The series: “Shrinking” on Apple TV+
“Because a subscription to a streaming service is cheaper than therapy, we prefer to watch comedies to work on our traumas,” laughed the trailer parody for the series “Ted Lasso” by Honest Trailers (video in english). So when a new comedy series features therapists working on their own traumas, you might think it’s come full circle. And the mention of “Ted Lasso” is not neutral because “Shrinking” is the new series from Bill Lawrence (also known for “Scrubs”) and is co-written by Brett Goldstein, the hilarious Roy Kent from “Ted Lasso”
We therefore follow Jimmy (Jason Segel), a therapist in mourning since the death of his wife. Unable to get over his death, he will start breaking the rules and telling his patients exactly what he thinks, even getting involved in their lives. What worries his entourage, and first of all his boss, Paul (Harrison Ford).
Unsurprisingly, with such an assemblage of talents, the series is a success. She is both funny and touching, like her main character, clumsily trying to put the pieces of her life back together. Jason Segel, known for his role as Marshall in “How I met your mother”, embodies a variant of the sad clown with an adequate comic tempo, while Harrison Ford brings out the score of the grumpy grandpa at first glance, but the writing of his character is much smarter than that, showing him as a truly worried mentor. Next to that, second knives like the psychiatrist fan of gourds or the patient subject to the points of violence put sweet madness in the series.
In short, even if “Shrinking”, like all comic series, does not replace real therapy, it allows you to laugh a lot at the vagaries of life.
The movie: “Shotgun Wedding” on Amazon Prime Video
A couple (Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel) decide to get married on a paradise island in the Philippines. But between last-minute doubts, invading beautiful families, the incongruous arrival of an ex (Lenny Kravitz), the marriage risks falling apart. All that’s needed is a pirate attack to ruin everything…
“Shotgun Wedding” tries the cocktail between action comedy and romantic comedy. And the result is far from perfect. If the action part has the good taste not to transform the lovebirds into superheroes, the scenes are at best passable, in any case forgettable. Where the film works is on the romance side. Logical given the CV of Jennifer Lopez and the director, Jason Moore (“Pitch Perfect”). By staging the doubts of a couple in their forties when faced with the commitment of a lifetime, and the counterpoint to a shovelful of effective supporting roles (from Jennifer Coolidge to D’Arcy Carden via Cheech Marin) , the film manages to find its existence.
We would certainly have appreciated more effective action scenes, or going all out in cartoonish violence with these two grooms in their Sunday best, but “Shotgun Wedding” makes us have a good time. It’s already that.
The other series: “Profession: reporter”, available for free on arte.tv
In 1986, in Melbourne, a novice reporter (Sam Reid) and a presenter in search of recognition (Anna Torv) join forces to find their place in a television channel, and in particular for the 6 p.m. news. Because between the crash of the space shuttle Challenger, the passage of Halley’s comet and the explosion of Chernobyl, the news is not the simplest. Unless the pressure comes from their social background…
One might think that “Profession: reporter” is just content to reconstruct Australia in the 80s, and its journalistic environment. And let’s be clear, the series, directed by Emma Freeman, perfectly captures the stressful moments when you have to wrap up a subject before it airs, and 30 seconds are missing because the VCR has eaten the tape from a video cassette. . But the series goes beyond this base by presenting a still corseted society, subject to misogyny or homophobia (although progress remains very slow…). A straitjacket whose two main protagonists will have to cross the limits, both on a professional and personal level.
The creator of the series, Michael Lucas, wanted “to tell the relationship of a man and a woman who, each on their side, are in conflict with the cliché that is expected of them: virile and charismatic for men , beautiful and poised for women”. A goal largely achieved thanks to the performance of the leading duo, between the discovery Sam Reid and the confirmation Anna Torv (the star of “Fringe”, currently playing “The Last of Us”). Combining intimacy and historical moments, “Profession: reporter” manages to immerse us in the 80s without any nostalgia, but with a biting modernity.
On arte.tv from January 26, 2023 for 3 months, and broadcast on Arte on Thursday February 2 and 9, 2023 at 8:55 p.m.
Streaming. Jennifer Lopez or Harrison Ford: who to watch this weekend?