In season three of Shrinking, Jimmy (Jason Segel) has found some peace in his newfound relationship with Louis (Brett Goldstein), the man responsible for the car crash that killed his wife, and he’s pulled in many directions as tries to support his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) as she looks ahead to college and his mentor Paul (Harrison Ford) as he faces worsening Parkinson’s symptoms.
Awards Buzz spoke with Segel about how the show was originally supposed to come to an end after three seasons but will in fact be returning for season four:
“We always thought that the show needs to stop when there’s no more story to tell and should continue if there’s more story to tell. When we reached the end of this three-season arc as we intended, we were like, I think that we’ve reached the end of this guy pulling himself out of the hole of grief story arc, and then there was this thought of, boy, someone trying to start again at forty-five years old is its own world of humor and complications, and what if we restart all these storylines of how tricky it is to try to be happy? It’s been really an amazing area to explore.”
He shared the inspiration for the memorable scene in the season three finale where Paul finally tells Jimmy that he’s good at his job while pushing him to keep moving forward with his life:
“That came directly from a therapy session of my real life. I was talking to my therapist and talking about how I was embarrassed to show up someplace all covered in scars because I lived a twisty-turny life. And he said, what a shame it would be to show up anyplace at forty-five years old not covered in scars. And I hung up the phone of our session the Zoom and I called Bill Lawrence and Neil Goldman and I said, guys, I know how the show ends. Paul says this to Jimmy, and there here we are.”
Watch the video above to hear sincere reflections about his career, including his time on How I Met Your Mother and in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and how he’s still waiting for the chance to play a true villain.
The first three seasons of Shrinking are streaming on Apple TV.
