Speaker 1: Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast. I'm Terry Morrow and
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine Jileco. As parents and parenting writers, we can't
Speaker 1: help but see everything through a parenting lens. But as
Speaker 1: our kids have become adults, we find ourselves more interested
Speaker 1: in getting caught up on movies and streaming than I'm
Speaker 1: going over the same parenting topics over and over.
Speaker 2: So since we're pretty sure we can find parenting wisdom anywhere,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about what we're watching, what we
Speaker 2: thought about it, and maybe what we can learn from it,
Speaker 2: if only what not to do. Watch and listen along,
Speaker 2: and let's all make like we're doing something important for
Speaker 2: our families. Each Wednesday, we bring you our thoughts on
Speaker 2: a newer entertainment property, and for this week of November fourth,
Speaker 2: we are discussing the first episode of the new season
Speaker 2: of Shrinking. This was a show that we liked a
Speaker 2: lot the first outing, and yes we are behind by
Speaker 2: a few weeks, but that's what happens when you're a parent.
Speaker 2: So new episodes of Shrinking are dropping once a week
Speaker 2: on Wednesdays, so we are we are in line with
Speaker 2: that We're on We're bringing this to you on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: It's just Wednesday from like four weeks ago, so you
Speaker 2: can follow that, right.
Speaker 1: Yes, you're probably behind too, And if you weren't, go
Speaker 1: watch it again to prepare yourself for a new episode
Speaker 1: and listen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so all of our all of our friends are back.
Speaker 2: We have we have Jimmy, that's Jason Siegel's character, who's
Speaker 2: the therapist who the conceit of the whole of the
Speaker 2: whole show is that he's trying some unconventional methods with
Speaker 2: his patients because he got frustrated with their Yes. Yes,
Speaker 2: And at the end of the last season there was
Speaker 2: a spectacular problem with this, which is that he accidentally
Speaker 2: question Mark encouraged one of his patients to harm her
Speaker 2: abusive husband.
Speaker 1: Yes, and she did, had her to push him off
Speaker 1: off a cliff. Yeah, and that is what she did.
Speaker 1: And at that point it seemed to me that nothing
Speaker 1: good could come of this second season because it would
Speaker 1: surely it would take everybody down. Everybody had some sort
Speaker 1: of connection, the practice would go down, and I mean,
Speaker 1: Sean had had previous contact with the victim, so he
Speaker 1: was going to be under scrutiny. And Brian, you know,
Speaker 1: was involved in that case. From the beating. It just
Speaker 1: seemed like it was just going to ruin everything. And
Speaker 1: it came right after they were all kind of in
Speaker 1: a good place. They were at Brian and Charlie's wedding
Speaker 1: and everything was happy, and then the last thirty seconds
Speaker 1: they did that thing that I thought, oh, now I
Speaker 1: can't look forward to season two because season two is
Speaker 1: going to be awful. It's going to be all the
Speaker 1: repercussions of this, and I don't want to watch that.
Speaker 1: I just want to hang right. So I was simultaneously
Speaker 1: looking forward to this season and dreading it. But at
Speaker 1: least as of this first episode, they're kind of saying
Speaker 1: that's not that bad. Well, this is in jail, but
Speaker 1: everybody else is okay, and Paul says that Jimmy didn't
Speaker 1: really do anything wrong, and part of me is like,
Speaker 1: there is no way that this is easy. And also
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, yes, second, yes, I mean, not
Speaker 1: having done it in the first place is just saying, ah, yeah,
Speaker 1: not that.
Speaker 2: Bad handwave, handwave, handwave. Yeah. I mean, the biggest thing
Speaker 2: is that the guy didn't die from falling off the cliffs,
Speaker 2: so she's not in jail for murder, and.
Speaker 1: She hasn't had her trial yet. Would she not be
Speaker 1: out on bail?
Speaker 2: I know, maybe she couldn't afford bail.
Speaker 1: I guess wouldn't. Yeah, it seems like somebody I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess it would be inappropriate of your therapist to
Speaker 1: bail you out from pushing your husband off a cliff
Speaker 1: like he told you to. But but then it just
Speaker 1: does give the opportunity to have all those jail visitations.
Speaker 1: I guess. So whatever, right, whatever? Can we scoot past
Speaker 1: this as quickly as possible?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Then can we never see that character again? Because he's awful?
Speaker 2: Oh, the husband.
Speaker 1: I'm not upset that he got pushed off a cliff.
Speaker 1: He deserved to get pushed off a cliff. I just
Speaker 1: didn't want the repercussions coming to characters I liked. Right,
Speaker 1: he could have just disappeared.
Speaker 2: Well, And the thing is like, if he was if
Speaker 2: he had died, then it could have been an accident. Right,
Speaker 2: But since he's alive, he knows that she pushed her.
Speaker 2: She pushed him, so he was berating her.
Speaker 1: Yes, fortunately, Uh. Yeah, the sooner we can dispatch with
Speaker 1: that plotline, the better. There's enough. There's enough, there's enough,
Speaker 1: dysfunction without that.
Speaker 2: Right, right, there's plenty of that dysfunction to go around.
Speaker 2: We have we have Sean, you know, Paul. Finally, Paul
Speaker 2: is the Harrison Ford character who's the head of the practice,
Speaker 2: finally telling Jimmy that, like, look, you can't try to
Speaker 2: treat Sean anymore. He's living in your house, Like this
Speaker 2: is this is not how this works.
Speaker 1: He's going to tell you things to keep you happy
Speaker 1: even if they're not true, which is not useful. So
Speaker 1: he's still being why people involved in his military past,
Speaker 1: and he can't deal with it, even though his food
Speaker 1: truck seems.
Speaker 2: To be going well, right and he seems to his
Speaker 2: food truck with the neighbor Liz.
Speaker 1: Entertaining Liz has not driven him crazy. It's great, it's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's she's a lot of fun on this show,
Speaker 2: I mean, and she gets kind of a lot to
Speaker 2: do in this In this first episode, she's she's working
Speaker 2: with Sean, she's and then she's very much trying to
Speaker 2: be a friend to Gabby and try to keep her
Speaker 2: from sleeping with Jimmy.
Speaker 1: But that's not happening, you know, be a good friend
Speaker 1: to Gabby. In the most Lise way possible, which is
Speaker 1: being all up in her business, going into her class
Speaker 1: and talking, or just yeah, it's amusing to me. You
Speaker 1: know that that the actress who plays Liz Krista Miller
Speaker 1: is the wife of the show's creator and producer of
Speaker 1: The Lawrence, And so wonder how much is this character
Speaker 1: informed by the actual person?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: And then you have to in a marriage. I'm going
Speaker 1: to make you this prison screen, honey.
Speaker 2: Well, and then how much of the Ted McGinley character
Speaker 2: is Bill Laurence exactly?
Speaker 1: Which is their dynamic? I remember them saying something about
Speaker 1: the the bid about that from last season about when
Speaker 1: you retire you can only you know, I can only
Speaker 1: love him like an hour and a half a day
Speaker 1: or something like that. That was from real life. But
Speaker 1: she was also a somewhat pretty character on Cougartown. So
Speaker 1: it's just I feel like there's maybe issues being worked out,
Speaker 1: but I don't care, because she's wonderful and her characters
Speaker 1: are so fun, and while I might not personally want
Speaker 1: to have them in my life, I enjoy having them
Speaker 1: on my TV in other people's lives and delightful, just delightful.
Speaker 2: And I believe Gabby wanted her to interfere in that way.
Speaker 1: And holy cow, if somebody will come and put on
Speaker 1: my crap away after I move. Yes, yes, oh, everything
Speaker 1: is forgiven now and in the future. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yep. She recruited her husband and Brian to show up
Speaker 2: at Gabby's house while she wasn't there unpack everything. It
Speaker 2: was impressive. Yeah, but.
Speaker 1: For all our affection for the returning characters, which also
Speaker 1: include you know, Jimmy's daughter who's concerned about him and
Speaker 1: watching him sleep, which is a problem. And oh, poor
Speaker 1: little puppy dog Connor, Lizz's son who is still pining
Speaker 1: for Alice even though she is so over him if
Speaker 1: she was ever ever into him at all. To him, yeah,
Speaker 1: other than I bet I could ask this guy to
Speaker 1: have sex with me and he'd say yes. So he's
Speaker 1: just that actor is doing a very good job of
Speaker 1: just being clueless young manhood, very forlorn. His parents are
Speaker 1: trying to take him in hand, but not doing a
Speaker 1: very good job. No Ah, dear, but there is a
Speaker 1: new addition to the cast this season, and he knew
Speaker 1: he was going to be that. We knew. Brett Goldstein,
Speaker 1: who was co creator and writer on the show. We
Speaker 1: knew he was going to come on as a cast member. HM,
Speaker 1: who do we think he's going to be? A patient?
Speaker 1: Maybe a love interest for somebody? Ay YAYI. Who he
Speaker 1: is is revealed in like the past couple of seconds,
Speaker 1: which is, if you haven't watched this first episode for
Speaker 1: some reason you're listening to this, stop now go watch it,
Speaker 1: because even though you know that actor is going to
Speaker 1: be on the moment when you find out who he's
Speaker 1: playing is a ah.
Speaker 2: Right, it's I did let out an involuntary gasp.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So throughout the episode we have flashbacks.
Speaker 1: Jimmy is flashing back to the night when TiO was killed,
Speaker 1: and when he says whenever he sees sirens, he's back
Speaker 1: at that moment when he came there and he saw
Speaker 1: them loading her into the ambulance with a sheet over
Speaker 1: her head, and then he sees the drunk driver being
Speaker 1: put in the police car. We don't see the drunk
Speaker 1: driver's face, but there's a moment when it's clear that
Speaker 1: he does. And this is just kind of a motif
Speaker 1: throughout the episode. And then at the end, who should
Speaker 1: be sitting in the hallway of his workplace but Brett
Speaker 1: Goldstein as the drunk driver. Ah, yes, I'm not expecting
Speaker 1: that at all. And obviously he's in some sort of
Speaker 1: twelve step thing where he has to come and apologize
Speaker 1: and Jimmy does not.
Speaker 2: I mean, speaking of jail, wouldn't he be in jail?
Speaker 1: Well, how long has it? It's been like a year? Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wonder why he's not in jail. That is a
Speaker 1: big question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe we'll find out, yes, but.
Speaker 1: At any rate, he tries to apologize and Jimmy just says, okay,
Speaker 1: you did it. Go away, and then he tries to
Speaker 1: continue talking and Jimmy yells at him and drives him
Speaker 1: out with the building.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is a character reveal that really surprised me.
Speaker 1: And you know what, if we're not going to get
Speaker 1: into the whole actions have consequences of it with Grace
Speaker 1: and other things that Jimmy has done. If they want
Speaker 1: to work with it this way, I'll take it. I
Speaker 1: think Brenda Christine is up to making that really interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and could not be less Roy Kentish if he tried, right,
Speaker 1: starting with being clean shaven, which is a jolt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just you know, sort of quietly turns and
Speaker 2: leaves when Jimmy yells at him, and I mean in
Speaker 2: such a way that we know that this is not
Speaker 2: the end. But he just is like, Okay, he's not
Speaker 2: He's not going to hear this right now, so I'll
Speaker 2: have to try again, and not to just.
Speaker 1: Way mitigate the two ableness of what he did. But
Speaker 1: he seems genuinely contrite and a bashed by. It's not
Speaker 1: like he's just saying, all right, I'm gonna come here,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say sorry and then everything we're gonna be good,
Speaker 1: right buddy. Now he seems to accept that he's gonna
Speaker 1: it's gonna be tough.
Speaker 2: This is gonna take effort, for sure.
Speaker 1: So wow, that was a that was a twist, interesting one,
Speaker 1: and I think, yeah, I want to see where that's
Speaker 1: gonna go. Right, And then by the end he should
Speaker 1: just be one of the lovable one of the ensemble,
Speaker 1: right yeah, Oh, because I like that actor. I'd like
Speaker 1: him to be around. But that character is gonna be
Speaker 1: a tough cell. Mum.
Speaker 2: Hum. Sure is.
Speaker 1: There was a point at which Jimmy is concerned that
Speaker 1: Alice is watching him sleep and you know, seems worried
Speaker 1: about him, and Paul says it's rough when your kid
Speaker 1: is how fragile you are. It's like I've I have
Speaker 1: that vibe with my kids a little bit now too,
Speaker 1: because I've had some falls and I've had some health issues,
Speaker 1: and it's like my daughter is sort of, you know,
Speaker 1: worried about me, and that's no, don't do that. That's okay,
Speaker 1: that's my job. Worry. I'm really at it. Worrying is
Speaker 1: my thoughts. So I'll worry for the both of us,
Speaker 1: don't be you know. And I think my son does
Speaker 1: a little bit too, because you know, you don't want
Speaker 1: me to fall. They don't want me to get sick.
Speaker 1: I go to a little doctors just because I'm old,
Speaker 1: and that concerns them. So that is a that is
Speaker 1: an unfortunate transition and hard to know what to do
Speaker 1: as a parent because you don't want to dismiss their
Speaker 1: concerns as silly or frivolous or whatever, but you really
Speaker 1: don't want them. It's not their job. Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: And of course Paul has this with his because he
Speaker 2: has Parkinson's and he didn't want to even tell his daughter.
Speaker 2: It took him, took him quite a long time to
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 1: And he and Julie are still having their little romance,
Speaker 1: but he's he's having trouble with it.
Speaker 2: I think Julie his doctor.
Speaker 1: Yes, they are very cute together. And yes, I like
Speaker 1: Wendy Mellick a lot. I'm glad yea and that that's continuing.
Speaker 1: I've seen a couple of articles about shrinking showing old
Speaker 1: people having romance. Isn't that wonderful?
Speaker 2: Right? And it was mentioned on Extra Hot Great recently
Speaker 2: that the creator of Only Murders in the Building said
Speaker 2: that Meryl Streep thanked him for having her character, you know,
Speaker 2: have a romantic life, and and that in real life
Speaker 2: it her and Martin Short together.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I've seen a couple of those stories, and I've
Speaker 1: heard that everybody is running with that as meaning that
Speaker 1: they're together in real life, but it could just be
Speaker 1: talking about the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did she?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I hope for them. I wish it for them.
Speaker 1: I think they are adorable together. Yeah, And I reflect
Speaker 1: again on how completely weird it must be to have
Speaker 1: total strangers obsessing that your love life.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm just.
Speaker 1: You know, it's the Taylor Swift thing where, yes, I
Speaker 1: want to see the pictures of her and Travis, you know,
Speaker 1: taking with a long lens, you know, talking to each
Speaker 1: other at the baseball game, and then at the same time,
Speaker 1: this is so wrong. Don't do that. Stop Let leave
Speaker 1: them alone. Can you imagine knowing that everything you do
Speaker 1: people are taking pictures of it, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be all over the internet, and people are gonna be saying, Oh,
Speaker 1: look at that, that's so cute, or oh look at
Speaker 1: that he's looking the other way. I don't think it looks.
Speaker 2: So analyzing it in the in the way in which
Speaker 2: lost fans analytically.
Speaker 1: Yes, So good luck to you Martin and Merrill. It's
Speaker 1: such a time when you wish to go public. We're
Speaker 1: here for you, happy for you, not just find a
Speaker 1: little cocoon somewhere or just enjoy your your friendship and
Speaker 1: your individual lives that have nothing to do with one another.
Speaker 2: However it works out exactly.
Speaker 1: But parenting wise, the moment we were talking about Connor,
Speaker 1: the moment where Liz is trying to talk him down
Speaker 1: from staring at Alice, and then she has to do something,
Speaker 1: so she says to her husband, you're on PERV patrols.
Speaker 1: What parents do you trade off? All right, I've done this.
Speaker 1: I gotta do something else, you take over, but tap in.
Speaker 2: Again to return to only murders in the building. She
Speaker 2: needs him to tap.
Speaker 1: Needs him to tap in.
Speaker 2: I and I mean, this is this is why we
Speaker 2: have two parents for the yes situations, Yes.
Speaker 1: And we have. We'll probably see more of Gabby's student,
Speaker 1: Kusha admits that she's going into psychology because of her
Speaker 1: mother are terrible. I'm the mom. My mom has already
Speaker 1: called several times. That would be me, and.
Speaker 2: It's already called Gabby. Right the professor, the college professor.
Speaker 1: I made friends with my kids professors because I was
Speaker 1: just in college the whole time.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, they appreciate and involve parents, so they.
Speaker 1: Do as much as the as the elementary school and
Speaker 1: high school teachers enjoyed an involved parent away always there.
Speaker 1: But just to get this, one line I enjoyed was
Speaker 1: the carrots make you think they're cheetos. That's that sounds
Speaker 1: like a parenting thing too. It's like, look, it's orange.
Speaker 2: Look almost exactly the same.
Speaker 1: Who knows? And also, but that was.
Speaker 2: Very sweet because the reason why they Alice and Paul
Speaker 2: were eating carrots is because Alice had googled Parkinson's disease.
Speaker 2: And you know what should Paul be eating?
Speaker 1: So so another example of the child sort of becoming
Speaker 1: the parent.
Speaker 2: Right now, what's good for you?
Speaker 1: And Paul summed up what will undoubtedly be the theme
Speaker 1: for this season and somewhat last season, but definitely this
Speaker 1: season is you can't spend your life hiding from your trauma.
Speaker 1: If you don't truly deal with your past, it'll come
Speaker 1: back for you. And when that happens, boom. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was overlaid with this situation of him seeing the drunk
Speaker 1: driver and yelling at him. Right, so, all sorts of
Speaker 1: fun ahead on shrinking.
Speaker 2: Yay, but we'll be talking about it every Wednesday.
Speaker 1: The next episode sounds real fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The next episode, second episode two of season two, is
Speaker 2: called I Love Pain, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it would be the episode of the title
Speaker 1: of a lost episode two, so they yes, kind of overlapping.
Speaker 2: Yes, So we'll see you back here for that next
Speaker 2: week and tomorrow for our weekly roundabout round up.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. You can find all our episodes
Speaker 1: on spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. You can find recaps, links and an opportunity
Speaker 1: to comment on our website at parentingroundabout dot com.
Speaker 2: You can also talk to us on our Facebook page,
Speaker 2: on Instagram or on Twitter, where you'll find us at
Speaker 2: roundabout chat. And please visit our Amazon shop at Amazon
Speaker 2: dot com slash shop slash Mamitude, but you can find
Speaker 2: links to a lot of the things we've talked about
Speaker 2: over the years.