Harrison Ford is a legendary actor for many people. This is mainly due to his roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones. MyMMO editor Nikolas Hernes believes, however, that a completely different role, in which he was already over 80 years old, is his best performance.
Which role is it? 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 key figures in the series. In the series, Harrison Ford is hardly recognizable.
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 doing well and is also overwhelmed by raising his daughter. One day he decides to throw out his classic therapy methods and try new, more direct approaches.
Behind the series is Bill Lawrence, who also created the series Scrubs. After Ted Lasso, this is his second series on the Apple platform.
Shrinking is a great series that not only has Paul as Harrison Ford’s best role of all time, but it is also one of the best comedy series I have seen, and there are several reasons for that.
You can find a trailer for the series here:
Harrison Ford is one of the best aspects in Shrinking
Why is Harrison Ford so good in Shrinking? In his well-known roles, Harrison Ford is usually the cool guy
, who can handle even the toughest situations with cheeky remarks. However, often these roles lack the diversity of his emotions. As Paul, he has a complexity that is not immediately obvious.
In the first episodes, Paul is presented as a mentor to Jimmy. He is an experienced and award-winning therapist who struggles with Parkinson’s disease. Throughout the series, his tough exterior cracks episode by episode, and we learn more about him. This reminded me of Dr. Cox from Scrubs, who also shows inner conflicts as the series progresses. Those were often the best episodes in Scrubs.
Because despite being so tough, he has his own problems. Aging bothers him, especially his illness. The thought of not being able to do everything for himself one day gnaws at him and affects his relationships.
Shrinking does not just show simple solutions but compromises. Paul realizes that he is getting worse, so he lets himself be driven to work by his colleague. This leads to not only gags, but also provides a small insight into his character development.
Harrison Ford performs all of this fantastically. He has the cool demeanor of Han Solo but also shows authentic emotions. In a speech in the last episode of the second season, his character can hardly hide the tears and trembling of his voice, and it does not feel forced at all. For the first time, he truly touched me emotionally as an actor.
The relationships between characters are the most exciting part of the series
What else does the series do really well? The big highlight in Shrinking is, like in Scrubs, the dynamics between the many characters, who constantly evolve.
Characters that seem like shallow supporting characters in the first episodes become multi-dimensional characters throughout the series, and this works mainly because many characters interact with each other, who initially don’t seem to have anything to do with one another.
This also creates smaller stories and relationships that feel organic. This is also a big plus for the series. Conflicts are not built up in one episode and then ignored for several episodes. Shrinking tries to resolve conflicts in 2, at most 3 episodes.
The red thread of the series is the emotional world of the characters, which evolves slowly and grows with each situation or sometimes is set back.
In addition to that, Shrinking, like Scrubs, has a fantastic balance of sometimes silly jokes and highly emotional situations. They always worked for me because they never felt forced. Real life is not just sad or just funny; it’s a mixture of everything.
That’s why Shrinking works for me as a comfort series. Sure, it deals with tragic and complex themes, but even in the worst situations, the series does not lose its sense of hope. It shows that most problems cannot be solved quickly, but one can work on oneself and slowly strive for a goal. That regularly brought a smile to my face.
Shrinking is perfect for Scrubs fans
You can feel Bill Lawrence’s style and craftsmanship at every corner. Shrinking has many of the things that Scrubs did really well back in the day:
- Great actors, especially Jason Segel
- Humor and dialogues that fit the current times
- Nice balance between emotional and funny scenes
- Well-written and relatable characters
I love Scrubs. I have 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 finishing the second season and wanted to watch it again right away. Shrinking is one of the best comedy series of all time and quickly became one of my favorite series after just a few episodes.
Where can you watch the series? The series is available exclusively for streaming on Apple TV+. While the platform has a smaller selection than Netflix, there are many quality series and movies that you can watch in addition to Shrinking if you want to subscribe for a month or two. Jason Segel is mainly known from How I Met Your Mother. Did you know that in episode 9, there is an important clue about Ted’s wife: In episode 9 of How I Met Your Mother, you can discover a big hint about Ted’s wife.
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