In this age, no one envies growth.

The epidemic is radically old brains of young girls. Unregulated social media creates problems obstacle to the development of young people. of the planet on fire and wars horny. So are today’s young people Actually being young?

Apple TV+ comedy series “Shrinking” responds to some of these concerns through the young woman who lives there, Alice (Lukita Maxwell). In the half-hour therapy-focused comedy, Alice is the teenage daughter of grieving therapist Jimmy (Jason Segel). When the show begins, Alice and Jimmy are left reeling from the emotional devastation caused by the sudden death of their mother and wife, Tia (Lilan Bowden), in a car accident. While Jimmy is drowning in grief, Alice keeps him going by becoming a parented child, even though she is out of breath.

In the second season of “Shrinking,” after a much-needed recovery, Jimmy fully returned to his father role. He regained some of Alice’s trust after trying to repair the father-daughter relationship in the first season. Thus, Alice gives up looking after her father due to her grief. But the series doesn’t shy away from Alice’s minor concerns about her father’s instability, and it also allows the teenager to mourn her mother in lighthearted, touching moments. “Downsizing” offers its audience a raw look at a teenager’s grief and mental illness, and handles it with tender sincerity and, at times, a touch of confusion.

When the audience is introduced to Alice for the first time, she is demoralized. The teenager is an expert at hiding his pain because there is no room for pain in his home because he is steeped in his father’s pain. He parties hard, sleeps with sex workers, and has almost given up on life. They live two separate existences; one a lonely, singular experience of pain. In the first season, he tells her that washing a football jersey when it’s dirty or serving blueberries isn’t enough to fix what’s broken. He explains: “For so long you’ve been acting like this only happened to you, but it happened to us. This happened to me, and I’m dealing with it on my own because I have to.” It’s clear that her mental health is not a priority for her father. The audience sees parts of Alice’s depression and impulsive decision-making in season one, but ultimately Alice is still a child who had to grow up too quickly.

But his words plant something inside Jimmy. In the midst of both losses, he completely abandoned his young daughter. Her emotional unavailability brings her closer to her nosy neighbors Liz (Christa Miller), her husband Derek (Ted McGinley), and Paul (Ted McGinley).Harrison Ford), a senior therapist and colleague of his father. Despite the help of his community, he doesn’t feel like a normal teenager. When his friend asks him to go underage drinking under a bridge, he becomes jealous of the teenagers Paul because “they were all acting so immature”. He explains to her that not everyone young experiences grief like he does. Paul asks, “Are you going to let your grief overwhelm you?” saying, forcing him to enjoy his youth.

So he doesn’t. However, it is very close to the second season, when all of Alice’s defense mechanisms collapse. It looks like he’s in a better, healed area. Alice and Jimmy’s relationship became healthier. But with progress comes growing pains. During their mini-therapy session, she admits to Paul that she watches her father while he sleeps because “she couldn’t stop thinking about him going back to his old self after his mother died.” Alice is still interested in Jimmy, even if she doesn’t realize it. Paul tells him that this is a dynamic that is a result of what he has been through. But in the first few chapters, “Shrinking” strips Alice of her chronic concern for other people and takes her straight to the heart of teenage confusion and angst.

One of these teen stressors is apparently passing his driving test in the car. It did not escape the audience that what caused Tia’s death was something Alice had to master. The teenager even begins to recall vivid memories of his mother taking him to football practice. It’s as if his mother’s love and the brevity of his life bother him. Her grief unfairly colors what should be a normal, teenage experience for her.

In contrast, Jimmy faces a harsh reality: Louis, the drunk driver who killed Tia, was played by the “Shrinking” writer/producer. Brett Goldstein. This is a destabilizing development, but the series handles it carefully. Jimmy struggles to explain this to Alice, and in a darkly humorous moment she blurts out: “Speaking of cars, do you remember what suddenly happened to your mother? Damn it!”

Alice seems to be taking the news well, although she says, “Lately I feel like my brain is about to explode.”

“You ruined my life, you asshole. Eat my ass!” He writes a letter to Louis.

Alice even shows Paul the letter and he says: “Quite a letter. Lots of F-bombs.” To which he replies: “Well, it’s not for my member of Congress. It’s for the man who killed my mother!” The ability to process these swallowing feelings with grace is a sign that he’s handling the therapy process the way he should, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s working, or perhaps that he’s too slow to fix what feels like it’s irreversibly broken. With his new driver’s license in hand, he does what is impulsive and probably the wrong thing to do. He goes to see the man who killed his mother twice.

Alice recklessly goes to Louis’ workplace and confronts him, despite Paul’s warning to see her again. Alice immediately becomes angry and tries to defuse the tension by telling him that she can imagine how he feels. In the cafe “Shut up! Shut up! Fuck you!” he shouts. It’s annoying when he slams his hands on the table and storms out. Alice is completely emotionally distraught and seeks solace in Liz’s son Connor, who is in love with Alice and her best friend’s boyfriend.

In true teenage fashion, Alice’s impetuosity has led her to make bad decisions, but “Shrinking” never berates her for her pain or choices. Instead, the writing chooses to humanize him as the young person he is; As a young person whose pain he couldn’t get over. A refreshing look at how a teenager grapples with insurmountable trauma. In a young generation so full of sanity strugglesAlice is just like any other 17-year-old girl. He’s just coping the best he can with what feels like the weight of the world on his shoulders.