Certain television creators have their own unique brand of storytelling, and co-creator Bill Lawrence leans hard into his sensibilities in season 3 of Shrinking. The ensemble comedy, which premieres today on AppleTV, has firmly established its vast roster of characters and who they are, and while the show can start to feel repetitive at times, it’s a welcome reminder that a TV show doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel at every turn. Indeed, Scrubs, Cougar Town, and Ted Lasso all share similar DNA (and a few performers) with his latest show: they’re all essentially workplace sitcoms that function as hangout experiences where different characters can bounce off one another.

Season 3 of Shrinking continues the adventures of Jimmy (Jason Segel, another co-creator of the show) the therapist, his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), and their various friends, family members, and co-workers, though there is barely a distinction between the three groups by now. AppleTV has a number of great sci-fi shows in its catalogue, but there’s an otherworldly aspect to Shrinking that never really makes it feel grounded. That is, any pretense of any characters’ jobs is mostly just a formality, an excuse to set a scene in another location. Yes, Jimmy, Paul (Harrison Ford), and Gaby (Jessica Williams) are all therapists, but the scenes where they actually offer therapy to their patients feels more like obligation than a necessity. Yes, Alice is a high school student, and this season sees her wrestling with her impending graduation and where she’ll spend her future years – but we never hear of her school issues like grades or social anxieties. Yes, Brian (Michael Urie) is a lawyer, but he never seems concerned with his ill-defined practice, the firm he works for, or billable hours. And yet, the show takes place within the exorbitantly wealthy town of Pasadena (though it’s never remarked upon, each of the characters’ homes has to be somewhere in the seven figure range), and money is never an issue for anyone.

Of course, I will admit that fixating on these aspects is kind of missing the point of Shrinking, which is seeing a group of people helping one another to get through the difficulties of life. Season 3 essentially expands on the dramatic storylines set up in the previous season. Brian and his husband prepare for the impending birth of the baby they’re set to adopt. Sean (Luke Tennie) operates his food truck and finds trouble reconciling with people he knew in his past. Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley), Jimmy’s neighbors, struggle to find purpose after retirement and raising their adult fail-sons.

One of the better storylines in season 2 was the introduction of Louis (Brett Goldstein, the third co-creator), the man whose drunk driving caused the death of Jimmy’s wife. Season 3 of Shrinking brings him back into the fold as he grows closer to Jimmy’s circle, despite the reservations of those who resent him. Goldstein continues to shine, showing he has more range than the grumpy Roy Kent character from Ted Lasso, even amongst a sea of great performers with more screen time. Speaking of grumpy exteriors, it’s Harrison Ford who walks away with the emotional center of Shrinking, giving the best performance of his lauded career, as he wrestles with his worsening Parkinson’s disease and trying to hold on to his own sense of normalcy.

For all its dramatic interruptions, Shrinking has always been a show that’s designed to go down smoothly, and season 3 doesn’t do much to dispel that notion. Problems arise and are usually resolved within the same, or the next, episode. Lawrence and his team of writers have a firm grasp on the perspectives of each of the characters – rarely do their actions feel out of place or inserted simply for the sake of creating tension, even if their witty senses of humor often tend to bleed into one another. The show’s background of a team of therapists allows its characters excuses to be open with each other and themselves, often relying on the notion that you can’t fix others unless you fix yourself. Yes, this frees the show from characters like Paul hiding his fears about Parkinson’s for too long, but it can also hit the viewer over the head with some overly saccharine, feel-good emotional beats.

It’s a brightly-lit show that gets by not on its high concept or on its will-they-won’t-they developments, but on impeccable vibes. Sure, it may bend the fabric of reality occasionally, but there’s very few shows with an ensemble of characters who I’d like to spend 35 minutes per week with more. At the very least, Shrinking is a welcome reminder that we’re never truly alone, that the simple act of asking for help is courageous.

Shrinking season 3 premieres on AppleTV on January 28, with subsequent episodes released weekly until April 8, 2026.