Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast. I'm Terry Morrow and I'm Catherine Hileco. 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 December twenty third, we're discussing the eighth episode of the current
season of Shrinking. It is called Last Drink. And if you listen to our last two episodes this week, you may have heard Terry mention this was a very sad, sad episode for us. I would say, yeah, Wolf, although I would say, you know, we did have some We had Sean doing well, yes, and we had Liz and Derek making up, Yes.
But first Lizen Derek both being extremely sad and Derek being sad is not natural. And it's that thing where this is not my fault. I am the wronged person here, and yet I feel terrible right and coming to terms with how he maybe did not catch the signals as we discussed I think last week we and just having the most Derek possible confrontation with Mac. He kissed his wife.
It's like he wants to go and Dereren, you know, be super mad, but the beer's really good and she sees less dog pictures on the wall are wonderful, and he realizes he didn't give them any attention. And she,
meanwhile is just feeling lower than low. And you know when Alice is trying to help her and she says, you can like you have a daughter and braid my hair right, Oh so sweet, and all their friends, you know, in a very clear eyed way, trying to help both of them, you know, not taking sides, but understanding that this is this happens sometimes, and this is crappy. So I appreciated that. I think this would have been harder the way they work their way to a reconciliation would
have been harder if it was more than a kiss. Right, It seems like appropriate amount of soul searching and anger and guilt for what actually happened.
Right, And I also appreciated that when Derek did go to confront Mac, it was all very like reasonable, you know, I mean, because your conditioned right on a sitcom to be like him saying I should go talk to him, and everyone being like, oh, that's a bad idea. Yeah, and then he does it anyway. You know, we could also refer back to lost. You know, you're going down
the hatch. No, don't do that, Okay, bye, Yeah, And then it turned out to be like a much more sort of nuanced conversation that they had.
Yeah, this whole thing was pretty nuanced the way they handled everything. Gabby giving him some advice like this stuff doesn't come out of nowhere, and so he has to kind of realize that he was maybe not paying attention when he should have been. Right and very sweet. That is his sort of coming home gift to her is that he brings all their sons in right, and none of the Connor's older brothers do not believe him about them.
Pull you made up somebody named summer, and his parents could jump in and say no, no, it's true, but they don't.
No, they don't.
Situation going that seemed very real, yes, but the bigger sadness in this land there was also a thing of Paul Parkinson's getting worse and now he can't drink anymore, and so he has a last drink with Jimmy. But from the very beginning, we go from Jimmy seeing Alison Brian in the restaurant with Lewis. We flashed back three years. It's been three years? Did we know it had been
three years? And we see Louis so happy with this cute girlfriend who we saw in the picture, and you just know you're watching this, and you're watching Jimmy and Tea being cute together, and you know what's coming, right, and it's so awful. And it's not that Louis was an alcoholic who irresponsibly was driving. It's just that thing where you think I'm okay for life. Yeah, I mean, I think, if we're honest with ourselves, most adults have
had that and have just been blessed that. Yeah, nothing happened. I mean I can think of a couple of times where I was way drunker than Louis was in this and just somehow the angels escorted me. All.
Yeah, absolutely so.
And that just makes it more tragic because you want to hate him, but he's just a guy who had dinner with some friends and.
Just made a mistake.
Yeah, and his whole life fell apart, and he shuts out his girlfriend because he can't see her without thinking about what he did, and just sinks into depression. Obviously, I guess went to jail for some period of time.
I think she said, like ten months. Yeah, and just and then you see Jimmy as we knew somewhat of how he fell apart, and but worse now because we see it actually when it was at its worst, and he just was neglecting Alice like crazy, and how Alice just kind of went over to Liz's because she needed to be taken care of and there was nobody to take care of her. And she even says to him, I need you, and he's like I can't.
Oh, yeah, man.
Bad parenting, ye speak of parenting, Yes, parenting, don't do that. You don't get to do that. And so now whenever Jimmy sees Lewis, that's what he thinks of he remembers what a terrible father he was, and so he does go to Lewis's and forgive him, but also says, just be completely out of my life please.
So Yeah, I mean I didn't buy that forgiveness at all. I mean I think he was just saying the words that right everyone wanted him to say, but he didn't believe it. Whatsot of it?
Well, he for sure hasn't forgiven himself. Yeah, so, And so again Lewis Is like lost the support he was starting to get right from Alice and Brian. And what a Brett Goldstein's performance in that, just all the way through this person who was trying to deal with this tragedy somewhat of his own making but not entirely and just man, good job breaking my heart right? And will we at some point please get a payoff for the
miscongeniality thing. Somewhere There's got to be a payoff. The season needs to end with them sitting on a couch watching Miss Congeniality and explanation for why right, because I don't care what his reason is for having it. The production had to have a reason for having it. Somebody had to have an idea of this is a guy who has a giant framed poster from right in his apartment. Yeah, or no apparent reason. Oh, I hope we see that girlfriend again too.
Yeah.
But also you know what a kick in the guts for her too, that just shutting down.
Especially because she did try to stop him, you know, she said let's take a lift.
Yes. So oh man, Just people with nice lives just falling apart in that way is heartbreaking to watch, and they're still not really back that one. Jimmy asks Paul if do you think I'll ever be able to forgive myself? And he says it's it's exhausting, like hating himself as much. Yeah, and just being such a such a loser or feeling like such a loser.
Yeah.
Man, happy fun show, Love me a good sitcom, Bill Lawrence, I'm shaking my fist at you.
That's right.
Who had on their list of season two shrinking. I would like to see Derek be sad. What does Agla guy look like? When he's said, nobody had that on their Bengo card, stop it, stop it. Nobody wanted to see that. Although he did a tremendous job of just still being that guy but dealing with something bigger than Yeah, I wish he would ever have to deal with, right,
So ye, come on, give us a break. Yeah. And in the flashbacks, we got to see a lot of things that had been alluded to in earlier episodes, you know, the She's such a mom, Yeah, and the aftermath of math of Brian and Charlie's first date where neither of them wanted to continue dating the other, right, but that was a sad time to go back to.
Yeah, And I guess I guess necessary.
Right, Yeah? Yeah, but they couldn't have had like one did they have like one plot thread? This that was funny in this one? Isn't that what you're supposed to do?
You can forgive us something funny.
Even the music. I've been listening to the music from Shrinking quite a lot. They have a soundtrack, a playlist on Apple Music now in the second season as well.
I've listened the heck out of the first season. And boy, that song that they played when the restaurant, when Lewis and his girlfriend were at the restaurant and they were leaving, and you know what's going to happen next, And there's the saddest song, so melancholy, and there was like a chorus kept saying like for a minute, you were my whole girl.
Okay, we get.
It, we know what's gonna happen. Leave our arts in our chests please. So I'm gonna have to see if that's on the playlist now, And every time I listen to it, I'm gonna think of that scene and go, no, getta left, Lewis gotta left. Walk home if it's close.
They said it was a mile, like just walk home, Yeah, walk home.
Well it's in La so maybe not, but no, maybe in Pasadena they walk. I don't know. Most time I spent in Pasadena was at a there was a class for racewalking, and I don't know if it was at the Rose Bowl or it was at some big arena there in Pasadena. And it was like the first time I had really been spending any time in Pasadena. I learned how to race walk, right, so they could have race walked to see it time and all of everything about this show would never have been.
That's why it didn't happen that way.
They gotta they gotta take it through the team. I guess, parenting wise, Alice's face when Brian said he and Charlie we're gonna have a baby, was.
Like, really you too?
Her eyes got very wide.
I'm just saying, the girl knows things, that's for sure.
Yes. And also at one point Jimmy said, everybody hopes that they're the kind of person who comes through if the bleep ever hits the fan, and I wasn't. And as a parent, that's I felt that, like, Okay, I can handle anything. I know, you know, whatever happens, I'll be okay, I'll handle it. And then something happens and you go, gosh.
Handle that.
Why did that have to happen? Yeah, I've had a few of those, so I feel you, Jimmy, But I did not actually have hookers at home, so.
Offering to cook your child a meal.
They're so sweet, those hookers, they're really nice. They're nice ladies. It's fine, they're good friends, that's all. But uh, I hope next episode is happy. What does the next episode? What is the title of the next episode? And uh does it sound like it could be a happy episode? We need to be done with the Sads for at least a little while.
Well, I don't know, we'll see it sounds a little funny. It's the ninth episode is called full Grown Dude Face, So I don't know if that has to do with the children of Liz. I don't know. I don't know.
Will so many to find out? There are many full grown due.
Next Thursday, following our little holiday week switcheroo.
Next week as well, we have like a week to sort of wallow in the sadness here. Yeah, thank you for listening. You can find all our episodes on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can find recaps, links and an opportunity to comment on our website at parentingroundabout dot com.
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