What if the roles in What About Bob? were reversed, with the therapist becoming the one who’s meddling in their patient’s life to the extreme? That’s—in very simplistic terms—the premise of Apple TV+’s upcoming dark comedy The Shrink Next Door, starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd.
The series, based on the true story told on Bloomberg’s 2019 podcast of the same name, follows psychiatrist Dr. Isaac “Ike” Herschkopft, played by Rudd, who manipulates and exploits his new patient Marty Markowitz.
Apple TV+ already shared a teaser back in June, and now there’s a trailer that gives a wider look at how Ike terrifyingly plays up his charm to meddle in Marty’s life.
From what we learn in the trailer, Marty’s sister Phyllis (Kathryn Hahn) made him go see a psychiatrist after having a series of breakdowns at work. Ike tells Marty he’ll help him take control over his life and turn him into the man he “truly deserve[s] to be.” But things get out of hand when Ike becomes involved in Marty’s job, “helping” Marty and Phyllis run their fabric company.
While Phyllis immediately recognizes something is wrong with Ike and Marty’s dynamic, Marty sees Ike as his “psychiatrist, business partner, [and] best friend.”
With Phyllis standing in the way of their “friendship,” Ike manipulates Marty into cutting his sister out of his life, despite being the “only family he has.” We won’t spoil what happens next, though the true story’s been widely reported if you want to investigate the chaos that’ll go down throughout the show.
The series is directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, The Eyes of Tammy Faye) and Jesse Peretz (High Fidelity, GLOW), and written by Georgia Pritchett (Succession). It arrives to Apple TV+ on November 12.
