Forget fun TV, Rose Byrne's physique is a show of spiked brilliance

The thing I like the most Physique is the show’s unwavering refusal to be liked. Led by Rose Byrne and her rich hair Jaclyn Smith, this 1980s comedy-drama Apple TV+ about a San Diego housewife who finds her self-purpose with the advent of aerobics is fueled by a sting of self-loathing. Now in its second season, the series is full of hilarious period details and brief discontent; for the main character, happiness is almost always an illusion that disappears too quickly. The lack of cuteness is interesting.

The strongest voice – so powerful that it is almost a separate character that deserves its own bill – is the monologue in Byrne’s Sheila Benson. It’s been around since Sheila’s first apparition in 1981, nonchalantly looking at herself in the mirror and delivering a verdict she’s eager to share but is afraid that others will find out. “Do you really think you did all this?” he asked with rhetorical bitterness. Every installment since then has tested the idea, so much so that the line between bending and breaking is no longer clear.

In Physical, Rose Byrne plays Sheila Benson, a rushed wife and mother who finds satisfaction in treating sport as an exorcism.Credit:Apple TV+

Sheila’s psychological makeup continues to unfold as surprising: a remnant of 1960s student activism in the era of Ronald Reagan, a rushed wife and mother who can only find satisfaction when treating sport as an exorcism, possessor of deep childhood trauma. , and a bulimic serial con artist performs a ritual of binge eating and cleaning up junk food in a motel room. Byrne brings all of this, whether it’s meant to be Sheila’s armor or her possible extermination, with a revelatory feel. You can see many pieces at once.

Created by Annie Weisman, who previously wrote and produced credits including Desperate housewife and Street, Physique Takes the classic male anti-hero and reverses the worries – a real family not a crime family, fear of self-expression instead of acting heartlessly. Like Sheila, the show has acquired an identity of its own: there’s a trademark portrait of protagonist Byrne, instantly as if the camera and the audience watching now were the mirror, one that almost demands that you make a quick judgement as you watch it corroborate itself.

The half-hour episodes have a near-fun pace, as the show often throws off the connective tissue that fills hour-long dramas, but the second season has dug deeper satisfactorily. Sheila’s hunger for a successful aerobics empire – she wanted to be on TV – had a big impact on her. She wants to leave her self-absorbed husband, Danny (Rory Scovel), but he overpowers her by vowing to do better. “I will take the weakness for my gender,” he promised, beating Sheila by admitting defeat on her own.

He has an awkward push-and-pull dynamic with his sometimes best friend, Greta (Dierdre Friel) who allows for both of their needs, while Sheila also has an affair with her husband’s progressive nemesis, devout real estate developer John Breem (Paul Sparks). The show’s effortless evasion of realism to tease the fantastic or build on absurd excitement makes Breem and his flat poker face a foil to Sheila and advance one of them. Physiquethe underlying attraction: what happens when we make commercial success our personal goal.

Dierdre Friel as Sheila’s best friend, Greta in Physical.Credit:Apple TV+

Hang on to the series, which had progressed from 1981 to 1982 for two seasons, was the beginning of a flash forward to Sheila dominating in 1986, complete with staff spooks and some complacent ambition. It shows the purpose of the story, and remembers that Physique is the Apple TV+ series that might get there. Since launching in late 2019, the tech giant’s streaming service has had a simple but successful philosophy of supporting content creators to create the shows they want and not tamper with the results.

There is a setback: star-studded Morning War, meant to be the flagship, ran off the rails in its second season (there will be a third – save me!). But for the most part Apple TV+’s bespoke catalog – they don’t have the hit sitcoms or reality shows of the 1990s – has been a success. Three seasons Dickinson and For All Humanityeach a 19th century comedy and alternate history of the space race, plus everyone’s favorite coach, Ted Lasso, Base, Myth Mission and Waiter set benchmarks.

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