Honestly, if you walked into Shrinking Season 2 expecting the f-bomb-throwing, gravel-voiced energy of Roy Kent, you probably had to blink a few times to make sure your Apple TV+ subscription hadn't glitched. Brett Goldstein is finally on camera in the show he co-created, but he isn’t playing a lovable curmudgeon. He’s playing Louis, the man who killed Jimmy’s wife.
It’s a bold, kinda terrifying creative choice.
Most people knew Goldstein was a writer and executive producer on the show alongside Jason Segel and Bill Lawrence, but seeing him show up as "Double D" (the Drunk Driver) was a genuine gut-punch. He isn't some faceless villain in a police report anymore. He’s a guy named Louis who works at a coffee shop, looks perpetually like he’s about to shatter into a million pieces, and—most controversially—is looking for a way to say he’s sorry.
The Casting That Almost Didn't Happen
Here is a fun bit of behind-the-scenes drama: Bill Lawrence actually tried to block this.
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Lawrence, who has worked with Goldstein for years on Ted Lasso, initially told him no. He thought Goldstein was too associated with being "the tough guy." In Lawrence's head, Brett was Roy Kent, and he famously warned Goldstein that if he screwed up this role, he would "ruin the show." No pressure, right?
It was Jason Segel who fought for him. Segel saw something in Brett’s real-life vulnerability that hadn’t been tapped on screen yet. To make it work, Goldstein had to ditch the signature beard. He’s clean-shaven, looking exposed and significantly younger, which makes the character of Louis feel even more like a raw nerve.
Louis Isn't Who You Think He Is
The most "Shrinking" thing about Shrinking is how it refuses to let anyone be a monster.
In Season 2, we finally get the flashback of "That Night." You expect to see a raging alcoholic who didn't care about anyone. Instead, we see a guy on a normal date night. He had two drinks. He felt fine. He made the same split-second, arrogant decision that thousands of people make every weekend. And then, in one horrific moment, he destroyed two families.
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- The Guilt: Louis didn't just walk away. He lost his fiancée, Sarah, because he felt he didn't deserve to be happy.
- The Penance: He’s been living in a self-imposed prison long after his actual legal sentence ended.
- The Approach: He reaches out to Jimmy and Alice not because he's a stalker, but because he is drowning in the need to make things right, even if it’s impossible.
The show plays with our empathy in a way that’s frankly exhausting. You want to hate him because Jimmy (Jason Segel) hates him. You want to scream at him to stay away from Alice. But then you see Goldstein’s performance—the shaking hands, the way he can't look people in the eye—and you realize he’s just as broken by the tragedy as the victims are.
The Forgiveness Arc That Divided the Internet
The middle of the season gets messy. Alice starts visiting Louis at the coffee shop. Brian, Jimmy's best friend, eventually gets sucked into the orbit too.
When Jimmy finds out his daughter is having dinner with the man who killed her mother? That’s peak television. It’s a mess of boundaries. On one hand, you have Alice finding a weird, therapeutic closure by talking to the one person who understands the weight of the loss as much as she does. On the other, you have a father who feels like his family is being stolen all over again.
Brett Goldstein plays these scenes with a terrifying stillness. He doesn't defend himself. He takes the verbal lashings Jimmy gives him because he believes he deserves them. There’s this moment in the episode "Last Drink" where Jimmy "forgives" him, but it’s a fake forgiveness—a tactical move to get Louis to go away forever. It’s cruel, and it shows that even the "hero" of our show can be a bit of a villain when he’s hurting.
Why This Character Matters for Season 3
By the time we hit the Season 2 finale, "The Last Thanksgiving," the stakes have shifted.
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Louis is at his lowest point. He’s standing at a train station, a place that holds a lot of dark significance for him, and for a second, it looks like the show is going to go to a very dark place. But Jimmy shows up. Not to be best friends, but to fulfill the show’s central theme: we can’t do this alone.
If you’re looking for actionable ways to process a character like Louis or the themes Goldstein is exploring, here is what the show is actually trying to teach us:
- Separate the Act from the Human: Forgiveness isn't about saying what happened was okay; it's about refusing to let the anger consume your future.
- Acknowledge Selective Memory: We often vilify people to avoid looking at our own flaws. Jimmy realizes he wasn't a perfect father after the accident, and hating Louis was a way to avoid dealing with that guilt.
- Watch the Performance Again: If you haven't re-watched the scenes between Louis and Brian, do it. It’s a masterclass in how to play a character who has zero ego left.
Brett Goldstein in Shrinking proved he’s way more than a one-character wonder. He took the most hated person in the show's lore and made us stay for the conversation. Whether he returns for Season 3 as a regular part of the "brain trust" or remains on the fringes, the impact of Louis Winston has fundamentally changed the DNA of the series. It’s not just about a grieving therapist anymore; it’s about what happens when the person who broke you tries to help pick up the pieces.
Pay attention to how your own feelings toward Louis shift as the episodes progress. It’s a weirdly accurate mirror for how we handle grief in the real world—messy, unfair, and rarely wrapped up with a neat little bow.