Michael Urie Teases Another Secret Between Brian & Jimmy In Shrinking Season 2

Over a year after the dramatic end of season 1, Shrinking will return to Apple TV+ later this month. The Jason Segel-led show will continue with 12 new episodes airing weekly, with this season following the consequences of therapist Jimmy Laird’s unorthodox practices, which indirectly caused one of his patients to push her abusive husband off a cliff. The show also stars Harrison Ford, The Daily Show’s Jessica Williams, Married… with Children’s Ted McGinley, and Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie.

Urie plays a key role in Shrinking as Jimmy’s best friend Brian, who’s been a frequent source of support for him as the character copes with his wife’s death. Brian had an eventful first season, with the finale culminating with his marriage to his partner Charlie. This new season of Shrinking will see his character settling into married life and working to further repair his relationship with Jimmy, who ghosted Brian for a year following the death of his wife.

Screen Rant interviewed Michael Urie to discuss the tone of season 2, the importance of forgiveness, and fun new character pairings in Shrinking fans can look forward to.

Jimmy & Brian Will Overcome “Another Secret” In Shrinking Season 2

The Duo’s Friendship Will Need Even Further Repair

Screen Rant: Grace pushing Donny off the cliff was such a shock in season 1. How will that event shape the dynamics and tone of season 2?

Michael Urie: Well, it is the sort of catalyst for season 2 all season. Jimmy has been trying this new technique of telling his patients exactly what he thinks and exactly what he thinks they should do, and this is an example of that advice going a little too far.

He’s going to have to pick up the pieces of that, and I’m really excited because Brian gets to help a little bit. He gets to be his pretend lawyer guy again. Brian is merely an estate lawyer, but every once in a while he dabbles in criminal law thanks to Jimmy. So we pick up season 2 fixing that mistake and move from there, but it is a season of forgiveness and repair.

I wanted to talk about the theme of forgiveness for a second, because forgiveness plays such an important part this season. In what ways is that theme relevant to Brian’s journey, especially concerning his relationship with Jimmy?

Michael Urie: When we start up season 2, Brian does not know that Jimmy and Gaby have begun a little affair, and he finds out third-party, and he’s very, very upset. There’s a lot of secrets and lies going on at the beginning of season 2 that will percolate, and it brings up a lot for Brian about his friendship with Jimmy.

They have trust issues as we know from season 1 after Jimmy ghosted Brian for a year after Tia’s death. They’ve already been trying to put their relationship back together, and this throws another wrench in it. As the season goes on, they forgive each other for this sort of secret, but another secret will come up. Everyone’s trying to forgive each other, forgive themselves, but things keep getting in the way of that and making it harder to do so.

Shrinking Season 2 Allows For “Magic” Character Pairings

Fans Can Expect To See Many New Relationship Dynamics Form

This season dives deeper into Brian and Charlie’s relationship. Can you highlight some of the challenges they’ll face this season?

Michael Urie: Yeah, Brian and Charlie are happily married men now, but Charlie wants a baby and Brian is a baby [Laughs], so they’ll begin to navigate that. What’s really cool about this season is we get even more opportunities to pair up cast members. This is one of those shows where you put any two characters together and magic happens.

I felt at the end of season 1 that I wanted more with a lot of the cast. Of course, I have great stuff with Jimmy, great stuff with Jason Segel, and great stuff with Harrison. But I wanted more with Christa Miller, who plays Liz next door, I wanted more with Luke Tennie, I always want more with Lukita [Maxwell] and Ted McGinley.

This season, Liz, who is desperate to be everyone’s mother and/or take everyone’s children away from them, finds out that Charlie and Brian are thinking about having a baby and inserts herself into our lives, which is really fun. That begins right away, she tries to help me come to terms with fatherhood, and that’s really fun.

More About Shrinking Season 2

Shrinking follows a grieving therapist who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives…including his own.

Check out our other Shrinking interviews here:

Source: Screen Rant Plus

Release Date

January 27, 2023

Seasons

1

Streaming Service(s)

Apple TV+

Directors

Bill Lawrence

Showrunner

Bill Lawrence

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