Shrink

Nowadays, everyone is making half hour dramas and calling them "comedies" just because of their length. Looking at you, Transparent. Shrink, however, is a dramedy with heart, meaning, and most importantly, big laughs. Tim Baltz and Mary Holland are incredible.

Do yourself a favour, and watch this. This is a truly well imagined show, funny, intelligent, heart-warming.

I'm a bit late on this one having just watched the first season. There are some genuine fall out of your seat laughs to be had. Their meeting in the porn store had me dying. I can't seem to find any news on a second season but one can only hope. Judging by the small amount of exposure this show seems to have I find it unlikely.

This show is fantastic. The humor is spot-on and a cross between observational and satirical humor. And just when you think it's about to tumble over the line from satirical to truly mean -- about the main lead, or his clients, or especially his dysfunctional family and friends -- it feints and slides over to poignant and very real.

The main character is a sympathetic millennial everyman whose situation is very relatable (for certain demographics, anyway). But he's not generic or predictable. In fact, nothing about this show or its writing is predictable. Which is probably why it is so funny. Yet, at moments (not *too* often, fortunately; it's a dramedy, not a soap or melodrama), it also pulls off "heartwarming." And not in a hokey, smarmy way, but genuine.

The Chicago locations are authentic (and I could swear David's parents' house is a bungalow in Cicero, actually, but hey - Capone had a hotel in Cicero, so it's kind of an extension of the city, heh)... either that, or they've done an amazing job recreating these locations on a sound stage somewhere in LA... or, hell, maybe here in Chicago. It's obviously not a super high budget show, but the production quality is actually quite high -- nothing about it looks or seems low budget.

The ensemble acting is superlative, and the minor characters are a major part of some of the funniest bits. I often laugh more times than I can count with each episode... yet... I get these people, I know these people, I've taken care of these people, I'm friends with and related to these people, and sometimes I am one of these people.

And underneath it all, with their/our bad behavior, poor boundaries, repeated button-pushing, messed up histories, defensiveness (and offensiveness), we're all schlepping through life doing the best we can, however dysfunctionally, fearfully, a$$holish-ly, half-a$$ed-ly, and hilariously that may be.

I'm pretty bummed there apparently won't be any more episodes. It's a real shame. This show belongs on Netflix or Amazon (or should be continued there - please?). It's truly right up there with those networks' best original programming.

NBC.... Buy another season of this or sell it to a network that will, this series was better than 99% of programing currently out there.