Nothing small about Ford’s performance in Apple TV+’s ‘Shrinking’
Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford. There. I’ve just given you the three best reasons to catch up with “Shrinking,” a comedy-drama on Apple TV+ that recently concluded its first season. (It’s not to be confused with “shrinkage,” the aquatic affliction that famously derailed George Costanza’s romantic prospects on “Seinfeld.”)
Ford’s grouchy gravitas has worn quite well in the decades since “Star Wars” made him a movie star. “Shrinking” leans toward glib and cutesy banter a bit too much for my taste, so Ford’s curmudgeonly demeanor — including that trademark baleful stare — is a particularly welcome astringent.
In a testament to the work ethic that has helped sustain his stardom all these years, the 80year-old Ford is also starring as Montana rancher Jacob Dutton in Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” prequel “1923” on Paramount Plus.
On “Shrinking,” he plays a therapist named Paul whose younger colleagues and acquaintances are always trying to crack his hard shell and pull him into the role of guru or father figure.
Paul does not suffer fools gladly, or at all. But Ford doesn’t go full sourpuss in his portrayal, either. There’s always been a vein of humor and humanity in Ford’s gruffness, in contrast to, say, Tommy Lee Jones, his costar in “The Fugitive.” To me, Jones’s onscreen surliness often comes across as not much more than a kind of generalized misanthropy.
“Shrinking” stars Jason Segel as Jimmy, wearing his heart on his sleeve all too visibly as a widowed therapist who decides to radically change his methods when it comes to treating his patients. The series also features Lukita Maxwell as Jimmy’s daughter; Jessica Williams as a fellow therapist; Christa Miller and Michael Urie as friends of Jimmy; and Luke Tennie as a military veteran suffering from PTSD.
After Jimmy abandons professional restraints and removes the filter, telling the patients exactly what he thinks they should do and getting involved in their lives, the law of unintended consequences is bound to kick in. In the jolting season finale of “Shrinking,” it does.
Many movie stars have flocked to television in recent years, eager for a piece of what has been called the medium’s Second Golden Age: Al Pacino, Nicole Kidman, Viola Davis, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren (who plays Ford’s wife, Cara Dutton, in “1923”), Anthony Hopkins, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Paul Giamatti, Michael Douglas, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Martin Sheen, Winona Ryder, Drew Barrymore, on and on.
I didn’t necessarily expect Ford to join that parade. But I’m glad he did.