Shrinking season 4 will keep Jimmy’s story alive, Bill Lawrence says
Apple TV has greenlit a fourth season of Shrinking, and Bill Lawrence says the creative team found fresh ground to explore after 36 episodes — extending a story that had been planned as a three-season arc. The renewal hands the writers more room to continue Jimmy’s journey while other Lawrence projects also return for new runs.
Shrinking gets a surprise early pickup
The streamer announced an early Season 4 renewal for Jason Segel’s Shrinking, which co-stars Harrison Ford and had been conceived as a triptych tackling grief, forgiveness and moving forward. Lawrence noted the show’s original structure but said the writers discovered a new story to tell: “we made 36 episodes of Shrinking, that’s a season and a half of Scrubs. ”
Lawrence on extending three-season plans
Lawrence said he’s had to rethink how to navigate shows that arrive with a beginning, middle and end. “Everybody who has been talking to me lately, goes oh, Shrinking just got picked up for fourth season, it was a three-season story, ” he said. He added that the team can treat a streaming pitch as a finite story and then, when new ideas surface, open another arc — a point he made while discussing multiple series that have moved beyond their original finales.
How the creative team hopes to continue Jimmy’s arc
Writers and producers told cast-and-crew stories across three seasons that focused on Jason Segel’s therapist character after his wife’s death; Season 4 was approved when the team decided there was more to explore without repeating what had come before. Lawrence framed the decision as a creative choice: if a new season simply rehashed prior grief, viewers would push back, but the team believes it has a distinct new throughline to justify more episodes.
Where Ted Lasso and Scrubs fit in the conversation
Lawrence pointed to two other projects that have changed course. Jason Sudeikis’ Ted Lasso, originally planned as a three-season arc, is returning three years after its Season 3 finale and will begin a fresh three-season storyline that follows Ted coaching Richmond’s second division women’s football team; first-look images for Season 4 show Sudeikis with his new team and assistant coach. Separately, Scrubs has been revived with original cast members and will premiere February 25 on ABC. Lawrence joked about the show’s long run — “We made 1100 episodes of Scrubs” — while the factual tally for Scrubs stands at 182 episodes produced between 2001 and 2010, with the first six years delivering between 22-25 episodes a season.
For Shrinking, Season 4 is now official; creators say they will use the extra season to continue Jimmy’s story without retracing ground already covered. The next confirmed dates in this slate: the Scrubs revival premieres February 25 on ABC, and Ted Lasso Season 4 is scheduled to debut in the summer.
