Bill Lawrence has done it again.

Lawrence, who created Scrubs and Ted Lasso (among many, many other programs), has another winner in Shrinking, available on Apple TV+. Jason Segal and Brett Goldstein co-created the series along with Lawrence.

Shrinking debuted in 2023 and just concluded its third season this past April. It stars Segal as Jimmy Laird, a therapist who is grieving the recent loss of his wife. As the series opens, he’s lost in grief and acting out inappropriately. There’s a rift between him and his teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) who is also grieving alone as her father has checked out. Alice finds a parent figure in next-door neighbor Liz, played by Christa Miller, Lawrence’s real-life wife.

Jimmy is showing up to work, though, where his boss and mentor Paul (Harrison Ford) is trying a tough-love approach to get Jimmy to stop his self-indulgent behavior, and also meeting with Alice outside of work to let her vent about her dad. Gaby Evans (Jessica Williams) is a fellow therapist who was best friends with his wife Tia (Lilan Bowden).

Gaby refers a new patient to Jimmy – Sean Mitchell (Luke Tennie), a former soldier suffering from PTSD being forced into therapy for his anger management issues. Jimmy sees Sean is resistant to standard therapeutic protocols, so he decides to try something completely different: he takes Sean to a gym and puts him in the ring to fight MMA-style.

From there Jimmy gets the idea to try an unconventional approach with all his patients. And at first, his idea seems to be working. But standard therapeutic protocols are there for a reason, and Jimmy must deal with some of his more misguided tactics when they backfire.

Shrinking also stars Michael Urie as Jimmy’s estranged best friend Brian, a lawyer, sitcom stalwart Ted McGinley as Liz’s husband Derek, Lily Rabe as Paul’s doctor, and SNL’s Heidi Gardner as one of Jimmy’s patients whom he convinces to leave her abusive husband.

Shrinking isn’t about the adventures of a wacky therapist who doesn’t go by the books in the same way Ted Lasso isn’t exactly about football. It’s about relationships. Every main character knows every other main character, and the delightful part of the show is seeing different characters interact with one or two others and reveal their shared history and the abundant chemistry between the various combinations in any given scene.

I saw a review online that said Shrinking was the only show the writer could think of where every character is likable, and that is certainly an apt description. Not that the show is frictionless; the conflict is found within each character. Jimmy likes to put on a brave face but he hasn’t even begun to fully grieve his loss. Paul has Parkinson’s and struggles with telling his daughter as he doesn’t want to appear weak. Gaby is freshly divorced but as much as she wants to keep sex casual with her “safe dick”, she finds herself falling in love with the owner of said dick. Liz has been a stay-at-home-mom for decade and when Alice doesn’t need her constant care, she is looking for something more fulfilling to do. And Sean fights any attempt to get him to discuss what happened in Afghanistan in order to let go of his tremendous rage.

I am finding Shrinking to be an absolute delight. As charming and heart-warming as Ted Lasso, as funny as Scrubs, which made a very successful comeback this year, and yet something very much its own. I’m looking forward to watching seasons 2 and 3, also available on Apple TV+. A fourth season has been ordered but no release date is set.