Brian is an estate lawyer and Jimmy’s best friend in the Apple TV+ comedy series Shrinking. Michael Urie plays the character.
Brian lives with his longtime boyfriend Charlie and initially tries to get in touch with Jimmy often but Jimmy avoids him to deal with the pain of losing his wife.
Jimmy has no choice but to reach out to Brian when Sean gets into legal trouble and is being sued by Donny for assault. Brian helps him out and then invites Jimmy to hang out later.
When they hang out, Brian asks Jimmy why he’s been avoiding him and Jimmy says that Brian was too joyful and upbeat and didn’t allow Jimmy to hit rock bottom in peace like he wanted to.
He is also connected to the other members of Jimmy’s circle and has a happy conclusion to his story this season.
A wonderful union
As an estate lawyer, Brian is the one who handles all of Paul’s estate planning and it’s he who first pushes Paul to tell his daughter about his diagnosis and build a relationship with her.
He’s also friends with Gaby and she helps him work through some stuff when he first mentions that he will be proposing to Charlie. He has trouble following through and Gaby helps him realize that he’s dwelling on past rejections from his parents and that’s creating a roadblock.
Brian does eventually propose to Charlie at a party he hosts at Jimmy’s house where Jimmy ruins his original plan by getting hammered on alcohol. Charlie says yes and they plan to have a wedding soon with Brian asking Jimmy to step back as the officiant.
Being best friends, they had promised to officiate each other’s weddings and Brian officiated Jimmy’s wedding but seeing the state he’s in, Brian feels that Jimmy isn’t ready for the responsibility.
After some pushback and guilt-tripping, Brian agrees to have Jimmy as the officiant at the wedding but when Brian asks his father to take the place of Best Man, his father politely declines until Jimmy convinces him to change his mind.
He gets married to Charlie and Jimmy gives a wonderful speech where everyone learns that Tia is the one who set up Brian and Charlie together in the first place, bringing their lovely story full circle.
Also Read: Shrinking (2023) review: Exceedingly relatable and superbly written
