Harrison Ford is an acting legend for many people. This is mainly due to his roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones. However, MeinMMO editor Nikolas Hernes thinks that a completely different role, in which he was over 80 years old, is his best achievement.
What role is it about? In the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, Harrison Ford plays the character Paul Rhoades. He is the boss of the main character Jimmy and is one of the most important characters in the series. Harrison Ford is hardly recognizable in the series.
Shrinking tells the story of therapist Jimmy, played by Jason Segel (known as Marshall from How I Met Your Mother). After the death of his wife, he is not feeling well and is also overwhelmed with raising his daughter. One day he decides to throw his classic therapy methods overboard and try new, more direct approaches.
Bill Lawrence, who also created the series Scrubs, is behind the series. After Ted Lasso, it is his second series on the Apple platform.
Shrinking is a great series that not only has Harrison Ford’s best role ever in Paul, but is one of the best comedy series I’ve seen, and there are several reasons for that.
You can find a trailer for the series here:
Shrinking – Trailer for the comedy series from the creator of Scrubs
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Harrison Ford is one of the best aspects of Shrinking
Why is Harrison Ford so good in Shrinking? In his well-known roles, Harrison Ford is usually the cool guy who can master any situation, no matter how difficult, with cheeky sayings. However, these roles often lack the diversity of his emotions. As Paul, he has such a complexity that you don’t even notice at first glance.
In the first few episodes, Paul is presented as Jimmy’s mentor. He is an experienced and award-winning therapist struggling with Parkinson’s disease. As the series progresses, his hard shell opens up from episode to episode and we learn more about him. That reminded me of Dr. Cox from Scrubs, who also shows inner conflicts over the course of the series. These were usually the best episodes in Scrubs.
Because even though he’s so tough, he has his own problems. Growing old bothers him and especially his illness. The thought of no longer being able to do everything himself gnaws at him and also at his relationships.
Shrinking not only shows simple solutions, but also compromises. Paul notices that his driving is becoming worse and worse, so he lets his colleague give him a ride to work. This doesn’t just lead to gags, it’s a little insight into his character development.
Harrison Ford plays all of this fantastically. He has the cool charisma of Han Solo, but he also shows authentic emotions. During a speech in the last episode of the second season, his character can hardly hide his tears and the shaking of his voice, and it doesn’t seem fake at all. For the first time he really touched me emotionally as an actor.
The relationships between characters are the most exciting part of the series
What else makes the series really good? The big highlight in Shrinking, as in Scrubs, is the dynamic between the many characters, who are constantly evolving.
Characters who seem like shallow supporting characters in the first few episodes become complex characters as the series progresses, and this works primarily because many characters interact with each other who initially have nothing to do with each other.
This also creates smaller stories and relationships that feel organic. This is also a big plus point for the series. Conflicts aren’t built up in one episode and then ignored for several episodes. Shrinking always tries to finish telling conflicts in 2, maximum 3 episodes.
The common thread of the series is the emotional world of the characters, which slowly develops and grows with each situation or sometimes thrown back.
Additionally, like Scrubs, Shrinking has a fantastic balance of sometimes silly jokes and highly emotional situations. They always worked for me because they never seemed fake. Even real life isn’t just sad or just funny, it’s a mix of everything.
That’s why Shrinking also works as a comfort series for me. Sure, it’s about tragic and complex topics, but even in every situation, no matter how dire, the series doesn’t lose its sense of hope. It shows that most problems cannot be solved quickly, but you can slowly work towards a goal. This made me smile regularly.
Shrinking is perfect for Scrubs fans
Bill Lawrence’s style and workmanship can be seen on every corner. Shrinking does many of the things that Scrubs did really well back then:
I love scrubs. I’ve watched the series 4 or 5 times and Shrinking gave me exactly the same feelings I had with Scrubs. I missed the series immediately after I finished the second season and immediately wanted to watch it again. Shrinking is one of the best comedy series of all time and became one of my favorite series after just a few episodes.
Where can you watch the series? The series is only available to stream on Apple TV+ as an exclusive title. Although there is a smaller offering on the platform than on Netflix, you can watch many high-quality series and films in addition to Shrinking if you want to subscribe for one or two months. Jason Segel is best known from How I Met Your Mother. Did you know that you get an important clue about Ted’s wife in episode 9: You can discover a big clue about Ted’s wife in episode 9 of How I Met Your Mother