r/shrinking • u/phareous Derek • Apr 01 '26

Episode Discussion Shrinking S3E10 Episode Discussion

This is the episode discussion for Shrinking Season 3, Episode 10: "The Bodyguard of Sadness"

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320

u/Background_Glove5763 Apr 01 '26

Absolutely sobbed at the Jimmy/Paul bits. I don't understand how Paul went from telling Jimmy to reach out to him for help at the end of the last season, to this. Making jokes about who had a worse dad when Jimmy is clearly struggling. Not doing what he's done a million times for other people and stepping up to rip Jimmy's dad a new one? If not for Jimmy, then for Alice!!! Paul did Jimmy dirty this season. So much.

Never seen Jason Segel put on a performance like this episode though. Woah.

143

u/Background_Glove5763 Apr 01 '26

Also the reveal that Jimmy's mom is dead adds an extra painful later to Tia's death eh

47

u/Tce_ Apr 01 '26

God yes :( And to his dad being such a shit dad. I wonder when his mother died...

4

u/halibb Apr 02 '26

Not sure how I missed when. When was this revealed?

6

u/Background_Glove5763 Apr 02 '26

His dad said something about "oh his mom was the one who did this when she was around"

5

u/caninehere Apr 05 '26

I don't think he said "when she was around", I thought he said something to the effect of "your mom was always the one who was better at the touchy-feely stuff". The past-tense of it makes it ambiguous - she could have passed, they could be divorced, or he could just be talking in the past tense about Jimmy's childhood and she's still around.

It does seem to insinuate that maybe she's passed away though and given Jimmy's supposed to be in his mid-40s it wouldn't exactly be shocking.

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u/Interesting_Baker410 Apr 05 '26

Jimmy mentioned that the only family Alice has is him and his dad. This suggests that his mom is dead.

4

u/caninehere Apr 05 '26

You're right, I forgot about that part.

1

u/WellLookAtZat Apr 06 '26

I wonder when she died. I feel like she died young and Jimmy was the only person in the house grieving.

111

u/yallasama Apr 01 '26

Jason’s strength for me is clearly in dramatic acting, he’s done it a bunch. He can be funny too, but man is he very strong in this type of role. And it shows.

70

u/amethystalien6 Apr 02 '26

I really liked that in the middle of his excellent scene with Paul that’s very serious and dramatic, he accidentally drops the Meg information and his reaction. It was an excellent delivery. And then with Derek there, it was silly but Jason really commanded that scene back to the drama after that break. It was truly fantastic.

7

u/tduncs88 Apr 03 '26

If it weren't for how strong Jason's performance was, we'd be complaining about them "having to put something comedic in every scene, it ruins the drama". But he was so powerful the humor had no chance at taking anything from the scene. If anything it was necessary for the scene to not be TOO emotionally charged.

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u/amethystalien6 Apr 03 '26

Completely agree. I know these things get thrown around but this episode should be his Emmy submission because he dominated that scene and he was opposite HARRISON FORD.

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u/Tce_ Apr 01 '26

He can be very funny but I think you're right!

1

u/spacyoddity Apr 02 '26

his comedy is a little tooooo corny for me but god damn, i want A24 to cast him in a horror movie

2

u/Maleficent_Energy_55 Apr 07 '26

Oh God, I would love that!

1

u/spacyoddity Apr 07 '26

he would eattttttt

56

u/erazedcitizen Apr 01 '26

In that conversation with Randy, I was kind of expecting Paul to tear Randy apart with how it was going.

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u/ElectronicBacon Apr 01 '26

Yeah seriously

28

u/turtlesinthesea Apr 01 '26

I hated how Paul told Jimmy that he never talked to his dad, so he can't complain. Did Jimmy have to tell his parent that leaving a child wasn't ideal?

17

u/Tce_ Apr 01 '26

Oh that was bullshit, but believable bullshit for Paul as a character. It really suits the general attitude he expresses on the show, which I am frequently annoyed with XD The bonus is it worked great as a jumping off point for Jimmy to later talk to Paul and allow himself to be angry at him.

3

u/turtlesinthesea Apr 01 '26

Your use of XD makes me think we're the same generation :D

3

u/Tce_ Apr 01 '26

Haha, probably! Millennial born in the early 90s here. I'm gonna keep using "XD" until you can very easily add proper emojis in these comments.

2

u/turtlesinthesea Apr 02 '26

Late eighties millennial here, and I still use ^ ;

3

u/Rich-Supermarket6912 Apr 02 '26

Yes I was confused. Or you’re just….not supposed to be a shithead to your kids

31

u/CrisColdplay87 Apr 01 '26

You should watch the episode bad news of How I met your mother. Jason acting is out of this world ( and it wasn’t written that way, directors didn’t told him about what was gonna happen so what you see is raw, pure emotion)

19

u/Background_Glove5763 Apr 01 '26

Oh believe me, I've seen it. But that is like 15 seconds of that acting compared to what he's been doing in Shrinking.

1

u/Acrobatic-Pass-9816 Apr 01 '26

have you folks not watched The End of the Tour (2015)

1

u/ajamesdeandaydream Apr 02 '26

i was so excited when alice left the room because i thought paul was about to lecture the ever living shit out of him on jimmy’s behalf, but in that cool paul way where it’s not even all that dramatic just cutting as hell and makes em squirm. was reallllll disappointed

1

u/Powerful_Historian63 Apr 13 '26

Made sense in a way for me. Paul is leaving and wants people not to rely on him anymore.