By Kaleena Rivera | TV | December 9, 2024 |
(spoiler for episode 8 of Shrinking)
I admittedly wasn’t all in on Shrinking when it first premiered unlike some of my colleagues. Despite feeling less than enthused over Jimmy’s (Jason Segel) handling of damn near anything—the treatment of psychiatry as an occupation on this show is done with roughly the same amount of straight-faced dedication as the average episode of 9-1-1—and several other plot points not fully landing with me, including Gaby’s (Jessica Williams) inexplicable romantic attraction toward Jimmy (and if it comes in between her and Damon Wayans Jr.’s Derrick, so help me), the show’s fallen within “pleasant enough” appointment viewing for me. But there’s one bright spot that’s so charming, so sweetly loyal and chipper that it almost entirely makes up for all of it:
This guy.
Ted McGinley’s been gracing the film and television landscape with his presence for over forty years now. For many, myself included, he was best known as dopey husband Jefferson D’Arcy on Married With Children, and even if his roles afterward weren’t quite as high-profile, he’s lent his soap opera star looks and voice to a lengthy list of projects ranging from The West Wing to Mad Men. But it wasn’t until his recurring role on Shrinking as Jimmy’s next-door neighbor Derek, who’s married to Liz (Christa Miller), the woman who became an unofficial guardian for Jimmy’s daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) after the death of her mother, that many of us realized just how good McGinley is at playing lovable.
The immensely affable Derek makes for a nice counterbalance against Liz’s abrasiveness, but the man fully solidified a place on my ‘Best TV Husband’ ranking all the way back in season one, episode three, when another neighbor, Pam (Miriam Flynn), takes it upon herself to police Sean’s (Luke Tennie) presence in the neighborhood. Angered over Pam’s obvious racism, Liz lets her have it and Derek proves his devotion in the most cheerfully hilarious way possible:
Derek [unaware of what has transpired]: “Hey, Pam!”
Pam: “Hey!”
Liz [turning to Derek]: “No, there’s no ‘Hey, Pam.’ We don’t like Pam.”
Derek: “Got it. Eat a d**k, Pam!
Zingers and self-effacing jokes abound, but for being such an ancillary character, McGinley comes close to stealing every scene thanks solely to his happy-go-lucky charm. He doesn’t deliver punchlines, per se, but works as an amplifier for other characters’s bits, especially for Liz’s rash and sometimes overbearing ways (Liz: “Can we pay her [Alice’s friend] to f**k our son?” Derek: “Yeah, I think maybe I’d feel more comfortable just, you know, rooting for him.”). His seemingly endless well of patience with his wife and her various pursuits, whether it’s rocks, animal fostering (or fostering children, in Alice’s case), being overly invested in Gaby’s romantic life, or a food truck, is so winning not because he’s a doormat, but because he’s a certified Wife Guy.
This latest season does give McGinley a chance to flex more of his acting muscles, thanks to the storyline in which Liz reconnects with an old acquaintance, Mac (Couger Town’s Josh Hopkins), to Derek’s dismay. What results is an excellent scene in which Derek relays his understandably hurt reaction to Liz’s confession that she kissed Mac. It’s delivered with an emotion far more affecting than being overwrought: disappointment. Even when he gives in to anger, it’s not from a place of rage but the obligatory role of being a wronged husband. His heart’s never into the idea of vengeance, again, not because he’s a doormat but because Derek has a terminal case of being a sweet cinnamon roll of a man.
For all of the various plots that are running a bit amuck here—the will-they-won’t-they baby adoption, the odd handling of Louis (Brett Goldstein)—Derek has rapidly become the show’s MVP. There’s so much happening at any given moment (and resolved almost as quickly as it began) that this may be the last big Derek moment we’ll get for the season considering that there are only three episodes left in the season. For a show that may or may not end with three seasons (according to co-creator Bill Lawrence via THR), Derek may have already carved out a space for himself among the TV husband greats.
The Shrinking finale will be released on Christmas Day.
Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor of Pajiba. She can be found on Bluesky here.