Review: Aging Millennials Confront Adult Problems on Screen

Apple TV+’s Shrinking revolves around Jimmy Laird, a psychologist who responds to his wife’s sudden death by getting very involved—to unconventional extremes—in his patients’ lives.

The series also encompasses the lives of Laird’s peers, from his coworker Gaby, who is negotiating her independence from her family while dealing with a collapsing marriage, to his best friend Brian, a pickleball-playing lawyer realizing that his “double income, no kids” life feels empty.

The first season introduced the characters and their struggles. The second, released in late 2024, gives them room to grow. There’s a lot more push and pull, learning and unlearning. Laird realizes that, although solving his patients’ problems was a good emotional crutch while he was suffering, he now needs to lean on those professional relationships less. Louis, the drunk driver who killed Laird’s wife by accident, shows up to apologize; his reappearance in Laird’s life, apart from all the chaos it causes, becomes a lesson that everyone is suffering in ways that might not be obvious.

A show about (largely white and suburban) millennials who love to talk about their feelings sounds cringeworthy. To some extent, it is. It’s filled with awkward moments caused by characters making themselves the center of attention, overintellectualizing, wallowing in self-doubt, and not knowing when to leave certain things unsaid.

But the point is that these gauche millennials are adults now. They’re dealing with real-life issues, from marriage and parenthood to divorce and death. For all the pettiness and discomfort, Shrinking is also filled with intense, touching moments about growth and loss.

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