In a world where grief often takes center stage, Shrinking dares to ask: Can healing be funny? Feel-good comedies have long dominated streaming platforms. From Ted Lasso to Abbott Elementary, these shows highlight the human condition while offering viewers comfort and hope. Apple TV’s Shrinking broadens the horizons of this genre, delivering a dramedy that blends humor with raw, emotional truths.
Created by Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel, and Brett Goldstein, Shrinking follows Jimmy (Segel), a grieving therapist who breaks professional norms by sharing exactly what he thinks with his clients. As he transforms their lives, his own begins to shift in unexpected ways.
By balancing comedy and drama, embracing a unique comedic voice, and leaning on an ensemble of relatable characters, Shrinking shows us how to write stories that make audiences laugh, cry, and feel deeply understood.
In a world full of shows and movies that bend genres, it seems almost impossible to have a hit show that doesn’t mix the emotional weight of our favorite genres. Shrinking does this effortlessly by blending the comedy of several adults trying to exist with the weight of their responsibilities on their shoulders.
Great dramedies thrive on emotional authenticity, and Shrinking nails this by blending comedy with raw moments of grief. Jimmy, grappling with his wife’s death, channels his frustration into both heartfelt confessions—many of which impact his client’s personal lives—and awkward, often hilarious situations.
Jimmy is dealing with the grief of losing his wife to a tragic accident and his general frustration with trying to solve everyone’s problems. As he puts it, he “is going through some sh*t.” Aren’t we all?
From anger issues being resolved through mixed martial arts to a tender moment between Jimmy and Tia (Lilan Bowden) being juxtaposed with Jimmy shrouded in the darkness of the house, the writers establish a clear rule for the audience: the lightness of a moment cannot exist without the darkness. Comedy and drama work hand and hand throughout the series to experience the audience’s empathy toward the characters.
Mastering the balance of empathy and humor is a skill that evolves with experience. The trick is to avoid overloading either emotion. Let moments of levity break tension naturally, and ensure that humor can come from characters’ emotional truths—whether that be true sincerity or light-hearted snarkiness.
At the end of the day, Shrinking is a feel-good comedy that follows in the same footsteps as Ted Lasso and How I Met Your Mother, but has its own distinct style that makes it stand out.
Compared to the other shows mentioned above, Shrinking finds humor in the bluntness of the character’s emotional state, which is either revealed through the dialogue or the situational comedy the characters find themselves in.
While revealing too much through dialogue is often a screenwriting taboo, it works for Shrinking simply because the main leads are therapists who are navigating the highs and lows of their relationships. When expressing their feelings would feel too on the nose, Shrinking’s writers find the perfect visual to capture them. Whether that is through a coyote running down the street or crying while listening to Phoebe Bridgers and then hitting a car, the writers understand how to capture the extreme emotions we have all felt in a relatively cinematic way. (Who hasn’t looked out a window while a sad song plays like they are in a music video?)
We all have little quirks that make our voices unique, but great screenwriters know how to translate those quirks into relatable moments that we can all sympathize with and (lovingly) laugh at.
I’ve touched on this a few times already, but the superpower of many great shows on TV is the characters. Each character has a distinct voice and role that makes them feel almost essential to the story and keeps the audience hooked.
While Jimmy is the main character of Shrinking, the supporting ensemble feels like a group of friends that audiences can relate to. Therapists Paul (Harrison Ford), who is a confrontational senior therapist who has an opinion about everything, and Gabby (Jessica Williams), a ray of sunshine in a plot filled with melancholy, sandwich Jimmy perfectly, creating a perfect spectrum of emotionally intelligent people who are not afraid to poke at each other wounds to help them grow.
It is refreshing to watch smart, relatable characters make rational moves that motivate us to do the same. When characters are written smartly and interact with each other like rational humans, it makes the story feel more like a passive hangout that is largely absent from modern TV.
It helps that the writers are pulling from their real lives to create these characters that feel grounded in a reality familiar to audiences. Goldstein revealed on Late Night With Seth Meyers that Harrison Ford’s character was inspired by his father, who also has Parkinson’s, while Lawrence drew inspiration from a close friend’s real-life tragedy to shape the show’s inciting incident.
Writing what you know is a screenwriting mantra, and Shrinking proves that, once again, there is truth behind this saying. You have an emotional perspective on an authentic situation that could resonate with audiences. Showcasing a character’s inciting incident that has shaped them is not life-ending but life-altering is a great start for any show.
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Writing a dramedy that leaves you feeling better at the end of the day taps into our collective need for connection and hope. Shrinking reminds us that even in the heaviest moments, there is room for laughter, growth, and authenticity—qualities that make stories truly unforgettable.
Shows like Shrinking can teach us how to write feel-good dramedy by grounding characters in relatable experiences, balancing highs and lows, and capturing universal truths.