Apple TV’s Latest Renewal Shows Great TV Doesn’t Need Sci‑Fi

For years Apple TV has become synonymous with prestige sci‑fi — from the corporate dystopia of Severance to the alt‑history sweep of For All Mankind, the breakout Pluribus, the scale of Foundation and the footprint of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Yet one of the streamer’s most poignant dramas takes place in therapy offices, messy kitchens and backyard beers, not in alternate timelines or on distant worlds.

With Season 4 already confirmed, Shrinking is a reminder that some of the best television can be deeply, messily human. Shrinking, created by Bill Lawrence with Jason Segel and Brett Goldstein, begins with a simple sitcom premise: a therapist grieving the death of his wife — killed by a drunk driver — stops holding back and tells his patients what he really thinks.

The early episodes lean into the unethical aspects of that approach, but after three seasons the therapy scenes give way to a broader look at who we are with the people closest to us.

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