of their relationship is not on tap.

Overall episode 5 is the weakest of this season so far, which isn’t to say I didn’t still enjoy the heck out of it. One just has to accept that not every at-bat is going to be a homer, and appreciate the singles that hopefully set us up for the next whopper.