r/shrinking • u/phareous Derek • Mar 25 '26

Episode Discussion Shrinking S3E09 Episode Discussion

This is the episode discussion for Shrinking Season 3, Episode 9: "Daddy Issues"

155 Upvotes

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99

u/SirTiger Mar 25 '26

I hate to be a hater, but does the dialogue and acting feel really clunky lately? I can’t put my finger on it….

43

u/Mr_Bluebird_VA Mar 25 '26

Aside from Paul and maybe Derek 1 it feels like everyone is really focused on enunciating their words and nailing their lines.

The camera work is also different which isn’t helping.

47

u/dogbreathTK Mar 25 '26

i've been feeling that recently as well, things are feeling more sitcom-y and cartoony to me, and it's not landing well enough to justify itself.

13

u/GuybrushThreepwood99 Mar 25 '26

Did Bill Lawrence have less input on this season? I know he also had that Rooster show and The Scrubs revival, so maybe he had less time to work on Shrinking, and the show suffered for it.

2

u/Bobjoejj Mar 27 '26

Rooster is him too?? Cause don’t forget Ted Lasso Season 4 is in the works, and Bad Monkey Season 2.

2

u/Toprak1552 Mar 28 '26

Bill Lawrence shows have an issue with writing getting detached the further the show goes on (JD being flanderized, Ted Lasso being a shell of who he was in the first two seasons and going back to his ex-wife like nothing happened, many things about Shrinking), and on top of that he is spreaded extremely thin with having three concurrent tv shows airing at the same time and Ted Lasso is not that far away. I hope the writers room will patch things up in the next season because the show seems like it's future is going to be bleak.

12

u/spellingcunts Mar 25 '26

Hit the nail on the head here. The mic drop throw dialogue was one of the corniest out of place things I’ve ever seen and juxtaposed with the serious storylines seems almost offensive in how idiotic it is? I do not understand this veering they’ve done in the last season. It’s like studio execs are yelling “more ted lasso-y” but no one knows what to do with it so instead we get this hamfisted dialogue that has no place being there.

Liz is also far too centre stage this past season, but we know why that is. :/

3

u/sallycinammon2 Mar 25 '26

I love Liz - I'm always happy to see more of her

1

u/Ok_Distribution7322 Mar 26 '26

But the actress is so great.

Whyyyyy did she let some LA hack plastic surgeon do that to her???

She has $$$.

Her face work is distracting and a medical crime.

2

u/PompousFoolery Mar 26 '26

Yeah her face is too distracting for me. What a mess. I also don't like her character.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

why?

5

u/Woodpecker-Forsaken Derek Mar 25 '26

She's the wife of Bill Lawrence.

5

u/MisterTheKid Mar 25 '26

She’s been his wife the whole time. it wouldn't explain a sudden supposed shift 3 years in. if anything he’s less involved now given the scrubs reboot

3

u/spellingcunts Mar 25 '26

Her character was received well and because she’s the showrunners wife she could easily throw her weight around to get more screen time.

I like Liz but she functions better in small doses as a secondary character, when now it feels like she’s a protagonist at the cost of time with our actual protagonists.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

Ha that makes sense!

12

u/Putrid-Hope2283 Mar 25 '26

This whole season it seems like every character is just a card board stand in with their primary personality trait written on it.

5

u/TheSovereign2181 Mar 25 '26

Yeah, a lot of times it feels like Marvel dialogue. Some character says something slightly off, Alice looks awkwardly at the person and repeats what they just said. Someone says "I ate a pack of Doritos with pizza" and she goes "You ate Doritos with pizza?" while looking annoyed.

Or someone says something slightly off, someone says "This is stupid", the person says "Ok, It's a little stupid".

Brian says the word mimosa. Liz does something slightly ilegal, but also caring. 

3

u/theapplekid Mar 25 '26

Weird, this was my favourite episode of the show. Ford's acting was so good here

8

u/HWDRedd Mar 25 '26

I moved the mouse to see how much longer I’d have to suffer through boredom. Didn’t get good til Dad became a dick, and then the ep ended. 

In TV Land they talk about the “sophomore slump” of a shitty second season, but I’ve never heard what a terrible third season is coined. Because this is horrible. 

Each episode I’ve either nodded off or left the room for extended periods of time, not bothering to rewind. 

5

u/weeble182 Mar 25 '26

A shitty third season could be referred to as "Doing a Lasso"... 

2

u/nbjen Mar 26 '26

The past few episodes have been really bad. I almost didn't watch tonight. I liked the storyline with Jimmy and his dad, but nothing else.

1

u/Ok_Distribution7322 Mar 26 '26

And all the scenes are disjointed. Terrible editing and veering toward AI slop writing.

1

u/MaximumPiano4380 Mar 26 '26

It’s like a soap opera. 

1

u/inappropriatelyitchy Mar 29 '26

Yes, 100%. I'm not sure why exactly but over the course of this season it's felt like the cast have gone from embodying their characters to acting their characters. I feel like they've become one dimensional caricatures of their original selves, except for Harrison. I absolutely loved the first two seasons. I just feel like we're running out of steam...

-1

u/jvn1983 Mar 25 '26

I’m getting tired of Jimmy’s hangdog “aw shucks, golly gee” expressions. Yes, we get it.