Review: Shrinking, "Moving Forward" | Season 1, Episode 9
A penultimate episode makes us imagine how the show would work with twice as many episodes
There are obviously benefits to telling stories within the relative “freedom” of streaming television. Episode lengths can vary depending on the story being told, you can talk about sex like human beings actually talk about sex, and characters who seem like they would swear can swear—on the latter point, it seems impossible that Christa Miller’s past sitcom characters were unable to drop an occasional f-bomb, as natural as it seems here.
But as Shrinking approaches the end of its first season, it feels hamstrung by one reality of streaming television: short episode orders. Because as the show approaches next week’s first season finale, it’s rushing to the altar with Brian and Charlie’s wedding as an anchor, and I can’t help but wonder how the show would work differently if each story had more room to breathe, and if the episodic dynamics we’re getting glimpses of would be able to offer more texture to each given story.
It’s not that any one story is “failing” at the show…