The Shrink Next Door

The Shrink Next Door is an American dark comedy limited series that premiered on Apple TV+ on November 12, 2021. Developed by Georgia Pritchett, it dramatizes the true story of Martin "Marty" Markowitz, a wealthy New York fabric-business owner, and his psychiatrist Dr. Isaac "Ike" Herschkopf, who over roughly three decades inserted himself into his patient's life, moving into his Hamptons home and taking over his family business.¹ The series stars Will Ferrell as Marty and Paul Rudd as Ike, with Kathryn Hahn as Marty's sister Phyllis and Casey Wilson as Ike's wife Bonnie.¹

The true story

The real Markowitz began seeing Herschkopf in 1981, when he felt overrun with responsibilities and was grieving his parents amid disputes over control of the family's fabrics company. The therapy helped at first, but Markowitz later alleged that Herschkopf took control of his finances, moved into and pretended to own his Hamptons home, and orchestrated his estrangement from his family.³

The podcast's origin lies with Joe Nocera, a Bloomberg columnist who was Herschkopf's neighbor in the Hamptons. Nocera assumed the therapist owned the vacation house next door and that Markowitz, whom he saw tending the grounds, was the property manager. When he learned the house actually belonged to Markowitz, he began investigating.^{3 • 9}

The relationship ended in 2010, after Markowitz underwent hernia surgery and noticed that Herschkopf did not check on him afterward. With help from employees who knew Herschkopf as a business consultant under a different name, Markowitz sent a letter ending the relationship, took back his house, and reunited with his sister.³

In April 2021, after years of effort by Markowitz, the psychiatrist was ordered to surrender his license to practice in New York. The state's Department of Health concluded that Herschkopf broke "minimal acceptable standards of care in the psychotherapeutic relationship." The podcast also found other former patients who said Herschkopf similarly took over their lives, in some cases convincing them to rewrite their wills to benefit the doctor or his family. In November 2021, Herschkopf told the New York Times he planned to appeal the ruling.³

Production

The podcast came out in May 2019, topped the charts for three weeks, and was bought for television almost immediately. Both Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell had heard the podcast separately and wanted to be in a TV version; producer-director Michael Showalter encouraged Rudd to listen, while agents approached Ferrell, and the two were eventually paired.^{10 • 11} Showalter directed four of the eight episodes and Jesse Peretz the other four; Georgia Pritchett, a writer on Succession, developed the series and served as showrunner.¹¹

The show was produced by Civic Center Media in association with MRC Television, with Wondery and Bloomberg Media among the production companies credited.^{1 • 4} Ferrell and Rudd also served as executive producers alongside Pritchett, Showalter, and others.⁵ The producers visited Markowitz and his sister at the Hamptons house during preparation; Herschkopf did not cooperate with the series.¹¹

Reception

Critical response was mixed. The show holds a Metascore of 61, "generally favorable," based on 29 critic reviews, with 52% positive, 38% mixed, and 10% negative.⁴ On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 58% Tomatometer from 60 reviews and a 72% average Popcornmeter score.⁵ IMDb users rate it 7.1.⁶

Reviewers generally praised the two leads playing against type. Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal called it "a spellbinding tale, for all its repetitions, with stellar performances by Messrs. Ferrell and Rudd," scoring it 90.⁴ The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert wrote that Ferrell and Rudd "create a fascinatingly intricate psychological system of adulation and abuse."¹² Critics less favorably disposed found the tone uneven: Time's Judy Berman scored it 30 and wrote that the Markowitz siblings "come off as caricatures," while the Chicago Tribune's Nina Metz called the series "tonally confused and often misjudged."⁴ A recurring criticism was pacing: the Los Angeles Times' Robert Lloyd noted that a story lasting nearly three decades wears over eight hours of television, and that the miniseries "embellishes, invents and rearranges events for maximum dramatic effect," including confrontations that never actually took place.⁸

References

1. The Shrink Next Door, Apple TV Press
2. The Shrink Next Door, TVmaze
3. The True Story Behind The Shrink Next Door, Time
4. The Shrink Next Door Reviews, Metacritic
5. The Shrink Next Door, Rotten Tomatoes
6. The Shrink Next Door, JustWatch
7. New revelations about the Jewiest, screwiest podcast ever, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
8. Apple TV's 'Shrink Next Door' embellishes, dulls true story, Los Angeles Times
9. The Shrink Next Door, Wondery and Bloomberg
10. 'I had to watch it with my therapist': when real-life horrors get turned into TV, The Guardian
11. The Shrink Next Door Takes Over, Television Academy
12. The Shrink Next Door critic reviews, Metacritic

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Crime and thriller series › Psychological and domestic thrillers

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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