Apple TV’s Shrinking is set to return for Season three on Wednesday, January 28, with one-hour premiere, according to TV Line. While Jimmy’s personal life is due to move forward, he won’t be the only character facing major life changes and upheaval. For instance, the struggle with Parkinson’s disease for his colleague, Paul — a diagnosis mentioned in the previous season finale — is about to intensify significantly.
TV Line says that the heavier moments were crafted in a way to continue that sense of hope, as explained by the co-creator and executive producer, Bill Lawrence, for his goals in creating the show’s third season.
“The important thing to me, especially with having Parkinson’s in and around my family, is making sure that it still feels optimistic and hopeful, even though everybody out there is usually a couple degrees separated from someone who’s dealing with some real tricky health stuff,” he said via TV Line. “It’s an effort watching Paul get through that stuff with the support of this group around him, [but Season 3] vibes off of the finale last year.”
As Jimmy looks to move on, potentially by dating again, the return of Cobie Smulders’ (How I Met Your Mother, The Avengers) character, Sofi, suggests a romantic development, according to TV Line. Since Sofi is confirmed to be back, viewers are already wondering: Should fans begin rooting for a Jimmy/Sofi romance?
“We always joke on the set that if this show hit the fourth season and Jimmy was still like, ‘I’ve been thinking about [dating] and I’m still really sad about my wife,’ people would be like, ‘They gotta come up with something else,'” says Lawrence via TV Line. “I hope we’ve earned people kind of rooting for these [characters] to move forward in their lives, whether that means Jimmy embracing the idea of having a love in his life again or his daughter feeling confident about going off to college. We like to do these themes you can almost attach to every character. Sean, Luke Tennie’s character… I don’t think it’d be a victory if that guy lived in the pool house behind his therapist’s house his whole life.”
Season three of Shrinking will introduce some highly recognizable new faces to the crew’s lives, most notably Michael J. Fox, who joins as a “full-fledged character” (not playing himself). TV Line reported that Fox’s character is set to meet Paul early in the season. Show creator Lawrence, who previously collaborated with Fox on ABC’s Spin City, praised the actor, calling him “the best dude.”
“He made the mistake of saying out loud in front of me at a social event over the summer that he kind of missed acting,” says Lawrence, according to TV Line. “Unsurprisingly, we live in a world dealing with Parkinson’s, and for Mike to be able to play a full-fledged character with that condition, I just thought it was fascinating and super cool to watch. He still has ridiculous comic timing, and people will see that as soon as the trailer comes out.”
TV Line says the multi-episode arc this season will include a mostly retired Fox appearance.