A promo photo for Casual Season 4: Alex Cole standing with Valerie and Laura Meyers in front of the open back of a vanImage via Hulu
By
Jennie Richardson
Published 19 minutes ago
Jennie Richardson is a TV Features and Lists Writer for Collider, and a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing. In other words, she really loves stories.
Sign in to your Collider account
Summary
Generate a summary of this story
follow
Follow
followed
Followed
Like
Like
Thread
Log in
Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
Try something different:
Show me the facts
Explain it like I’m 5
Give me a lighthearted recap
After a year-long wait, Shrinking will officially be returning for its third season at the end of January. The show's second season ended with Paul (Harrison Ford) opening up to his loved ones about experiencing tolerance withdrawal from his Parkinson's medication, and Jimmy (Jason Segel) stepping up to help Louis (Brett Goldstein) during a mental health crisis. Gaby (Jessica Williams) is now in a serious relationship with Derrick 2 (Damon Wayans Jr.), and Brian (Michael Urie) and Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) have adopted a baby. The characters have all come so far in their journeys, but there is still more story to tell when the series returns.
Fans of the sharply funny Apple TV dramedy still have to wait a little longer for the next season to see where the characters' journeys will go from here, but Hulu has an excellent replacement to watch in the meantime: its 2015 family dramedy series, Casual. For Shrinking fans looking for a hilarious series to watch in the next few months that also has some more emotional and painful storylines throughout, Casual is the perfect choice.
What Is 'Casual' About?
Alex Cole, Valerie Meyers, and Laura Meyers standing on a doorstep in Casual Season 1Image via Hulu
Casual follows adult siblings Alex Cole (Tommy Dewey) and Valerie Meyers (Michaela Watkins), as well as Valerie's teenage daughter, Laura (Tara Lynne Barr). Valerie's husband, Drew (Zak Orth), has just left her for a much younger woman. Needing a new place to live, Valerie and Laura temporarily move in with Alex, the wealthy co-founder of a dating website called Snooger. Alex is also committed to living the single life and only dating casually, so he's lonely, and he welcomes the company of his sister and niece. The series shows the three of them adjusting to inhabiting the same space while dealing with their own obstacles in their personal and professional lives. Alex gets used to having Valerie and Laura around very quickly, while Valerie is more hesitant about living with her brother instead of getting a house of her own after her divorce.
Valerie is a therapist who has to fight to hold her tongue when listening to her patients' alarming problems, while Alex finds himself losing faith in his own website after a number of bad dates. Meanwhile, Laura is passionate about photography and has a crush on her photography teacher (Patrick Heusinger), but she otherwise doesn't really care about school, and struggles with complicated friendships and relationships. Valerie is just coming out of a committed relationship after multiple decades, so she explores casual dating and hookups for the first time. Alex, on the other hand, has only previously really an interest in hookups, but he starts to consider the possibility of looking for a committed relationship for the first time since college. Each episode of Casual shows the central trio making some wild mistakes and causing hilariously preventable problems for themselves and those around them, making for a very entertaining comedy series.
Related
The 24 Best Hulu Original Shows (September 2024)
You won't find these shows on any other streaming service.
PostsLike 'Shrinking,' 'Casual' Is a Dysfunctional Yet Touching Family-Centered Dramedy
Like Shrinking, Casual is a family-centered show with an edgier twist. Casual's main characters are flawed, and they are often not even trying to change for the better. They engage in self-destructive behaviors, and they often sabotage their friendships and romantic relationships when they are going too well. At the center of the show is Valerie and Alex's codependent bond. Their parents, Dawn (Frances Conroy) and Charles (Fred Melamed), were very unconventional in raising them. They believed in a freer and less structured lifestyle, often left their children to travel, and just generally didn't prioritize Valerie and Alex. Because of this, Valerie had to raise Alex. She grew up early and sacrificed a lot for him, and neither of them really knows how to get and stay close to someone else, besides Laura.
Casual has a very clever and outlandish sense of humor. In the second episode, Alex decides that he likes Valerie's one-night stand, Leon (Nyasha Hatendi), so he secretly becomes best friends with him. Throughout the first season, some other silly antics include Alex trying to replace Valerie with a puppy, and Valerie bringing spoons as a gift to a hookup (Dean Geyer) after he ghosts her. That said, the show also handles its more serious storylines with care. It shows Laura struggling to find a place where she feels like she belongs, Valerie feeling regretful about all the years of her life that she spent taking care of Alex, Laura, and Drew, and Alex worrying that he isn't capable of a stable, committed relationship. Through it all, Valerie, Alex, and Laura may fight like nobody's business, but they understand and accept each other in a way that nobody else does.
Shrinking and Casual both balance an exploration of deeper themes with sillier storylines that utilize their funny and unique supporting characters. Valerie has more boundaries with her patients than Jimmy does, but both shows have some very funny and bizarre therapy scenes. Whereas Shrinking shows its characters moving forward and growing as people, Casual just gets more chaotic and immature with each season. The result is absolutely hilarious, unforgettable, and occasionally truly heartbreaking. The wait for another season of Shrinking will be tough for devoted fans of the show, but Casual has four seasons that make for an excellent binge-watch in the meantime.
Casual is available to stream on Hulu.
Casual
Like TV-MA Comedy Drama Release Date 2015 - 2018-00-00 Network Hulu Directors Fred Savage, Michael Weaver, Tricia Brock, Marielle Heller, Gillian Robespierre, Hannah Fidell Writers Zander Lehmann, Tess Morris, Nick Jones Jr., Harris DanowCast
See All-
tommy dewey
Valerie
-
Nyasha Hatendi
Alex Cole
-
Michaela Watkins
Laura
-
Julie Berman
Drew Meyers
Expand
Collapse
-
Michaela Watkins
We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Be the first to post Images Attachment(s) Please respect our community guidelines. No links, inappropriate language, or spam.Your comment has not been saved
Send confirmation emailThis thread is open for discussion.
Be the first to post your thoughts.
- Terms
- Privacy
- Feedback
6 days ago
The Greatest Animated Shows on Netflix That Are 10/10, No Notes
5 days ago
A Gilded Age Mystery Is Afoot in a Sneak Peek of 'The Artist' [Exclusive]
6 days ago
The Greatest Action Movie of Every Year in the 2000s
6 days ago
The 10 Most Ambitious Western Movies, Ranked
More from our brands
The 25 Best Shows on Crave to Watch Right Now
25 Best R-Rated TV Shows of All Time, Ranked
The 40 Best TV Shows Of The 2000s, Ranked
50 Best New TV Shows to Stream Right Now
Brett Goldstein's Shrinking Character Reveal Broke My Heart — Why Louis Needs To Come Back For Season 3
10 Heartwarming TV Dramedies to Watch After ‘Shrinking’
37 Shows on Netflix That Couples Can Binge-Watch Together
What To Watch
July 20, 2025
The 72 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now
Trending Now
29 Years Later, Matthew McConaughey’s ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ Predecessor Is a Streaming Sensation
Apple TV Has Great Sci-Fi Shows, but This Twisted Horror Fantasy Deserves More Attention
Joaquin Phoenix's Failed Superhero Sequel Is Coming to Prime Video
