[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 3 of Shrinking.]

Summary

Season 3 of the Apple TV series ‘Shrinking’ closed the planned three-season arc, ending characters’ journeys while planting seeds for Season 4.

Paul’s Parkinson’s is always portrayed with a sense of hope, not as a death sentence, and his move to Connecticut was handled thoughtfully.

Season 4 will start a new story that won’t wrap up in one season.

Throughout Season 3 of the Apple TV series Shrinking, Jimmy (Jason Segel) had to come to terms with Alice (Lukita Maxwell) leaving for college, Sean (Luke Tennie) needed to find the confidence in himself to move out on his own, Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley) overcame some family and health struggles to find strength in each other, Brian (Michael Urie) made the effort to be a little less selfish, and Paul (Harrison Ford) retired to Connecticut. While the heartfelt tearjerker started with the wedding of Paul and Julie (Wendie Malick), it ended with Gaby’s (Jessica Williams) unconventional proposal to Derrick (Damon Wayans Jr.), and somehow even Summer (Rachel Stubington) managed to turn out okay. And through it all, they were there for each other.

Originally conceived as a three-season arc, Shrinking closed the book on one story, only to be opening a brand-new book (or story) for Season 4. Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with co-creator/showrunner Bill Lawrence about the life-changing events of Season 3, as well as how things will take shape moving forward. During this one-on-one interview, he discussed concluding the story he was telling for three seasons, his approach to Season 4, Paul’s mortality, why Gaby had to be the one to propose to Derrick, why the big ensemble scenes are important, Jimmy and Meg’s fling, the guest stars that will return, and his favorite Season 3 moments. Collider: I watched all of Season 3 of Shrinking without knowing if it would return for Season 4. Obviously, like everybody else that watched the finale of Season 3 of Ted Lasso without knowing that would return for Season 4. And now, we also have Scrubs back. Since you seem to have this gift for keeping shows alive, what TV show of someone else’s would you want to see brought back for yourself, just because you love it? Is there a show that you love that you didn’t have a hand in that you would just want to see return? BILL LAWRENCE: Oh, so many. I would kill to see where Selina is on Veep. If they made that as a movie, I would immediately buy tickets and do anything to see it. It’s my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite. Scrubs is an interesting thing because I was really nervous about it, but those guys crushed it. I wish I could take even more credit for it, but there are so many great people that are working on the show. It doesn’t feel like a reboot to me. It just feels like the next progression of that show, which is neat. The other shows, what’s important is that we’re not really keeping them alive as much as we set out to tell three-season stories with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s an interesting burden because when you do that and the streaming site is nice enough to go, “Hey, we’d love you to do more,” you can’t just tell the same story again. With Jason Sudeikis and Jack Burditt and the writing staff of the original Ted Lasso, a lot of them are still there. I don’t work on Ted Lasso. Our company works on it, and there are a lot of the same writers. If people have seen any of the pictures, it’s a couple of years later and Ted Lasso is coaching a girls’ team. They know it’s not Season 4 of Ted Lasso. They know it’s Season 1 of a new Ted Lasso. That’s the thing that streaming has brought, which is so interesting. If I started Season 4 of Shrinking and Jason Segel turned to Liz and said, “You know, I’ve been thinking about it and I’m still super sad about my wife,” everybody would be like, “I don’t want to watch this again. We watched this for three years.”

Harrison Ford Will Return for Season 4 of ‘Shrinking’

“I saw that people were worried about that online.”

Harrison Ford as Paul standing in the office kitchen with a slight smile in Shrinking Season 3Image via Apple TV

As Paul’s health declines, have you thought about and maybe even talked to Harrison Ford about his mortality? LAWRENCE: Yeah. I don’t want to get way too poignant on you, but I saw that people were worried about that online. We all love talking about TV and engaging with people, as long as it’s not too trolly or whatever. Parkinson’s, specifically, is so personal for me and Brett [Goldstein] and Harrison, because he’s portraying it, and Mike Fox, who’s on the show. The only spoiler I’ll ever gladly put out there is that I’m not hugely interested in representing Parkinson’s as a death sentence and as something that makes us all feel hopeless and sad. By the way, we found out during Season 3 that we were going to do Season 4. Our fans are really savvy, and the savvy ones are like, “Paul moved to Connecticut. I wonder why Alice chose to play soccer at a school in Connecticut. And they took the time to show those guys together in another state.” Everybody picks up on stuff. I do it, too. I watch The Pitt going, “Oh, that’s coming back.” It also feels like you left everyone at a place where they have grown up, and they are moving forward. Was that intentional? Did you want to end this season to feel like you were closing that book? LAWRENCE: That’s a great question. When we knew we were going to go to a fourth season, what was interesting is that we could have gone, “Hey, should we extend this story we’re telling?” But we were all so committed to the three-season story we had pitched that, as the writing staff, we said, “No, we’re going to write this just as it was always meant to be, which is the finale of this story.” The scene that we shot at the end was the same scene we pitched for how the series ends when we first pitched the show. So, the burden to us, but it was fun, was during the middle of writing the third season, when we decided to do a fourth one, was talking enough in general terms about what the next story we’re going to tell looks like, so that we could put in some of the things. If there’s a big time jump or if we come up on this group a few years later, I think people are going to go, “Oh, Gaby had that awful experience with a patient this year, where she crossed some boundaries and got hurt, and she’s diving into trauma as a profession. And it did not seem like Jimmy and his father really ended on the best of terms.” I don’t want to do too many of them, but there are a bunch of Easter eggs out there where if you took a fan of the show and said, “No matter what the overarching big story is that we come back to, tell me four or five stories that are going to be told during it,” they’ll know. And that’s a good thing. Hopefully, we can make it feel like you’re not watching a completely different show, but also be like, “I want to know how this story goes.”

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Will this be the last we see of Jimmy and his found family?

Where are things at with Season 4? What stage is it in right now? When do you shoot Season 4? LAWRENCE: We’re in the writers’ room. We’ve been working for a good long while, and it’s scheduled to start production very soon. If Season 3 was about moving on and moving forward, what will Season 4 deal with? Will you continue with a theme every season? LAWRENCE: We still do themes, but we’ve agreed, as a group, not to tell people because, while they’re still watching this season, we don’t want them to know what the next year or next couple of years are about.

Season 4 of ‘Shrinking’ Will Be a New Story That Co-Creator Bill Lawrence Hopes Fans Will Enjoy

“I couldn’t tell you if the last season of the show is going to be Season 5 or Season 6.”

You did the three-season arc. Are you looking at it as Seasons 4, 5 and 6, or are you just taking it one season at a time now? LAWRENCE: We all obsess about not wanting to overstay our welcome. It’s a moving target for me. I’ve done shows that lasted nine years and did almost 200 episodes. When I see, not only fans online but myself going, “This show should be over. How many episodes has it done?” The answer is 30. I’m watching The Pitt, and I’m like, “Oh, bring on the night shift. I want to see the night shift, and then I want to come back to The Pitt.” The way we decided to approach it as writers is that we definitely pitched a story where Season 4 isn’t the last season. We have great partners with Apple and the cast, so I couldn’t tell you if the last season of the show is going to be Season 5 or Season 6. It will depend on how we all feel doing the show, and let’s be honest, we’re all nervous because we knew people were engaged in the story we’ve been telling for three years. This new one will be different enough that people will either buy it and like it, or they won’t. You started the season with a wedding, with Paul and Julie, and you ended it with an engagement, with Gaby and Derrick, and I love how personal both of those things were for those characters. How did you figure out the best engagement for Gaby and Derrick? LAWRENCE: It wasn’t me. People, really early on, were obsessed with the idea with not only how right it was for her character, but how funny Jessica [Williams] would be doing it if we had painted an arc, due to her past, about how she had been burned by commitment before and was so hesitant to give herself over to love and romance and marriage. We wanted to hear her propose. That’s where it all started. The fun of being in a comedy room with brilliant writers is coming up with not only how situations have to arise for that to happen, but what that looks like. That was one of the most fun things we did in the writers’ room last year, and she crushed it.

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This is a show that really has made the effort to have big group scenes. They’re not easy scenes to do, but it’s so important to have as much of this family together as possible, as often as possible. Has that always been something that was important to you with the show? Was that always baked into the DNA of this show? LAWRENCE: I’ve been writing a lot on shows that, even in dark times, hopefully have an undercurrent of hopefulness and optimism. We are well aware that not everybody has this type of found family dynamic. It’s wish fulfillment for us. Even from the start of the show, the writing staff talked about, “Wouldn’t it be great if this is how life worked, if the people that you cared about were all there in it, just swinging for the fences for each other and having each other’s backs?” We notice it when we do too many episodes where people are siloed off on their own journey because it feels lonely. It’s definitely with massive intent. When I put it under the magnifying glass of wishing it was the way my life was, I do. We made dinner over here the other night. Instead of going out to a restaurant with old friends, we had a bunch of couples that are from our neighborhood, who just wandered over here and hung out. We ate dinner and shot the shit, and it felt like a remnant from the past. I found it super healthy and hopeful, and I’m going to keep trying to do stuff like that. I wish my life was like that. There was something fun and funny about Jimmy and Meg’s little fling. Did you always see that as a passing moment? Did you ever consider having them be something more? LAWRENCE: Our show is claustrophobic by nature, so we wrestle with these things and lean into them. We thought it would be too much – and don’t think that we didn’t talk about it for two days in the writers’ room – if Paul really is Jim’s father, but as his father-in-law. And then, we were like, “All right, we’ve officially gotten to the point that it’s too much. And then, Sean really does end up with Alice.” We felt like we had officially gotten to the point that things would be too claustrophobic. We talked about it, and then decided it’s best as just one of those weird things that happens, and that clouds up whether or not the Cobie [Smulders] thing would ever come to fruition for him.

Familiar Faces Will Be Back for Season 4 of ‘Shrinking’

“There are so many actors and characters on this show that, even if we’re telling a new story … not only would I be bummed as a fan [if they didn’t return], but it would feel inauthentic.”

Jason Segel as Jimmy standing outside next to Cobie Smulders as Sofi in Shrinking Season 3Image via Apple TV

I love that Paul is the one that Jimmy-ed Jimmy and got him back together with Sofi at the end of the season. Will we get to see more of that relationship?

LAWRENCE: I love Cobie Smulders, and she will definitely be on the show next year, without a shadow of a doubt. She’s a great addition. There are so many actors and characters on this show that, even if we’re telling a new story, if we came back and Rachel Stubington wasn’t there or Jeff Daniels didn’t reappear, Candice Bergen didn’t reappear, and Mike Fox didn’t reappear, not only would I be bummed as a fan, but it would feel inauthentic. So, Cobie will definitely be back. Also, I’m not ready to be a grandfather myself, but watching Liz and Derek, it’s an Easter egg. As a joke, we named her middle son Will and the girl he’s having a baby with is Peyton. And my son Will lives with a young woman named Peyton. But this is a public message that we are not ready for them to have kids. They’re only 23.

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What is your favorite scene or moment in Season 3? LAWRENCE: I have a bunch. There are so many funny scenes. I can sing Les Mis in French, so I’ll watch that Les Mis scene until the end of time. The ones that stick with me are sometimes the dramatic stuff. Watching the simple scene with Jason and Lukita in the car before her high school graduation, and then the one in the second to last episode blew my doors off. I thought it was so cool. For personal reasons and for how amazing it was to see when Harrison runs into Mike Fox in the first episode, it killed me. I don’t think I’ve done a disservice to my wife, but I’ve generally written broad, silly comedies, and seeing her play the pathos and drama of when Ted McGinley had some serious health issues, she blew my doors off. She’s such a good actress. It was just super cool and inspiring. As the end of a story, we got to do goodbyes, and I’m a softie. So, seeing Luke Tennie and Harrison Ford in their last therapy session, I loved it. The one line that stuck with me the most was Harrison Ford holding that kid and saying, “Enjoy the ride, kid.” That killed me. I loved the moment that Gaby tried to lift Derrick up onto the kitchen counter. LAWRENCE: That made me laugh so hard. That subtle comedy that Jessica and Damon [Wayans Jr.] found was hilarious. So was the moment when Brian tells Louis that Tia almost got him back when he nearly choked on the marshmallows. LAWRENCE: Yeah, that was great.

Release Date

January 27, 2023

Network

Apple TV

Shrinking is available to stream on Apple TV.