As his therapy comedy returns for season two, co-creator Bill Lawrence reflects on walking the tightrope between chuckles and tears
After a long period of grieving his wife in ways that affected family, friends and patients alike, therapist Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) finally seemed on the mend. The first season ended in a dance party that demonstrated a rebuilt connection between Jimmy and teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), a budding romance between him and fellow therapist Gaby (Jessica Williams), and a general departure from the chaotic coping mechanisms that marked the start of the series. It was almost as if Jimmy’s decision to give blunt, uncensored life advice to his patients had passed without incident. Almost. “There were so many people going, ‘Yo, if therapists really did this, there’d be consequences,’ ” laughs co-creator Bill Lawrence. “And we’re like, ‘Really? You don’t think we know that?’ ”

That in mind, the second season of Shrinking begins with Jimmy having to deal with his patient Grace’s (Heidi Gardner) decision to “boop” her abusive husband off a cliff at the end of last season. But if you think that saving Grace from life in prison is Jimmy’s biggest hurdle this year, think again. “The second season is about forgiveness, and when I say it’s about forgiveness, it’s not just generic,” hints Lawrence. “There are unresolved issues between characters, but to really cement that, the theme is that the only way to move forward in your life is if you forgive other people and forgive yourself for what’s happened in the past. We make it pretty clear with the arrival of a new character, that this is going to be the umbrella that the year happens under.”

That mystery character, played by Shrinking co-creator and Ted Lasso breakout star Brett Goldstein, is one that will profoundly shake up both father and daughter. For Goldstein, it is a departure from the Lasso role that made him famous, and one that Lawrence initially wasn’t sure was right for the actor. “I didn’t see it at first, but the writers’ room and Jason Segel really championed it,” he explains. “I got stuck in thinking, ‘He is Roy Kent. He’s gruff and mean,’ but in real life he’s so kind and sensitive. He makes the show work, because that needed to be a character that, even in light of what the story is, you root for and want him to be OK. It’s the only way this whole season would’ve worked.”
Simultaneously, shaking things up on the romance front, Jimmy and Gaby are forced to make sense of what is happening within their relationship, as they realize that their extracurricular activities are not as casual as either may have thought. “Before Jimmy’s wife, Tia [Lilan Bowden] died, all three of them were friends, and I think they just fell into this without really thinking or choosing to be together, but just sleeping with each other, which is a bit messy,” says Williams. “They have to figure out how they actually feel about each other.”

The show that tackles grief, illness and trauma as its main themes continues to deliver laughs, often against the odds. The humour is something comedy veteran Lawrence is most proud of — in addition to selling the show in the first place. “Where I started, which was pitching multi-camera sitcoms, the head writers would count and make sure you had four or five jokes on a page, and now I can’t believe we’ve gotten to a time, creatively, where I was able to go to Apple and say, ‘I want to do a comedy.’ They’re like, ‘What’s it about?’ I’m like, ‘Well, it’s going to be really funny. This guy’s wife died and he’s an awful father and he’s doing drugs and hanging out with sex workers and neglecting his daughter. Oh, also Harrison Ford, a huge movie icon, has Parkinson’s.’ And they let you do it! It’s crazy.”

In the writers’ room, the challenge continues to be balancing some of life’s hardest knocks with humour that really lands. “The thing that I’m really proud of would be that the dramatic stories all hopefully feel authentic. A lot of them are rooted in truth,” says Lawrence. “But we’re all comedy writers and what we really police ourselves on is never wanting to be a comedy where fans go, ‘This isn’t a comedy.’ We’re proud of trying to walk that tightrope.”
When delivering the funny, it never hurts to have a troupe of hilarious people you know and trust, which in this case includes Lawrence’s wife Christa Miller as Jimmy’s neighbour Liz, his old Scrubs star Zach Braff, who returns to direct two episodes, and perhaps another surprise or two. “I would tell anybody in the world that if you, no matter what you do, have friends and family and people that you love, that are super-talented and that you like spending time with, and you find yourself in a position to hire them and support them, I think you’re a sociopath if you don’t do it,” says Lawrence. “I’m not doing anybody favours. It’s a safety net for me of talented people that I know have my back and I can count on. I’m the luckiest guy on the planet.”
Season two of Shrinking begins streaming Wednesday, October 16 on Apple TV+