Harrison Ford says 'there will be singing' in forgiveness-focused “Shrinking” season 2

Brett Goldstein joins the cast as someone who's "very, very, very different" from Roy Kent.

Shrinking is trying to get down to the heart of the matter — and they think it’s about forgiveness.

The Apple TV+ show, co-created by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs), Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso), and Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), returns Oct. 16 with plenty of unfinished business to attend to. In season 1, Jimmy (Segel), a therapist, invited chaos into his life by choosing to speak to his clients with blunt honesty, sparking a series of unexpected events. Drowning in grief over the death of his wife, Jimmy contended with his teenage daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell); aging mentor, Paul (Harrison Ford); recently divorced colleague, Gaby (Jessica Williams); next door neighbor Liz (Christa Miller); and many of his patients, who took his candor a bit too much to heart. After clawing his way back from a low point, now, Jimmy must face the fallout of his actions.

"When I was pitching the show, we said the first year was about grief and the second year was about forgiveness,” Lawrence tells Entertainment Weekl. "Because if you don't deal with the past, if you keep trying to bury it, it'll come back to haunt you. And there’s unresolved issues hanging around everywhere.”

Related: Shrinking review: A feel-good comedy about grief

"Forgiving is possibly one of the hardest things to do and one of the most useful things you can do for your own health," Goldstein adds. "Your life will always be better if you can genuinely forgive. But there are things that some people might think impossible to forgive.”

The most immediate issue is the fact that Grace (Heidi Gardner) pushed her abusive partner, Donny (Tilky Jones), off a cliff, acting on Jimmy’s suggestion that she refuse to put up with Donny’s insults, albeit in an extreme manner. “We wanted to be honest about the fact that Jimmy was doing an unorthodox approach to therapy, and that there are consequences to that,” says Segel. “There are reasons that people aren't out there doing this. So he's going to have to reckon with the good and the bad of that approach and refine how he goes forward.”

Adds Lawrence: “He's definitely dealing with the consequences of his behavior as a doctor, but in ways that will surprise people [in terms] of where the biggest mistakes he made were.”

That pulls the proverbial therapist’s couch out from under Jimmy, but it’s hardly his only problem. “He's in a much better place in terms of the grief process,” notes Segel. “And then, very quickly, he's forced to confront a new challenge. Isn't that life?"

There’s his daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), and the fragile peace they’ve established in the wake of their very different responses to the lost of Tia (Lilan Bowden), Jimmy's wife and Alice's mother, “We made Alice somebody that's a senior in high school for a reason,” says Lawrence, “To go through this type of traumatic thing and then have to think about what it means not only to move forward, but to make it on your own, that's a big deal for a young person.”

"Alice has a very rich storyline where she has to bear the weight of the next stage of us processing Tia’s death," Segel notes.

While Jimmy and Alice are certainly in a better place than they were at the start of season 1, Alice will also continue to find advice and a paternal figure in Paul. “You’ll see that reach a certain stage,” teases Ford, while Goldstein adds, “I can happily say they don’t stop hanging out.”

But Paul is facing his own struggles — in season 1, we learned that he is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Audiences can expect his condition to worsen in season 2. “You're going to see increasing difficulty that arises from his disease and complications from his disease,” notes Ford. “He’s going to meet those challenges with what we know is in his quiver, personality-wise. But it's a very challenging and difficult disease and we're not going to sugarcoat it.”

For Lawrence and Goldstein, Paul’s storyline is extremely personal. “Both Brett's father has Parkinson's, as did my grandfather and Michael J. Fox, who I worked with for years,” Lawrence explains. “We would not be introducing that if we didn't intend to make it part of the story.”

That will present challenges in every aspect of Paul’s life, from his recently repaired relationship with his daughter, Meg (Lily Rabe), his romance with his doctor, Julie (Wendie Malick), and his professional bonds with his colleagues, Gaby and Jimmy. Jimmy assumes a surprising role when it comes to Paul’s treatment. “That is a very paternal relationship,” reflects Segel. “Part of what we explore is what any of us deal with in life with parental relationships — this slow turning of the person who took care of you and mentored you needing to be taken care of. Jimmy having to stand on his own two feet and start taking care of Paul is a big part of his growth."

That apparently extends to taking Paul to medical appointments, as seems to be the case in this exclusive image featuring Paul and Jimmy holding hands in what appears to be a doctor’s office. "In season 1, Jimmy and Paul were more competitive and season 2 is a bit more of them gradually coming together," explains Goldstein.

Though they won’t say more than that, offscreen, the moment is one that Segel will treasure.
“Like many people, I am saddled with a brain that wants to tell me that there must be something wrong and things aren't as they should be,” he says. “There is no version of my life when I'm holding Harrison Ford's hand where that voice wins. I sit there and I think, ‘Everything is right with the world right now. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. It all worked out.’”

While the progression of Paul’s disease will bring plenty of emotional moments to season 2, there will also still be a decent amount of hijinks from the cast and Ford especially. Season 1 saw Ford, so often revered as an action hero onscreen and a gruff curmudgeon off of it, indulge his silly side, be it singing “Every Morning” by Sugar Ray or doing some hilarious intoxicated acting. “There's nothing he said no to,” marvels Goldstein. “In fact, there's probably stuff we've said no to that he’s offered up  and we've gone, ‘I think that's too far.’ He's seemingly up for anything.”

"The coolest thing about Harrison Ford is that he's just game,” adds Lawrence. “We didn't know what a comedic force we were getting, and we definitely run him through the ringer this year."

Ford won’t reveal what any of those things might be, but he does note, “All the delightful elements are still there. There will be singing.”

And he's not the only one getting to dabble in broader comedy. Last year, Segel got to bring some of his physical comedy to the series in an episode in which Jimmy gets wasted and vomits all over a piano. Segel loves the wildly swinging acting challenges Shrinking presents. “Some days you're going to come in and you're going to bear your soul about grief, and then other days you're going to come in and vomit all over a piano,” he jokes. “I look for stage directions that could be nothing and try to see if there's room to have a little bit of a comedy piece. It's still in me from the old broad comedy days. There are two or three moments this season. It's my favorite thing about the stew of this show is that it's got all the things.”

In addition to the push and pull of his dynamic with Paul, Jimmy still needs to repair his relationship with his best friend, Brian (Michael Urie), after virtually abandoning him while wallowing in his grief. With Jimmy’s heartfelt speech at Brian’s wedding in the season 1 finale, things seem headed in the right direction, but that’s not the end of it. “One of the things about  adult friendships is that they're messy.” says Lawrence, while Segel adds, “Brian really is his best friend in the world. But it's not just one conversation. That's just not how it works. It's the start of a road. And there's more they got to figure out.”

Jimmy could be in danger of losing another friend after sleeping with Gaby, leading her to realize that she might be in love with him. “I dunno if you’ve ever slept with a friend,” quips Goldstein. “It’s challenging.”

Related: Shrinking star Jessica Williams breaks down Gaby and Jimmy's drunken decision

"I’m not sure how many people would advise you to start a romantic relationship with your deceased best friend's husband," adds Lawrence, drily.

Segel is more earnest about the future of the two BFFs' relationship. “Jimmy is reeling from the fact that he has lost the love of his life, made a ton of mistakes in the aftermath, and really isn't ready to be in a relationship,” he says. “Gaby is in a different place, and that'll come to a head.”

Though much of season 2 will be about dealing with ongoing problems, there’s also a new wrinkle in the form of a character played by Goldstein, whose identity and story arc remain completely under wraps.

"I can tell you that it's not a cameo and that people will be really surprised by it,” hints Lawrence. "It's not something that people will necessarily expect or even recognize him in right away."

And while Goldstein won a soccer team's worth of fans portraying Ted Lasso's Roy Kent, this will mark a departure for him. “It is incredibly different,” Goldstein says. “There is almost no crossover except the eyebrows. He might look vaguely similar, but these are very, very, very different characters.”

Though he co-created the show, Goldstein didn’t write this mysterious character with himself in mind. Similar to the role of Roy Kent, it was something the creative team realized later in the casting process. “With Roy Kent, I had the strong feeling I should be playing it,” says Goldstein. “And with this one, Jason had the strong feeling I should be playing it. He was like, ‘Why isn't Brett doing this? Brett's perfect for this.’ And we were like, ‘Oh.’ And I thought, ‘If Jason Segel says to do something, you should do it.’”

While Goldstein’s character is sure to bring some form of disruption, one truism will hold — all of these people will remain far too involved in one anotherr’s lives. “The show definitely explores boundaries,” says Segel. “A lot of the show is about finding appropriate boundaries between all these characters. One of the hallmarks of Bill Lawrence shows is that slowly all of these characters' lives begin to interweave in really beautiful ways. It's part of what makes Bill a genius is the way that all of these storylines become one tapestry.”

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Season 2 might be about forgiveness, but there will also remain an undercurrent of grief and its impact on our lives. “I don't think that grief ends,” reflects Goldstein. “Even when we say that the season 1 theme was grief, it's not like, ‘That's grief done.’ It’s circular. It's just the circle gets bigger and the distance between the very sad parts gets longer, but there's always other layers and levels.”

"It’s a big step up this season,” he concludes. “Bigger. Better. Funnier. Sadder. We’re trying something with this forgiveness experiment — it’s a big, meaty thing going on."

So, then, we suppose the only question that remains is — how does that make you feel?

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.