Television series

Shrinking

Jason Segel plays a therapist who, wrecked by grief, starts telling his patients exactly what he thinks instead of gently nudging them toward realising it themselves. It's a workplace comedy with a broken heart at its centre — funny, messy, occasionally shameless with its emotional swings — anchored by Harrison Ford doing gruff, unexpectedly moving work as the older colleague keeping an eye on him. Good for anyone who wants their comfort watch to actually make them cry a bit.

TVMaze rating7.9

If you liked this

Ted Lasso2020

Same Apple TV DNA, same creator in Bill Lawrence, same trick of using warmth and jokes to sneak up on real grief and mental health struggle. If you liked the tone here, this is the mothership.

But More whimsical and less messy — Jimmy's rule-breaking has sharper edges than Ted's relentless niceness ever does.

Ted Lasso poster

Scrubs2001

Bill Lawrence's earlier show, and the blueprint for everything Shrinking does: a workplace full of broken, funny people processing mortality through jokes, fantasy sequences, and sudden gut-punch sincerity.

But Early-2000s sitcom rhythms and a laugh-track-adjacent pace that feels dated next to Shrinking's more modern, slower-burn ensemble structure.

Scrubs poster

Cougar Town2009no page yet

Another Bill Lawrence joint, with Christa Miller again, built entirely around a found family who insult each other constantly because they love each other too much to say it plainly.

But Lighter stakes throughout — nobody's grieving here, it's just warm, silly, wine-soaked hangout comedy.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Ordinary People1980

Same central nerve — grief reshaping a family and a therapist stepping past professional distance — but told completely straight, decades before anyone thought to make it funny.

Robert Redford's Oscar-winning film did the 'grieving family, imperfect therapist, boundaries quietly dissolving' story first, decades before Jimmy Laird — and did it with almost unbearable restraint.

But No jokes, no ensemble comfort, no redemption montage — it's a cold, precise, genuinely sad film with nowhere to hide.

Ordinary People poster
More like this (8)

After Life2019no page yet

Ricky Gervais grieving his wife and deciding, like Jimmy, that the social contract no longer applies to him — same premise of grief as permission to say the unsayable, filtered through British bluntness instead of American warmth.

But Gervais's persona is more caustic and less redemptive-arc-shaped; the humour bites harder and comforts less.

The Kominsky Method2018

Michael Douglas as an acting coach dispensing blunt, unqualified life advice to people who didn't ask for it — the same pleasure of watching a flawed professional cross lines because they think they know better.

But Slower, more wistful, aimed squarely at an older audience contemplating mortality rather than young-adult grief.

The Kominsky Method poster

This Is Us2016

If you want the emotional volume turned all the way up — an ensemble family drama that specialises in the exact kind of tear-jerking, hard-won catharsis Shrinking flirts with in its quieter moments.

But It's a drama first, comedy second — expect fewer jokes and considerably more sobbing.

This Is Us poster

The Bear2022

A different profession, same engine: a grief-stricken lead whose workplace becomes a substitute family, everyone shouting their feelings at each other because nobody can say them calmly.

But Kitchen chaos means genuine anxiety-inducing tension — it's far less cosy and far more stressful to watch.

The Bear poster

Somebody Somewhere2022

Quieter and smaller-scale, but built from the same material: a woman rebuilding herself after loss, surrounded by people who love her messily and honestly.

But Much lower-key — no big comic set pieces, just gentle, unhurried character work that some will find slow.

Somebody Somewhere poster

Grace and Frankie2015

An ensemble comedy about people blowing up the polite rules of their own lives in midlife and later life, with the same mix of big laughs and real heartbreak underneath.

But Aimed at an older demographic and runs for seven seasons — a much bigger, comfier commitment than Shrinking's tighter runs.

Grace and Frankie poster

BoJack Horseman2014

Same interest in the gap between what a professional is supposed to say and what would actually help — just rendered through absurdist animation instead of a Pasadena bungalow.

An animated show about a depressed horse-actor that keeps returning, obsessively, to what therapy can and can't fix, and what happens when people stop performing the version of themselves everyone expects.

But Talking animals and cartoon Hollywood satire is a hard sell if you want your grief drama played by actual humans.

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The Sopranos1999

Strip away the comedy and you get the same structural question Shrinking asks: what happens when a therapist stops staying neutral and starts actually intervening in a patient's life.

Watch it for Dr. Melfi and Tony's sessions alone — a therapist slowly, catastrophically entangled with a patient whose life she cannot fix by simply telling him the truth, with far higher stakes than Jimmy ever faces.

But It's a violent crime drama, not a comedy — mob murders and moral rot, not workplace warmth and hugs.

The Sopranos poster

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Recommended by

Ted Lasso, The Kominsky Method, In Treatment