A review of the Shrinking Season Three premiere, "My Bad" — with spoilers — coming up just as soon as I feel violated by your melon joke...
My god, it's good to have this bunch of goofballs back, isn't it?
I'm not sure I've ever laughed at an episode of Shrinking as much as I did at the super-sized "My Bad"(*). Was it because it's been more than a year since we got a new episode, and the world is in such a state that I just needed more laughter now? Or is it that cumulative thing that happens around this point in the life of a hangout comedy, where the writers, the actors, and the audience all understand the characters so well that every joke lands harder through our sheer familiarity?
Alan Sepinwall
(*) I haven't seen the rest of the season — as part of my plan to see what it's like to recap if I'm watching it on the same schedule as y'all — but my understanding is that the other episodes are more of a normal length, and they just made one fewer this year. Back in Bill Lawrence's broadcast network days, you'd think of this as a two-parter that premieres on the same night.
Regardless, "My Bad" was an expert blend of the ridiculous and the poignant that has become Shrinking's stock in trade over the years.