Review: Shrinking, “Dereks Don’t Die” | Season 3, Episode 6
A rope-a-dope routine that could’ve pulled one of its punches
About a third of the way through “Dereks Don’t Die,” Shrinking gets in a flurry of punchlines involving the types of moves that Sean, Alice, and Jorge practice at the MMA gym. “There’s the Superman punch, the spinning back fist, the rear naked choke,” Gaby tells Maya. “Actually, I did two of those with my boyfriend last night.”
But the term of art that applies most accurately to this week’s Shrinking comes from a different combat sport: The rope-a-dope. Like Muhammad Ali leaning back to absorb and dodge body blow after body blow before unloading on an exhausted George Foreman in 1974, “Dereks Don’t Die” lulls us into a false sense of security. I thought I had a bead on this one, as Jimmy sweated through the fallout of sleeping with Meg, coached Brian through telling his dad about Sutton, and reluctantly took a session with a still-floundering Matthew. And then he went to confront Liz and Derek for paying Matthew to attend the session, and BAM BAM BAM: We’re hit upside the head with a combo of massive Shrinking existential crises.
It is, I’ll admit, a bizarre way to structure a half-hour script, and to do so while threatening the life of the show’s most beloved character is a cheap shot. But I have to give “Dereks Don’t Die” and its rope-a-dope strategy some credit: It’s a decently accurate portrayal of how drop-everything emergencies occur in real life. One minute you’re attending to the goofy sitcom shenanigans of everyday life. The next, you’re back on an increasingly familiar hospital set wishing your buddy luck on his bypass surgery.
