Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 8, 2023 19:04:25 GMT -8
When I bought my last iPhone, it came with a 3 or 6 month subscription to Apple TV. But that channel is pretty much a sinkhole for Lifetime TV-meets-political-correctness. I actually like the taste of vanilla. But when referring to "plain vanilla" in terms of some artistic effort, that's not a compliment.
And Apple TV is the very definition of plain vanilla. Still, I ran into an advertisement for a series called Shrinking. What caught my eye is that it has Harrison Ford in it. And with all due respect to Harrison Ford, he is just a figurehead. He's just (so far) window dressing and not integral to the plot.
The series stars a Jeff-Daniels-like Jason Segel as the lead character, Jimmy, who is a shrink. His wife recently died and he's just up to his neck in a variety of things so he sort of goes native and starts dispensing advice to his patients that is not of the safe, plain-vanilla variety.
It's a good premise for a movie. Unfortunately, this is a series and I don't know how long they can keep this shtick up. But you can watch the first episode for free. You just need to have a device that will download the Apple TV app.
Once we get the preambles out of the way, this first episode is mainly about the shrink, Jimmy, and black-tough-guy Sean (Luke Tennie) working out a new patient/client relationship. Sean has a temper and is in counseling only because it has been court-ordered.
And this relationship works in this first episode. Nothing particularly original, but it does work. That said, as much as I'd like to check out the second episode, I'm not hooked to the point that I will give the Evil Wok Tech Empire, Apple, any more of my money than I have to. But, hey, the first one is on Satan.