Just In: Shrinking’ Returns, Travis Kelce Hosts ‘Celebrity,’ An ‘Elementary’ Outbreak, Team Players…. Check Details

Jason Segel and Harrison Ford return as therapists who could use one themselves in Season 2 of the Apple TV+ comedy Shrinking. NFL star Travis Kelce moonlights as a game-show host in Prime Video’s Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? A ringworm outbreak rattles the staff of Abbott Elementary. A light-hearted ESPN+ docuseries tells behind-the-scenes sports stories with animation and personal testimonials

With an expert blend of humor and poignant emotion, the comedy about therapists in need of therapy themselves returns for a strong second season. The sad widower Jimmy Laird (a heart-on-his-sleeve Jason Segel) has a crisis of professional conscience after one of his clients (Saturday Night Live’s Heidi Gardner) goes to jail, and his curmudgeonly boss Paul (the hilarious Harrison Ford) isn’t much help. As he reflects: “If my patients don’t wind up OK, I’ll still be fine. You? Not so much.” Paul is also critical of Jimmy opening his home to Sean (Luke Tennie), a patient with combat-related PTSD issues who’s operating a food

truck with snarky neighbor Liz (Christa Miller). Emmy-nominated Jessica Williams is a delight as Gaby, Jimmy’s co-worker and current bedmate, with Ted McGinley bringing the quirky warmth as Liz’s extremely indulgent husband, Derek. Shrinking is one of the year’s finest comedies, created by Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, the latter appearing in a significant cameo role. The season opens with two episodes, the rest dropping weekly.

When he’s not on the gridiron or squiring superstar Taylor Swift, NFL Super Bowl champ Travis Kelce is quickly becoming the sport’s most ubiquitous entertainment figure since the Manning brothers. Currently appearing in Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie, Kelce next tackles the role of game-show host in a whimsical twist on the Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? format. The questions are still on an elementary-school level, but instead of whiz kids helping out the contestants, celebrities (many of the stand-up comedy variety) sit behind desks to offer some jokey help. Kelce is effortlessly charismatic, but even he can’t enliven a sluggish game that plays like a stupider version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (with a potential $100,000 payout for anyone who dares to answer a 6th-grade level question).

It’s “an elementary school’s worst enemy,” says Janine (Quinta Brunson) when a student presents signs of ringworm, triggering a school-wide panic. Veteran kindergarten teacher Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), who’s been exposed to everything over the years, believes she’s immune, but everyone else is agitated, especially neat freak Gregory (Tyler James Williams). “I guess it’s every man, woman and flawless principal for themselves,” announces Ava (Janelle James), who characteristically is styling her version of a Hazmat suit.

NBA veteran Iman Shumpert, Season 30 winner of Dancing With the Stars, hosts a light-hearted seven-part docuseries from Andscape that encourages sports stars and other celebrities (including Power Book III: Raising Kanan’s Mekai Curtis) to share stories about the sacrifices they make and the craziness they endure on and off the job as team players. “NFL is not for the faint of heart,” admits Atlanta Falcons linebacker Matthew Judon. The series uses animation to illustrate antics including rookie-year hazing and mortifying fumbles of all sorts