Parenting Tips from “Shrinking” S3 E7, “I Will Be Grape”

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Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout Podcast. I'm Terry Moro, and I'm Catherine Haleco.

As parents and parenting writers, we can't help but see everything through a parenting lens.

But as our kids have become adults, we find ourselves more interested in getting caught up on movies and streaming than I'm going over the same parenting topics over and over.

So since we're pretty sure we can find parenting wisdom anywhere, we're going to talk about what we're watching, what we thought about it, and maybe what we can learn from it, if only what not to do.

Watch and listen along, and let's all make like we're doing something important for our families.

Each Tuesday, we bring you our thoughts on a newer entertainment property, and for this week of March 16th, we're discussing shrinking season 3, episode 7, I will be great.

And no, that is not a typo. That is not a mistake. It's just another adorable idiosyncrasy of this crew we have come to love.

Tia wants to misspoke a lyric of a song that way, and it shall live forever, even beyond her.

Last week, when we were looking forward to this episode, we were very concerned for Maya, who was last seen with pills and wine and very sad music playing on the soundtrack having just been sort of

I don't know what the word would be. She thought Gabby was her friend, but Gabby was acting like her therapist and saying, you know, next visit will talk.

So we were all very concerned. Many, many people online were very concerned. And in this episode, she does not appear. She does leave a message skipping an appointment.

So apparently she didn't do anything at the end of last episode.

But at the end of this episode, Gabby gets a call from her client, Donna, of the silly married couple, and says, what do you mean we lost Maya?

So now I don't, I can pretty much guess what we're going to be dealing with next week. But until then, this is what I believe they went to Disneyland.

It was very crowded. It came time to go home. Maya is pretty short. Couldn't see her in the crowd. Couldn't find her. We lost her. Where'd she go? We'll wait around for her. She'll show up. That's what I'm going to believe for the next week.

We'll deal with the crap when we deal with this. But I can't say this is my happy fun show. Don't kill people because the whole premise of the show is that somebody was killed.

It's like we started with this. But on the other hand, I am not real fond of let's introduce a character and just give her enough detail so that people will feel sad when she dies and then killer.

Did they like last season intend to do that with Lewis? It is just, oh gosh, people like Brett Goldstein too much. We can't do it.

And he was around all season. We can't do it. Let's just introduce somebody, make make people like her and then then we'll deal with all the work.

I don't like that. Don't do that. And maybe it's just, I mean, she really had very, maybe it's just kudos to Sherry Cola for creating a character that we cared about.

Because I'm thinking of all the other patients. Honestly, if any of Jimmy's patients just suddenly decided to say goodbye, I don't think we care about any of them because they're cartoons.

Yeah. Jimmy's patients are cartoons. Don and her husband are cartoons. Sean is not. But other than that, most of the patients grace, grace was not. But most of them are kind of like.

Yeah. So maybe she like was just too sympathetic and damn, no way. Stop.

Yeah, I mean, people like you. Do we have to keep you? No, no, no, let's just do it off screen off screen. I mean, I can see doing it as a like, you know, this is a happy fun show.

But these people have a serious job and do, you know, sometimes there's going to be repercussions of that.

But I mean, that's kind of what you've got with grace right now in a sort of. Sean had some repercussions. He did not have a smooth road.

I mean, repercussions for the therapist themselves like, you know, yes, yes, this is you're dealing with other people's pain.

So it's not always going to be like the argument over spoiling Hamilton.

Yes. But at the same time, they have not set it up that way for the past three seasons.

No, no. And so I, you know, I trust in this creative team. Perhaps they will pull it off and it will be something good.

But I don't, don't do that. Don't create characters just for other characters as development and growth and torture.

I don't know. I just, yeah, not what I would have liked. But we did have some, some, the reckoning has not come yet.

Like I said, we have another week. Right.

So please, if you, if you need to join me in imagining Maya, like lost in a crime, maybe she's in the gift shop and there's a really, really long line.

And nobody's looking for her. That's right. So they've lost her, but they'll find her.

And then we'll, you know, we'll see how we'll see what they do with the actual scenario they've set up.

But we got the second annual celebration of Tia's birthday, especially the her mispronunciation of a lyric in the song.

Is that song called a thousand years?

I think so. Is that the title of that song? Because we heard it.

Oh my god.

This is the season of Jason Segel being like, did you know I can sing?

It really is.

I'm in sung much. How about if I sang? How about if I sing?

I can play the piano too, remember? I did that a little bit in the first season.

Oh God bless. You know, so Sophie.

Yeah. Yeah.

Showed up for, I guess Alice had kind of prompted Jimmy to get it together.

And so he invited this woman. He's been doing her was to ask out.

He invites her to come celebrate his dead one.

Right.

Of course she is game. And she sings with all these people she doesn't know.

And you know, makes a good first impression.

Yeah. Good for her.

And summer is just now a repertoire player.

She's just there. She's just always there.

Rachel Stubbington's agent must have upgraded her to she has to be in every episode.

We don't care what you do with her. She just has to be in every episode.

She can be sitting on the couch. It doesn't matter. She's going to be there.

Yep. And why not? You know.

Yeah. She's fun. She's she's good for a funny line or two.

Yes.

And in appropriateness when needed to break the mood.

Yes. And they they're going to continue having fun with what happens when Alice leaves.

Summer is not going anywhere.

No. She's not fully offered to move into Jimmy's house.

To which everybody appropriately reacts.

But and we met Derek's mom.

Yeah. Her name was Constance or Connie, which was a point of discussion.

But played passive aggressively snarking Liz with with cold glances.

Play by Candice Bergen.

Yes. Hey Candice Bergen. Nice to see you.

And it's some point.

Did we ever know what their last name was was before?

Yeah. Because they refer to her as Mrs. Bishop.

So I guess that's Derek's last name.

But yeah, I'm not sure if we ever heard it before.

I don't think we did.

Okay.

Sure.

And she's the they bring home with her character a very important parenting.

Oh my gosh.

That.

Yes.

Do not tell people how to parent.

Do not.

Do not do not.

And then later nobody wants to hear that.

And then later she gets it to repeat the parenting roundabout podcast motto,

which is every child is different.

Every child needs something different.

And I was like, hey, you've been listening.

Yeah. She's been listening to our podcast.

But if she was, she would know not to not to be giving people parenting advice just randomly.

This is true.

Just give them the podcast.

Yes.

I listened to the podcast.

But.

And she's encouraging Matthew to become like a shoe influencer or something.

Yeah.

I mean, nice to lean into a kid's kids' talent and interests.

I get that.

But that's not a real job.

Is that a real job?

I guess it's a real job.

But is it a real job that just any schmo can get?

Yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe it wasn't me.

I mean, he has a whole story about how he flipped one pair of shoes for three more.

And, you know, he knows how to wait.

Probably don't get health insurance with that job, right?

Well, no.

It's probably not a pension for one K.

No.

Paid vacations.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I probably don't either.

So I, I who have children who have part-time jobs should not speak at this, you know, whatever.

If they have something that they're interested in and they can make money doing it, I guess.

Right.

As long as it's not your mother-in-law suggesting it.

Exactly.

Yeah.

But she was very good with the compliment followed by an icy stare.

Liz had to get Gabby to come over and see it in person because it was like, she's being,

you know, she's saying all these nice things is what she was doing.

But it was clearly in a passively, like you said, passive aggressively.

Mean way.

Yeah.

She says the Liz says, she says the right words with the right tone and then she holds eye contact

for an extra few seconds so that I can feel the judgment nobody else.

Right.

Luckily Gabby could.

Yeah.

So that she could validate Liz.

Right.

It's very important to be validated and that sort of thing.

Mm-hmm.

But Yikes.

Yes.

And we had a, we had an appearance by Lewis.

Yes.

Who was obviously doing very well because now he looks exactly like Roy.

That's right.

He grew his beard.

Mm-hmm.

And he has a girlfriend named Tuppens.

Yes, he does.

Is he suddenly gone back to Bridgerton times or, I guess, are there Tuppensis now in the UK?

Maybe a few, I guess.

But anyway, good for him out there in occasional guest appearance land.

Right.

It's a little weird for him to become into the grave at her birthday, but okay.

What else?

Alice invited him.

Yes.

Which, I don't know Alice, but she says.

Alice hasn't, she's interested in taste.

And what was that thing she was wearing there at the end?

Yeah, it was like a very frothy yellow dress with like very, very thick knee highs.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

You know, maybe you, I guess, but I think the inappropriate t-shirt was better.

Yeah.

Even the baby got in on the inappropriate t-shirt.

That was funny.

Well, then we got to see the nanny.

Yes.

We got to see the nanny who was not the mom.

And I knew it was the nanny.

Yeah.

Because we saw the mom last.

Right.

You know, the nanny looks a little like how, you know, these people are, I am full.

Yeah.

Baby's fine.

Yeah.

The adults, not so much.

There was also Paul wants to give Gabby the practice.

Right.

Which Gabby wants to be doing the kind of good work she's doing with Maya.

Just.

And also counseling veterans.

Yes.

And the MMA thing was Jimmy's idea.

Right?

For them to go to that gym and...

Yeah, to that gym.

And he was really the one counseling Sean.

He then, I guess, Paul.

And then Paul, yeah.

Why is Gabby now going to be in charge of this?

I don't know.

It's fine.

You certainly, I don't think that Jimmy would be up to that.

But still.

Yeah.

I think maybe Sean realizes that Jimmy isn't up to it.

I don't know.

Could be that.

Oh well.

You need something.

We need things to be going really well for Gabby so that...

She can be brought.

She can be very low.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Oh well.

She wants to deal with people that have deeper stuff going on.

Yeah.

How did that go for you?

Exactly.

Bring me back some of those cartoony patients.

Come on.

Oh well.

So now Paul looks a little chagrined that Gabby has turned him down.

And he was going to take over his practice now.

Right.

Because he doesn't want it to be Jimmy.

And he's not really loving the counseling other Parkinson's patients.

Yeah.

Because you know, he sort of...

I don't know how much he fell into that.

And I don't know how much he actually wanted to do that.

But it creates an opportunity for Michael J. Potts.

That's right.

So we'll go.

Which is fine.

It was fun with him and his old patient getting together to discuss the...

Yes.

Various indignities of Parkinson's and prostate cancer.

Right.

Aging in general.

In general.

Yes.

Oh well.

Nobody wants to watch a show about that.

Let's see.

They worked in an air pod hearing aid joke.

And they were like,

I don't know if I mentioned it on the spot pass.

But I had a situation where I helped teach Sunday school.

And there was like a kid in the class who had what looked like air pods on.

And I was going to call them out on it.

And then I thought, what if they're hearing aids?

Right.

They're hearing aids now that look like air pods.

Right.

How can you know?

How can you tell?

So I guess this is now enough in the culture that they can...

Yeah.

On a Stevie show.

Oh well.

So, you know, every time they give us an episode where it looks like people are kind of moving on well.

And their things are going good.

We have to bring them low.

Yeah.

And I mean, this whole thing of like Jimmy can't move on.

He's so upset about Alice leaving.

I mean, that's pretty universal.

And like, why shouldn't he be sad when it's Tia's birthday?

It hasn't been that long.

Like, I didn't think that he was over the top about it.

I don't know.

Well, I guess they're just wondering why he hasn't asked Sophie out.

And so he...

Yeah.

Here, come to my house.

And be with all my friends as we mourn my ex-wife.

It'll be fine.

It'll be fine.

I'm not saying.

Because it went so well with the last date he went out with.

You wanted all his friends around for this.

Yeah.

But in next week's episode, which is called Depression Diet, it says Jimmy finally goes on a first date with Sophie.

So I guess...

This wasn't a date.

Coming over for my dead wife's birthday celebration was not a first date.

It was just a social opportunity.

Okay.

Getting together with a bunch of friends to mourn somebody that you don't know and may be wishing to replace it.

Don't be fun.

Yeah.

We're going to sing with Weird lyrics.

So, I guess the first date, the official first date, is next one.

Okay.

Also says Gabby has a crisis of confidence, which is a weird way to put it if somebody actually died.

Right.

So maybe she didn't.

That's what I'm...

I'm clinging to this.

See?

Disney Land.

Disney Land.

Disney Land.

If you're kind of short, people can't see you in the crowd, you know?

And so it's just, you know, we were...

We turned our back for a minute to get some candy corn and we turned back and we'd lost her.

Where'd she go?

I'm holding on.

I'm holding on.

It's probably a psychological term for that.

Denial.

And the third thing is that Liz learns more about Brian's living situation.

Yeah.

What the...

I know.

I know.

I noticed that too.

I mean, it is weird, but I've always thought it's just like a TV thing, how Brian's always around,

even though he has a new baby, and he should be like basically glued to the couch with that baby.

But that's, again, how it always is on TV, like no one does anything on the phone that could be done in person.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

You know, if Constance is not getting reception for her parenting advice at Liz's,

she could probably go there.

I'm sure that Brian and Charlie would love to hear all of what she has to say.

They could use a grandma in their house.

Yeah.

I mean, Charlie seems to have a good head on his shoulders, but he was never around.

He also has a job.

Yeah.

I mean, so does Brian theoretically.

Does Brian have a job?

He's a lawyer, remember?

He's a lawyer.

That's right.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah.

Well, he was very effective the one time we saw him loyering, but...

Yeah.

Right.

I mean, he's a lawyer, and he can do criminal trials.

He can do, like, you know, trusts and estates.

The contract for the adoption turns out to be ideal.

Yeah, exactly.

Is this your job, man?

That's happening here.

Oh, there's some drama at my home right now.

Maybe you can hear it.

Yes.

Yes, we better wrap this up.

Duck out on this drama.

So to repeat, next Tuesday, we will continue with season three episode eight depression diet.

And we will be back tomorrow to discuss lost or happy fun show.

Thank you for listening.

You can find all our episodes on speaker, Apple podcasts, Amazon music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can find recaps, links, and an opportunity to comment on our website at parentingroundabout.com.

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And please visit our Amazon shop at Amazon.com slash shop slash Mama Tood,

where you can find links to a lot of the things we've talked about over the years.

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