American cinema and TV shows haven’t done a great job of portraying relationships among older adults. We often get stories of grandparents who have been together for years, but rarely a story about two people over sixty falling in love. Ageism is definitely at play here, and Hollywood especially hates to portray older women in healthy, loving relationships. However, we often get older men dating or marrying women who could be their daughters. This episode of SHRINKING has a lot of great plot lines, but the one about Paul (Harrison Ford) navigating his relationship with Juliet (Wendie Malick) and his family is outstanding. Not in my memory has a show done such a great job showing two people in their 70s connecting and falling in love.
As the title insinuates, many characters in HONESTY ERA come to terms with people from whom they’ve been withholding information. It comes at just the perfect time as well, at almost the mid-point in the season, pages need to be turned so our characters can fulfill the arcs the writers set them up with. While I loved season one, there were some quality and timing inconsistencies from episode to episode. This season so far is a perfect groove. The characters in the show were mostly all close with each other in the time before S1 started, but now it feels like the whole cast is a family, and the show is better for it.
I’m a lifelong Harrison Ford fan. As a kid, my parents took me to see INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and RETURN OF THE JEDI at the theatre. And, of course, they made sure I’d seen STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK prior at home. As I got a little older, I saw BLADE RUNNER and enjoyed Ford in movies like AIR FORCE ONE, THE FUGITIVE, and PATRIOT GAMES. There were some stinkers this century, like FIREWALL and COWBOYS & ALIENS, so seeing Ford on television here in SHRINKING and in 1923 has been so incredibly wonderful. I tell every fan of his I know to watch this show, even if just for him. Of course, I hope they’ll fall in love with the rest of the series, too, but since he’s so revered for so long, perhaps he’ll act as the conduit to grow the SHRINKING fandom. Ford shines so much here each week. I am sad that he didn’t do more television sooner.
SHRINKING streams every Wednesday on Apple TV+.Â
