Hacker Cinema
Shrinking
2023 · TV series · 3 seasons
Created by Brett Goldstein, Jason Segel, Bill Lawrence
Jimmy is struggling to grieve the loss of his wife while being a dad, friend, and therapist. He decides to try a new approach with everyone in his path: unfiltered, brutal honesty. Will it make things better—or unleash uproarious chaos?
6 positive1 mixed1 neutralfrom 8 commenters
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10 comments on Hacker News
I’ve seen most of those. Slow horses is phenomenal no notes. for all mankind would be as well if not for the low grade melodrama of the middle seasons, but all the space stuff is amazing. silo is good fun but like severance we’ve gotten two short seasons in how many years? shrinking started out great but did a speedrun in one season of what normally takes jenji kohan three. Foundation has decent highs especially with the dynasty and invictus in season two, but the lows are loooww. And of course severance might even be a masterpiece.
But my point wasn’t that they don’t make good television because they do, it’s that their shows aren’t talked about nearly as much in the mainstream because people don’t have Apple tv. I think Ted lasso and to a lesser degree severance are really their only major popular hits. Most people I talk to haven’t seen slow horses. If it were on Netflix it would be the opposite.
To me there's a very distinct difference between unobtrusive same-service tasteful trailers and entirely unrelated third party ads.
I genuinely discovered great series and films that I enjoyed a lot but I would not have watched otherwise (e.g Shrinking).
This is true for cinema as well.
Miraculous changes a lot in the later seasons. I'm saying this because while our kids were very much into the first 2 seasons, it was me and my wife who got hooked for the other 3 seasons. The first 2 seasons are also full of fillers if you want, I don't shy away from skipping them when I'm alone, but we did watch it all with our kids.
We had a good time with it. Not sure if you watched it all, I'm looking forward the next season to see how the plot unravels.
But I'll definitely check Bluey :)
That being said, I wish there was a genre tagged as "engaging for adults, fun for kids": there are a bunch of movies and shows along these lines, but they aren't tagged in any other way.
Another genre that exists but I can't find is "boring for kids but child-friendly", basically any tv show that says stuff they can't properly follow, doesn't have action scenes, but has a convoluted plot for adults. On the top of my mind I can think of Shrinking (my kids still don't understand cursing in english, only italian, so this is great), but I remember there was an even better one that I can't think of right now.
This includes movies, but browsing their "originals" list, so far I (or my wife) have enjoyed (in no particular order):
Slow Horses Lessons in Chemistry Severance Ted Lasso Shrinking Mythic Quest Roar CODA The Problem with John Stewart And we are looking forward to checking out, in no particular order:
Palm Royale For All Mankind Criminal Record Killers of the Flower Moon Foundation Strange Planet The Morning Show Greyhound They're not all knockout hits. Overall we just feel safer trying something new there. If we don't like it, it's usually just because it's not for us, and less because it feels like an algorithmic, soulless cash grab.
The Morning Show, Severance, Silo, Tehran, Presumed Innocent, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, Disclaimer, Shrinking, Loot, Severance, Where's Wanda?, Foundation, Cowboy Cartel (short documentary), Midnight Family, The Last Thing He Told Me, Invasion, Mythic Quest, Bad Monkey, Dickinson...
There's so many good shows on Apple TV.
I agree that Severance was good, but it came out in 2022, and the next season isn't coming out until 2025. Shrinking is another I like, but it came out in early 2023 and just started season 2 this month. I wanted to like Silo, having read the books, but something from the trailer just makes it seem off. I'll probably get around to watching it eventually assuming I don't cancel soon. The others don't appeal to me.
I think if you're ok watching the content weekly and only watch an hour or two, if feels like there is content there, but if you binge like most people who stream do, there is hardly anything there. Most people would probably be better off to subscribe for a month or two a year and cancel the rest of the time.
I agree that Severance was good. I suppose they'll come out with a new season right about the time I think about canceling again. I have also been watching Shrinking, but it's not really enough to keep me on the platform. Apple's content seems to be getting well known actors and then putting them into random shows and hoping that people will find out about them via word of mouth or something. There is also basically no back catalog worth watching like there is with other streaming services.
The Afterparty is an incredible murder mystery series that is on the more comedic side and has the fun and silly premise that the main detective trying to solve the mysteries (played by Tiffany Hadish in the peak of having fun) is a big fan of getting suspects to explore their "mind movies" so the main internals of every episode so far has been in a different genre of films/TV/storytelling. It's fun.
Shrinking is the "sophomore" Apple TV+ show from many of the creators of Ted Lasso. It's far less "twee" and covers a lot more dark topics more regularly, but still tries to be rooted in "punch up" comedy when it is trying to be a comedy and still manages some incredible "feel good" moments from out of the darkness. (It's also the wildest reunion of Bill Lawrence show regulars of the past: you'll spot many character actors from Spin City, Scrubs, Cougartown, and others. It's also especially fun because many of those cameos are incredibly dark in contrast to their past roles, but the actors seem to presumably be having a grand reunion just off screen.)
Schmigadoon is an amazing comedy if you either really love Musicals and/or really hate them. (If you are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum it can be a fun dumb thing with the right libations.) If find out that you do love musicals and enjoy the "Bento Box" animation format (Bob's Burgers, etc) you will want to watch Central Park while you are at it.
Yes well too bad, there‘s plenty of Apple product placement. And I still find it strange to have a TV show starting with an Apple logo.
But Shrinking is really worth watching.
That made my day! Just a few weeks ago I was watching a 'Shrinking' episode on Apple TV where they said "Hey Siri play <some-song>" and then my HomePod saying "OK I'll play <some-song> for you" and me yelling back "Hey Siri stop! I'm watching TV".
Modern live...