(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Brett Goldstein won two Emmys for playing Ted Lasso’s A+ swearer Roy Kent, proving there is an art to telling someone to “f--- off.” In Shrinking’s second season, Goldstein takes on a role where he is the one being instructed by various characters to “get the f--- out of here” and “shut the f--- up.” Considering Goldstein’s character, Louis, is the man who killed Jimmy Laird’s (Jason Segel) wife, Tia (Lilan Bowden), in a drunk-driving accident three years ago, it is easy to understand why.
Throwing Louis into the mix is purposefully destabilizing, and giving audiences a face—a familiar, popular one at that—to the person Jimmy loathes with every fiber of his being automatically caught me off guard. Before the Season 2 premiere, Goldstein remained tight-lipped about who he was playing in the series he co-created with Bill Lawrence and Jason Segel. The reveal at the end of the premiere made me gasp—not just because Goldstein had shaved off his signature beard—as it hadn’t even occurred to me that the show would go there with the previously unseen drunk driver.
However, in retrospect, it fits with how Shrinking wants Jimmy and the gang to face morally complex challenges head-on, coupled with the theme of forgiveness taking center stage in the sophomore outing. Goldstein is more than up to the task of portraying a man driven by remorse in the present and depicting a carefree Louis in a snapshot of the past in this week’s episode. The Brit comic doesn’t need to rely on f-bomb-laced dialogue or his beard when those big expressive eyebrows have attended the same emoting drama school as Colin Farrell and Eugene Levy. Who needs words when brows do the heavy lifting?
As the season has gone on, the reaction from those directly impacted by Tia’s death has shifted from unfiltered rage to relaxed and empathetic. Well, except Jimmy, who has just discovered his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) and best friend Brian (Michael Urie) have been dining with Louis in secret. Before more expletives get thrown around after this bombshell, Shrinking cuts from an incredulous Jimmy outside the restaurant looking in at Louis, Alice, and Brian to flashbacks before Tia died.
Context is everything, and the trip down memory lane in “One Last Drink” shows Louis’ day used to begin with cutesy guessing games at the train station with his fiancé Sarah (Meredith Hagner, fresh off playing a top-tier villain on Bad Monkey). It’s giving unadulterated rom-com vibes, and Goldstein understands there is nothing better at showing intimacy in a public setting than forehead kisses. The sweet, bashful boyfriend lurking beneath Roy Kent’s gruff exterior opposite Ted Lasso love interest Keeley (Juno Temple) is proudly worn on Louis’ sleeve.
Talking about Sarah in the past tense to Alice a few weeks ago preps us for a breakup—a split I assumed was the catalyst for a big bender that led to the crash. Instead, the couple is blissfully in love when casual cocktails and glasses of wine over dinner change everything. Sarah says they should leave their car and get a Lyft home because she’s too tipsy; Louis says “I only had two and barely touched this one,” so he can drive. Rather than blackout wasted, the gut punch comes from how nonchalant he is. Sarah wants to stick by Louis while he serves his 10-month sentence, but he pushes her away.
Throughout this arc, Goldstein taps into a mixture of shame and guilt without leaning into overwrought territory. Just look at the way he sucks up tears in the breakup scene this week, as if Louis doesn’t even think he is worthy of shedding tears over his shattered relationship. Whereas Roy Kent stood with his chest puffed out and shoulders back, waiting for confrontation—on and off the soccer pitch—Louis is the king of the hunched-over stance. Brian’s exaggerated version of Louis’ wounded aura when he explains to Jimmy why he started hanging out with Louis isn’t that over-the-top (The way Goldstein shakes his head while saying that he is fine at the end of Episode 4 is a perfect encapsulation of Louis’ entire being).
Louis isn’t a man of too many words—particularly in this scenario—but Goldstein using his real voice as opposed to the Roy Kent intimidating lower register adds to the overwhelming sadness of a character stuck in his mistake. Roy Kent is all snarls, grunts, and often monosyllabic answers, but his growls have vitality.
“I’m not funny in this one,” Goldstein told Seth Meyers on a recent Late Night appearance. That’s not strictly true, as the train station sequence with Hagner demonstrates this week, but there are less obvious laughs than his award-winning turn on Ted Lasso or his standup material.
One chuckle-free scene is when Jimmy visits Louis at home toward the end of “One Last Drink.” After some polite chat about Louis’ Miss Congeniality poster, Jimmy gets down to business. Yes, he forgives Louis. A flicker of a smile appears on Louis’ face, which he immediately dims because it is inappropriate to grin. Jimmy doesn’t raise his voice but asks Louis to do something for him: “I don’t ever wanna f---ing see you again.” This request extends to Louis seeing Alice and Brian. “I need you to disappear from my f---ing life,” Jimmy adds.
Louis has been forgiven, but he still needs to f--- off as far as Jimmy is concerned. Hopefully, the same isn’t true for Goldstein, whose presence in Shrinking is always welcome.
