Review: Shrinking, "In a Lonely Place" | Season 2, Episode 6
The dramedy tests the standard sitcom reversion in a higher-stakes world
We know it’s ahistorical to suggest that streaming invented binge-viewing, given that it dates back to the VCR, but it’s still meaningful to reflect on how the proliferation of the practice has shifted our experience of television. It means that regardless of whether a show is released weekly, in batches, or as a full binge release, there is always going to be the possibility that it can be experienced as one long narrative.
I was thinking about this at the beginning of “In a Lonely Place,” because it seems like such an odd tone to start with given where the previous episode concluded. It was night when Sean tracked down the construction workers in search of pain, but as jaunty music starts off this next episode, it’s daytime. We’re dropped into a world where the biggest problem is Alice’s pending showdown with Summer at school, and where Gaby has triumphantly returned to the friend group as both Alice’s confidant and Liz and Derek’s drinking buddy. It’s only when we’re…