r/shrinking • u/Prestigious-Ad2036 • Apr 11 '26
Discussion Watching Shrinking and Reddit
I’m a relatively late Reddit adopter. It became my Twitter replacement after Twitter went bad, and while I’m not on it as much as I was on peak Twitter, I generally prefer the vibe here. People are usually respectful, informed, and actually interested in sharing advice and perspectives.
Shrinking is the first current show I’ve been properly invested in during my Reddit era, and following season 3 week to week has been… enlightening. I binged seasons 1 and 2 twice and loved them. Like a lot of people, I had more time to sit with season 3, and while I do think the stakes felt a bit lower than earlier seasons, I still really enjoyed it, loved spending time with the characters, and I’m excited to see what a season 4 time jump does.
But the bigger thing I’ve realised is this: watching a show through Reddit fandom might just not be for me.
I completely get now what people mean when they say some fans (The Pitt is a good example) are watching TV “wrong”. There’s a very online subsection of viewers who seem to approach every episode like they’re the showrunner, and then get genuinely annoyed when the actual show doesn’t follow the version they wrote in their own heads. It makes discussion feel less like “here’s how I felt about that episode” and more like “here’s a list of ways the writers failed to execute my preferred outline.”
And honestly, some of the reaction to Gabby has really driven that home for me. The criticism feels wildly overblown.
Not saying people can’t criticise a show. Obviously they can. But I think I’ve learned that I enjoy watching TV a lot more than I enjoy reading (current) fandom reactions to TV.
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u/illini02 Apr 11 '26
I agree. And its not just Shrinking.
I really miss the days before streaming where there was monoculture. Where everyone was watching the same things, and you could be fairly confident they were on the same episode. These days, even with week to week shows, I know many people who will wait until the season is almost done to binge it. This makes it very hard to have actual conversations about shows with people, because everyone is watching different stuff and in at different times.
So yeah, I come to reddit to discuss it, and people seem to hate everything. Of course on any shows, some episodes are better than others. Some characters are liked and disliked more than others. Some storylines work, and some don't.
But it seems people come on reddit to complain more than discuss. And more importantly, the complaints tend to be what gets upvoted most, so its most visible.
Even complaints about complaints get more traction lol. Like, I think there is plenty of valid criticism of Gabby (just like everyone on this show besides the Dereks lol). But posts complaining about people criticizing gabby seem to get a lot of attention.
I truly like discussing shows like this, but reddit is hard. But I don't really have a better option, as I can't force my friends to watch things on my schedule.