Shrinking Boss Bill Lawrence Talks Forgiveness Found in Season 2 Finale, Who May (or May Not!) Be Back for Season 3
The following contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Shrinking!
When TVLine gets the chance to catch up with Shrinking co-creator, writer and director Bill Lawrence, he’s taking a short break from the Apple TV+ comedy’s writers room. Since the show received a very early renewal in October, he and the writers are already back in action with “five or six” of 12 scripts in the can and ready for a February production start. The announcement was great news for fans who will surely be eager to learn what’s next for Jimmy, Alice, Paul and Louis after a sophomore run that was chock-full of emotional turmoil and heart.
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With Season 2 tackling the theme of forgiveness (more on that below), Season 3 will examine what moving on looks like for the gang, Lawrence tells TVLine, whether they’re welcoming a new baby into their home (Brian and Charlie), bracing oneself for a worsening condition (Paul) or trying to grow up without the presence of a parent (Alice). And despite the show originally being pitched as three seasons, that doesn’t necessarily mean the end is nigh. “If we’re lucky enough and Apple seems excited to keep making the show, we’ll come up with a new story,” the writer/director says.
Following the heartfelt Thanksgiving-set finale, we had plenty of burning questions on our minds. Would Louis be OK? Will Jimmy really, truly forgive himself? Will Cobie Smulders and Brett Goldstein be back for more? Below, we asked Lawrence all of these and more.
TVLINE | You directed the Season 2 finale, which includes a heartbreaking scene where Paul tells his friends about his worsening condition. What does directing a legendary actor like Harrison Ford look like? Did you give him any notes or did you just call “action” and watch him go to work?
BILL LAWRENCE | That’s a good question. I used to direct all my stuff, man. I’m getting old and it’s f–king exhausting [Laughs] and you eventually feel like everybody’s trying to destroy you. But I wanted to do it for a couple of reasons. All the directors that do my shows, they’re so good and so conscientious about getting all the material in tons of different ways. I thought it was important for everybody’s sanity when you do a huge holiday show where there’s 20 characters in a scene… I can do things that the other directors can’t. Like with Harrison when he had to make that speech at the end, a master — the big wide shot with all of them in it — I’ll start the scene and do the first couple of lines. Then I can actually go, “Hey, let’s stop there and jump ahead to the end, Harrison, after you’ve done your speech when you’re just sitting down.” So I might use the wide shot at the end, but those 2.5 pages in the middle, you don’t have to do that right now. It’ll never be in this coverage. So I wanted to try and make it so it didn’t destroy everybody as far as the amount of time it would take.
And then you hit on it, man. I’ve had a lot of career highlights and I was not going to deny myself not only getting to direct Harrison, but getting to direct this cast who are all so talented. There are so many moments that we just invented [for] the Thanksgiving [dinner] at the end. In the script it said there was a montage of little scenes showing how the rest of Thanksgiving went intercut with Louis at the train statio. Part of the fun, not only with Harrison but with all the cast members, was trying to figure those out, and having Ted McGinley go, “I think I would want to introduce my boys to Harrison’s character,” and then Harrison saying, “I should take a beer away from the youngest one.” That type of stuff is so fun and collaborative because you feel simultaneously like you’re making a student film again and then you just take a step back and you’re like, “Oh, I’m doing this stuff with Harrison Ford and Jason Segel!” [Laughs] It was crazy. It was such a good experience.
TVLINE | Another major scene in this finale is Jimmy apologizing to Alice for his shortcomings as a father. Will he finally be able to forgive himself now or will it continue to haunt him as the series continues?
The first year of this show was about grief and the second year is about forgiveness, and then the third year is about moving forward. The bummer of that is that everybody was like, “Oh, so the show is over after three years?” No, man! If we’re lucky enough and Apple seems excited to keep making the show, we’ll come up with a new story. I just don’t think we could start Season 4 with Jimmy waking up and going, “I’m still so sad about my wife dying and I still haven’t forgiven myself [about] Alice,” you know what I mean? This was a year about forgiveness and people were like, “Oh, is he gonna forgive [Louis]?” But that’s not it. It’s whether or not he’s going to forgive himself for being shut down. So I think he has. I think Alice let him have that moment in that scene with her in the kitchen. [Lukita Maxwell’s] a really good actress. Watching those kids Luke Tennie and Lukita and even Rachel Stubington throw punches with these titans has been really fun for me.
TVLINE | Gaby can’t seem to make this thing with Derrick No. 2 work. Why do you think she’s so apprehensive to dive into this relationship?
First of all, it’s so cool to watch Jessica. We lean into what works on all my shows. We never know where things are gonna go and how much we’re going to lean into them. But watching Damon Wayans [Jr.] and Jessica Williams play around together, even the first scene that we ever shot earlier in the year, we were like, “Oh s–t, we gotta figure out what this is gonna be and how it’s gonna be an actual story,” and embrace the challenge of people that wanted Gaby and Jimmy to end up together. Now, maybe they want Gaby and Derrick 2 to continue on.
I think her back story is the answer, because of her own personal reasons in her one serious relationship. [She] ended up in what could only be described as a really stressful [situation] living with an addict. She’s probably quite gun-shy and also, it’s all part of the product, Nick. I like to demystify stuff. Scrubs demystified doctors, and hopefully, this is at least the storytelling feeling of demystifying shrinks. I happen to know a bunch in my actual life and they all have actual problems, too. So, I think it’s poignant that she often finds herself talking about something that she, herself, has trouble with, which is being completely vulnerable with somebody and not being terrified of what it’s going to go to. [Read what Lawrence had to say about the forthcoming Scrubs revival here.]
TVLINE | Can you tell me a bit about how Damon Wayans Jr. came aboard?
We were very lucky. This show very quickly reached a place where instead of desperately seeking out casting, we got to decide who we wanted. And I don’t mean that in an arrogant way, I just mean that it should be obvious that when we’re like, “Hey, who would be a charismatic, handsome contemporary of Jessica Williams, the actress, that could go toe-to-toe with her comedically?” From the second they started talking, you go, “Oh, man, these guys have ridiculous comedic and character chemistry.” He was our first choice and the fact that he was into doing it was very cool and lucky. The dude is so funny and talented. He’s disarmingly handsome, too. It’s unnerving.
TVLINE | Jimmy finally connects with Louis again at the train station, seemingly just in time before anything bad happens. Do you consider Louis’ arc complete or do you think Brett Goldstein might be back next season?
I find it annoying that I have to tell Brett how good he was and maybe ask him to do another episode or two. [Laughs] But I think we told a deep enough story that even if it’s not a huge part of the third season, people are going to want to know what moving forward means for that character, and that he’s gonna be OK. I think it would be fake to imply that at the end of the finale, that dude’s OK. So, yeah, I’m going to strong-arm Brett into showing his face, hopefully, at least a couple more times.
TVLINE | Liz has been searching for her purpose this season, and she agrees to help nanny Brian and Charlie’s baby part-time. What is that dynamic going to look like and is that going to be the thing she’s ultimately looking for?
I think the show is, in and of itself, about found family. I’m a softie and I like hopefulness and optimism. Without a doubt we are leaning into the “it takes a village” kind of theme — even in retrospect with how everybody picked up the slack for Jimmy with his own daughter. And to continue that on, it’s the world that I would love to live in with my three kids and actually, I’m lucky enough to do that. So yes, it will, without a doubt, be a continuing part of her journey.
TVLINE | The way that Episode 10 scene with Cobie Smulders and Segel unfolded, I can only hope we haven’t seen the last of her. Will she be back and is there anything you can say about what that potential storyline might look like in Season 3?
I would kill to have Cobie back in the show. We always do Easter eggs for what the next season’s about in the season before. And so, Cobie’s character is kind of a personification, a visual representation of what moving forward looks like for Jason’s character. If I can’t get lucky enough to have her back, we’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board. [Laughs] I was a How I Met Your Mother fan and I did not even think about it when I was watching the scene, which is a good thing because a bad version of that could be like, “Oh, this is kind of cool. It’s just two old friends from a beloved show doing a scene together,” but it felt authentic and was so romantic. I thought they were both so good in it that I’m gonna do everything I can to coerce her into coming back to the show.
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