Adventures in Words

Harrison Ford and Jason Segel in “Shrinking.”  Apple TV+ image via IMDB.com Less a TV comedy series than a global paradigm shift, “Ted Lasso” was a tough act to follow. But after allowing a suitable time to miss it, two of the show's producers – Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence – joined Jason Segel to come up with an almost-as-good backup replacement. “Shrinking” recently started its second season on Apple TV+. New episodes come out every Wednesday. The great title isn't so much a metaphor as a job description of what stars Segel, Jessica Williams and –  wait for it! –  Harrison Ford do five days a week. They're therapists in an LA psychology practice, even if they're almost as loony tunes as their clientele. There are reasons for their odd behavior. Jimmy (Segel) lost his wife in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. He spent last season barely able to get up in the morning, much less attend to the needs of his teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), also grieving

Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in “The Apprentice.”   IMDB photo by Courtesy of Scythia Films - © Scythia Films Considering the political follies filling my screens at home 24/7, it must have been pure masochism that drove me to an actual movie theater recently to see “The Apprentice.”  It's a horror show of sorts, a contemporary variation of Frankenstein.  Only it's a biopic, too, based on a true story. The villain is diabolical attorney Roy Cohn. The monster he creates is named Donald Trump. Sebastian Stan channels the young Trump during the Reagan '80s, when he was still “Donnie from Queens.” Vice-president of his overbearing father's construction company, he suffers from an edifice complex. Enamored of money and class, he dreams of building skyscrapers, and barging his way into Manhattan penthouse society. Jeremy Strong delivers an equally compelling performance as the hollow-eyed, rodent-faced Cohn, Senator Joe McCarthy's chief litigator during the anti-commu