Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast. I'm Terry Morrow and I'm Catherine Jileco. As parents and parenting writers, we can't help but see everything through a parenting lens. But as our kids have become adults, we find ourselves more interested in getting caught up on movies and streaming than I'm going over the same parenting topics over and over.
So since we're pretty sure we can find parenting wisdom anywhere, we're going to talk about what we're watching, what we thought about it, and maybe what we can learn from it, if only what not to do. Watch and listen along, and let's all make like we're doing something important for our families. Each Wednesday, we bring you our thoughts on a newer entertainment property, and for this week of November fourth, we are discussing the first episode of the new season
of Shrinking. This was a show that we liked a lot the first outing, and yes we are behind by a few weeks, but that's what happens when you're a parent. So new episodes of Shrinking are dropping once a week on Wednesdays, so we are we are in line with that We're on We're bringing this to you on Wednesday. It's just Wednesday from like four weeks ago, so you can follow that, right.
Yes, you're probably behind too, And if you weren't, go watch it again to prepare yourself for a new episode and listen.
Yeah, so all of our all of our friends are back. We have we have Jimmy, that's Jason Siegel's character, who's the therapist who the conceit of the whole of the whole show is that he's trying some unconventional methods with his patients because he got frustrated with their Yes. Yes, And at the end of the last season there was a spectacular problem with this, which is that he accidentally question Mark encouraged one of his patients to harm her abusive husband.
Yes, and she did, had her to push him off off a cliff. Yeah, and that is what she did. And at that point it seemed to me that nothing good could come of this second season because it would surely it would take everybody down. Everybody had some sort of connection, the practice would go down, and I mean, Sean had had previous contact with the victim, so he was going to be under scrutiny. And Brian, you know, was involved in that case. From the beating. It just
seemed like it was just going to ruin everything. And it came right after they were all kind of in a good place. They were at Brian and Charlie's wedding and everything was happy, and then the last thirty seconds they did that thing that I thought, oh, now I can't look forward to season two because season two is going to be awful. It's going to be all the repercussions of this, and I don't want to watch that. I just want to hang right. So I was simultaneously
looking forward to this season and dreading it. But at least as of this first episode, they're kind of saying that's not that bad. Well, this is in jail, but everybody else is okay, and Paul says that Jimmy didn't really do anything wrong, and part of me is like, there is no way that this is easy. And also thank you, thank you, yes, second, yes, I mean, not having done it in the first place is just saying, ah, yeah, not that.
Bad handwave, handwave, handwave. Yeah. I mean, the biggest thing is that the guy didn't die from falling off the cliffs, so she's not in jail for murder, and.
She hasn't had her trial yet. Would she not be out on bail?
I know, maybe she couldn't afford bail.
I guess wouldn't. Yeah, it seems like somebody I don't know. I guess it would be inappropriate of your therapist to bail you out from pushing your husband off a cliff like he told you to. But but then it just does give the opportunity to have all those jail visitations. I guess. So whatever, right, whatever? Can we scoot past this as quickly as possible?
Yeah?
Then can we never see that character again? Because he's awful?
Oh, the husband.
I'm not upset that he got pushed off a cliff. He deserved to get pushed off a cliff. I just didn't want the repercussions coming to characters I liked. Right, he could have just disappeared.
Well, And the thing is like, if he was if he had died, then it could have been an accident. Right, But since he's alive, he knows that she pushed her. She pushed him, so he was berating her.
Yes, fortunately, Uh. Yeah, the sooner we can dispatch with that plotline, the better. There's enough. There's enough, there's enough, dysfunction without that.
Right, right, there's plenty of that dysfunction to go around. We have we have Sean, you know, Paul. Finally, Paul is the Harrison Ford character who's the head of the practice, finally telling Jimmy that, like, look, you can't try to treat Sean anymore. He's living in your house, Like this is this is not how this works.
He's going to tell you things to keep you happy even if they're not true, which is not useful. So he's still being why people involved in his military past, and he can't deal with it, even though his food truck seems.
To be going well, right and he seems to his food truck with the neighbor Liz.
Entertaining Liz has not driven him crazy. It's great, it's good.
Yeah, she's she's a lot of fun on this show, I mean, and she gets kind of a lot to do in this In this first episode, she's she's working with Sean, she's and then she's very much trying to be a friend to Gabby and try to keep her from sleeping with Jimmy.
But that's not happening, you know, be a good friend to Gabby. In the most Lise way possible, which is being all up in her business, going into her class and talking, or just yeah, it's amusing to me. You know that that the actress who plays Liz Krista Miller is the wife of the show's creator and producer of The Lawrence, And so wonder how much is this character informed by the actual person?
Right?
And then you have to in a marriage. I'm going to make you this prison screen, honey.
Well, and then how much of the Ted McGinley character is Bill Laurence exactly?
Which is their dynamic? I remember them saying something about the the bid about that from last season about when you retire you can only you know, I can only love him like an hour and a half a day or something like that. That was from real life. But
she was also a somewhat pretty character on Cougartown. So it's just I feel like there's maybe issues being worked out, but I don't care, because she's wonderful and her characters are so fun, and while I might not personally want to have them in my life, I enjoy having them on my TV in other people's lives and delightful, just delightful.
And I believe Gabby wanted her to interfere in that way.
And holy cow, if somebody will come and put on my crap away after I move. Yes, yes, oh, everything is forgiven now and in the future. Thank you.
Yep. She recruited her husband and Brian to show up at Gabby's house while she wasn't there unpack everything. It was impressive. Yeah, but.
For all our affection for the returning characters, which also include you know, Jimmy's daughter who's concerned about him and watching him sleep, which is a problem. And oh, poor little puppy dog Connor, Lizz's son who is still pining for Alice even though she is so over him if she was ever ever into him at all. To him, yeah, other than I bet I could ask this guy to have sex with me and he'd say yes. So he's just that actor is doing a very good job of
just being clueless young manhood, very forlorn. His parents are trying to take him in hand, but not doing a very good job. No Ah, dear, but there is a new addition to the cast this season, and he knew he was going to be that. We knew. Brett Goldstein, who was co creator and writer on the show. We knew he was going to come on as a cast member. HM, who do we think he's going to be? A patient?
Maybe a love interest for somebody? Ay YAYI. Who he is is revealed in like the past couple of seconds, which is, if you haven't watched this first episode for some reason you're listening to this, stop now go watch it, because even though you know that actor is going to be on the moment when you find out who he's playing is a ah.
Right, it's I did let out an involuntary gasp.
Oh my goodness. So throughout the episode we have flashbacks. Jimmy is flashing back to the night when TiO was killed, and when he says whenever he sees sirens, he's back at that moment when he came there and he saw them loading her into the ambulance with a sheet over her head, and then he sees the drunk driver being put in the police car. We don't see the drunk driver's face, but there's a moment when it's clear that he does. And this is just kind of a motif
throughout the episode. And then at the end, who should be sitting in the hallway of his workplace but Brett Goldstein as the drunk driver. Ah, yes, I'm not expecting that at all. And obviously he's in some sort of twelve step thing where he has to come and apologize and Jimmy does not.
I mean, speaking of jail, wouldn't he be in jail?
Well, how long has it? It's been like a year? Right, Yeah, I wonder why he's not in jail. That is a big question.
Yeah, maybe we'll find out, yes, but.
At any rate, he tries to apologize and Jimmy just says, okay, you did it. Go away, and then he tries to continue talking and Jimmy yells at him and drives him out with the building.
Yeah.
Wow, that is a character reveal that really surprised me. And you know what, if we're not going to get into the whole actions have consequences of it with Grace and other things that Jimmy has done. If they want to work with it this way, I'll take it. I think Brenda Christine is up to making that really interesting. Yeah, and could not be less Roy Kentish if he tried, right, starting with being clean shaven, which is a jolt.
Yeah, and just you know, sort of quietly turns and leaves when Jimmy yells at him, and I mean in such a way that we know that this is not the end. But he just is like, Okay, he's not He's not going to hear this right now, so I'll have to try again, and not to just.
Way mitigate the two ableness of what he did. But he seems genuinely contrite and a bashed by. It's not like he's just saying, all right, I'm gonna come here, I'm gonna say sorry and then everything we're gonna be good, right buddy. Now he seems to accept that he's gonna it's gonna be tough.
This is gonna take effort, for sure.
So wow, that was a that was a twist, interesting one, and I think, yeah, I want to see where that's gonna go. Right, And then by the end he should just be one of the lovable one of the ensemble, right yeah, Oh, because I like that actor. I'd like him to be around. But that character is gonna be a tough cell. Mum.
Hum. Sure is.
There was a point at which Jimmy is concerned that Alice is watching him sleep and you know, seems worried about him, and Paul says it's rough when your kid is how fragile you are. It's like I've I have that vibe with my kids a little bit now too, because I've had some falls and I've had some health issues, and it's like my daughter is sort of, you know, worried about me, and that's no, don't do that. That's okay, that's my job. Worry. I'm really at it. Worrying is
my thoughts. So I'll worry for the both of us, don't be you know. And I think my son does a little bit too, because you know, you don't want me to fall. They don't want me to get sick. I go to a little doctors just because I'm old, and that concerns them. So that is a that is an unfortunate transition and hard to know what to do as a parent because you don't want to dismiss their concerns as silly or frivolous or whatever, but you really
don't want them. It's not their job. Yeah, yeah, but you know.
And of course Paul has this with his because he has Parkinson's and he didn't want to even tell his daughter. It took him, took him quite a long time to do that.
And he and Julie are still having their little romance, but he's he's having trouble with it.
I think Julie his doctor.
Yes, they are very cute together. And yes, I like Wendy Mellick a lot. I'm glad yea and that that's continuing. I've seen a couple of articles about shrinking showing old people having romance. Isn't that wonderful?
Right? And it was mentioned on Extra Hot Great recently that the creator of Only Murders in the Building said that Meryl Streep thanked him for having her character, you know, have a romantic life, and and that in real life it her and Martin Short together.
Yeah. I've seen a couple of those stories, and I've heard that everybody is running with that as meaning that they're together in real life, but it could just be talking about the show.
Yeah, did she?
Yeah? I hope for them. I wish it for them. I think they are adorable together. Yeah, And I reflect again on how completely weird it must be to have total strangers obsessing that your love life.
Yes, I'm just.
You know, it's the Taylor Swift thing where, yes, I want to see the pictures of her and Travis, you know, taking with a long lens, you know, talking to each other at the baseball game, and then at the same time, this is so wrong. Don't do that. Stop Let leave them alone. Can you imagine knowing that everything you do people are taking pictures of it, and it's going to be all over the internet, and people are gonna be saying, Oh, look at that, that's so cute, or oh look at
that he's looking the other way. I don't think it looks.
So analyzing it in the in the way in which lost fans analytically.
Yes, So good luck to you Martin and Merrill. It's such a time when you wish to go public. We're here for you, happy for you, not just find a little cocoon somewhere or just enjoy your your friendship and your individual lives that have nothing to do with one another.
However it works out exactly.
But parenting wise, the moment we were talking about Connor, the moment where Liz is trying to talk him down from staring at Alice, and then she has to do something, so she says to her husband, you're on PERV patrols. What parents do you trade off? All right, I've done this. I gotta do something else, you take over, but tap in.
Again to return to only murders in the building. She needs him to tap.
Needs him to tap in.
I and I mean, this is this is why we have two parents for the yes situations, Yes.
And we have. We'll probably see more of Gabby's student, Kusha admits that she's going into psychology because of her mother are terrible. I'm the mom. My mom has already called several times. That would be me, and.
It's already called Gabby. Right the professor, the college professor.
I made friends with my kids professors because I was just in college the whole time.
Right, Yeah, they appreciate and involve parents, so they.
Do as much as the as the elementary school and high school teachers enjoyed an involved parent away always there. But just to get this, one line I enjoyed was the carrots make you think they're cheetos. That's that sounds like a parenting thing too. It's like, look, it's orange.
Look almost exactly the same.
Who knows? And also, but that was.
Very sweet because the reason why they Alice and Paul were eating carrots is because Alice had googled Parkinson's disease. And you know what should Paul be eating?
So so another example of the child sort of becoming the parent.
Right now, what's good for you?
And Paul summed up what will undoubtedly be the theme for this season and somewhat last season, but definitely this season is you can't spend your life hiding from your trauma. If you don't truly deal with your past, it'll come back for you. And when that happens, boom. Yeah, that was overlaid with this situation of him seeing the drunk driver and yelling at him. Right, so, all sorts of fun ahead on shrinking.
Yay, but we'll be talking about it every Wednesday.
The next episode sounds real fun. Yeah.
The next episode, second episode two of season two, is called I Love Pain, so.
Yeah, yeah, it would be the episode of the title of a lost episode two, so they yes, kind of overlapping.
Yes, So we'll see you back here for that next week and tomorrow for our weekly roundabout round up.
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