Shrinking, the TV series about Jason Segel’s Jimmy, a grieving psychotherapist who can’t stop telling patients what he really thinks, seems pretty innocuous on paper. From Frasier to In Treatment to Sex Education, there’s no shortage of TV dramas about dysfunctional therapists. What marks Shrinking out from the crowd is the presence of Harrison Ford, who plays Jimmy’s octogenarian mentor. Here we see a Hollywood megastar getting high on edibles, wrestling with his failures as a father and trying to keep a lid on his Parkinson’s symptoms. Though Segel shares top billing with Ford, the latter is the main draw and gets all the best lines.

Paramount’s 1923, showrunner Taylor Sheridan’s prequel to Yellowstone, similarly draws on Ford’s elder statesman status as it depicts a ranching family’s efforts to maintain their wealth and status during the Great Depression. Ford’s co-star is Helen Mirren, another octogenarian actor who previously appeared with him in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast. Set in Montana, 1923 is a classy drama that makes high art of its protagonists’ craggy features along with their penchant for brutality.

So what should we make of the elders of cinema plying their trade on the small screen? In years gone by, the stars of Old Hollywood would have balked at moving into TV.........

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