Dear Gossips,

I started watching Shrinking last Friday. I now have one episode left and the way it usually works with me, because I can prolong the sh-t out of anything, I might not get to it until season two is released; I just don’t want it to be over, I love it so much.

Sure, Shrinking is not without its issues – there are people who have criticised it for its unrealistic portrayal of therapy, with showrunner Bill Lawrence defending the storytelling prior to the season one finale a couple of weeks ago. I understand people’s concerns, but at the same time, if you’ve watched the show (and I highly recommend) I’m not taking away from it that they’re trying to say that the characters who are therapists (Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams) are perfect and modelling how therapists should be doing the job. In fact, it’s the opposite – the whole point here is that they are imperfect, that they are f-cking up all over the place, that they will eventually have to reckon with their mistakes. Which is what storytelling should be. Why tell a story where the people you’re investing in have all the answers and do everything exactly the way it should be done? I don’t want that story. I am bored by that story.

Anyway, many people are now predicting that Shrinking will contend in several categories at the Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy. We are talking about this right now because the nomination period is coming up soon. Voting for Emmy nominations starts in two months, in mid-June. Which means the campaigns will be kicking up soon. And there’s a big star now in contention for an Emmy: Harrison Ford. Most experts seem convinced that Harrison is a lock for a nomination as Best Supporting Actor (Comedy) and it’s hard to argue with that given his status in Hollywood and his performance – he’s AMAZING on this show. He’s truculent and sweet and sensitive and curmudgeonly and really, really, really funny.

But it’s worth noting, at least in my opinion, that his best scenes are with Jessica Williams. And his second best scenes, at least in my opinion, are with Lukita Maxwell. Harrison Ford hanging out with a teen girl is the kind of pop culture I never knew I needed and now that I’ve experienced it, I never want it to stop. But Harrison Ford with Jessica Williams? It’s f-cking magic. Like, I don’t want to spoil it but at one point she gets Harrison Ford – HARRISON FORD! – to say the words “safe dick”. I can’t. I can’t get enough. Of Harrison and Jessica but of Jessica, period.

She is the MVP of Shrinking. As far as I’m concerned, she elevates everyone, she is the secret sauce of every scene. And while, sure, Jason Segel and Harrison Ford will get all the profile during the Emmys, it will be a goddamn crime if she’s not nominated too. Give Jessica Williams all the flowers. And while we’re at it, send her an invitation to the Met Gala because we have been sleeping on her style game.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Jessica Williams Gossip

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