When I say Shrinking Season 3 is the series’s best effort yet, it may sound a bit like a backhanded compliment considering my ambivalence about its prior installments, Season 1 in particular. But regardless of my previous hand-wringing, this show is, in fact, good.

Part of it is that it has certainly worn me down/won me over. Shrinking Season 3 finds the best solution yet to the show’s attitude towards objectively bad therapy by largely abandoning therapy scenes. We see Jimmy (Jason Segel) working maybe a total of 15 minutes over the course of 11 episodes. Both Gaby (Jessica Williams) and Paul (Harrison Ford) log more billable hours, but their approaches to therapy are significantly less problematic. They’re also more emotional. Williams gets her best material yet, wrestling with the client relationship that ends tragically. Paul’s efforts to accept Parkinson’s will force him into retirement earlier than he planned, giving Ford some nice scenes too, but he’s basically crushing his performance on all fronts.

By taking Segel out of the office, Shrinking Season 3 embraces its most satisfying element. This is a hangout show. It frequently gives its characters plenty of juicy emotional turns. Still, at its core, its delights are watching the characters get together around Derek (Ted McGinley) and Liz’s (Christa Miller) island, Jimmy’s kitchen table, the therapy breakroom, or Gaby’s living room “circle of trust”. Those are the vibes that would have it running for eight seasons on network television.

The other advantage is that it frees Jimmy to experience his roughest season to date. One of my complaints about Season 1 was its insistence on telling us how terrible Jimmy’s fall into despair was, while our glimpses of it were fairly silly. This season, in comparison, isn’t about Jimmy hitting rock bottom, but it does seem to give him every excuse to do it. Season 1 was comical about how bad things got. Shrinking Season 3 just batters him right before our eyes.

That gives Segel his best season to date. And, importantly, it expands his struggles beyond his wife’s death. Yes, much of his pain (understandably) still stems from that. But this season, it is A factor, not THE factor. Adding to his burden, and giving him more interesting beats to play, are his daughter Alice’s (Lukita Maxwell) graduation and Paul’s retirement. He’s also struggling with dating for the first time, which, wonderfully, brings Sofi (Colbie Smulders) back into the mix. However, the challenges expand and build until it looks like Jimmy may end up entirely alone. It’s tough stuff and played honestly. That only makes the show’s joke-per-minute ratio all the more impressive.

The recent announcement that the show will return for a fourth season is odd in light of this. The 11th episode feels like a real—and real well done—series finale. It also smartly takes the time to jettison elements that weren’t working, like Brett Goldstein’s Louis. While Goldstein was quite good in the role, the series never seemed to figure out exactly how to use him. Perhaps because the enormity of writing in the character that killed Jimmy’s wife was, understandably, too big a lift. However, how they send him off is both humane and feels right to the world of the show. Other elements, introduced this season, are used well without being dragged out, including Paul’s new role as a therapist for others with Parkinson’s, such as Gerry (Michael J. Fox).

It’s rare to see a show land a finale this one, especially one that is, in fact, not the finale. It resolves much of the show’s dangling plots while setting everyone up not for “happily ever afters,” but for “and so life goes on” style last scenes. That’s not to say Season 4 won’t have plenty of material or that I’m not looking forward to it. But if everyone walked away after this season, they could do so heads held high.

Shrinking Season 3 will see you starting January 28.

Shrinking Season 3 Trailer: