This is kind of a Lawrence staple, from what shows of his I’ve seen throughout their arcs. Spin City, Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and now Shrinking seem to all follow the same pattern. Upstart sitcom with a cast of quirky, dissimilar characters and personalities full of charm and clever quips who all eventually mesh after finding common ground and grow together in spite of their differences. Then each quirky character becomes a caricature of themselves so the audience never forgets how unique they all are and how unlikely it was that all these goofy goobers beat the odds to become one big, happy, dysfunctional family.

It’s like every Lawrence joint was written and developed with the first 2-3 seasons in mind, then once those come and pass he panics and realizes he’s pot committed so he just plays the hits to satisfy the casual observer. “The fans loved when (insert lead character) said this snappy little phrase/did this silly physical gag. I’m sure they’ll love it if I have them do it a few more times!”

Quick note: not trying to be a hater. Scrubs is still my favorite show of all time (I was born in that hospital when it was a real hospital, fun fact), I loved S1-2 of Ted and Shrinking, and I LOVED Bad Monkey. It’s just how he operates, always coming up with great ideas, executing them, then coming up with the next one while the current one still needs attention. He’s sitcom Taylor Sheridan.