Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Physical’ On Apple TV+, Where Rose Byrne Creates An Aerobics Empire In The ‘80s

Rose Byrne has definitely carved out an interesting acting career, having shown herself to be both adept at drama (Damages) and comedy (Bridesmaids). In Physical, she plays Sheila Rubin, a woman who finds herself as she builds an aerobics empire in the 1980s. You may think that this series will be all spandex and big hair like GLOW was, but there’s certainly something a lot darker going on in this series.

PHYSICAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman with big hair in an aerobics leotard looks in a makeup mirror. She’s listening to a hype-up song on her Walkman.

The Gist: It’s 1986. We see a production assistant get the woman out of the chair and follow her to a soundstage, where an aerobics video is being shot. The woman tosses off the Walkman, stations her back to the camera, unwedges her leotard, and is about to start.

That’s when we go back to 1981 and see Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne) looking in the mirror in her bathroom, her inner monologue telling her that she can’t pull off “the disco sex kitten thing at your age” and obsessing over a zit on her smile line. She’s there because her husband Danny (Rory Scovel) proposed a threesome with one of the students at the college where he teaches. He doesn’t have her in his classes so he thinks it’s OK. The student, listening to some ’70s prog rock and smoking too much weed, spills a rumor that Danny is going to lose his job. She kicks the girl out.

The next morning, as she’s cooking eggs in a frame for her daughter Maya (Grace Kelly Quigley) she berates herself for not being disciplined enough and plans her day of ballet class and eating healthy foods. At dropoff, she sees Greta (Dierdre Friel), another mon whom she not only finds fat and boring, but is also worried that she’ll become as chubby and “sloppy” as the not-that-fat-and-sloppy Greta is.

She finds the ballet studio closed, the entire strip being taken over by a mall developer; then she runs into an old friend at the health food store. All of this stress and some local honey triggers her to take $50 out of the bank, buy bags of fast food and get a motel room. There, she strips down, binges, pukes and showers, all in a manner that makes her look like she’s cheating on Danny.

After Danny indeed loses his job, she supportively tells him to run for office, like he wanted to when they moved down to San Diego. He’s jazzed by the idea, eventually, but all of the savings he would need to even start a campaign have gone towards Sheila’s binges, $50 at a time.

In the middle of one last binge, she sees the woman in the VW Cabriolet that she’s been obsessing over and finally follows her to the new mall. There she walks into something new: An aerobics studio.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The ’80s vibe of Physical reminds us of GLOW, but the dark tone reminds us of Nurse Jackie. Yes, you read that right.

Our Take: There’s something that jumps out at you when you watch the first episode of Physical, created by Annie Weisman (Suburgatory). The show, at least in its first few episodes, is going to be concentrating on how Sheila, who is obviously beautiful, has such a low amount of self-esteem that her inner monologue is constantly running, trying to destroy her confidence. That’s a big part of the narrative of the show, as we see Sheila gaining confidence as she gets into aerobics and eventually builds her empire.

But by the time we got to the end of the first episode, we were pretty much done with Sheila’s inner monologue. Not that we don’t get that all women have such a running monologue going in their heads to one degree or another, but just the idea that Sheila’s is such a dominant part of the early narrative makes us wonder if her non-existent self-esteem could have been shown a different way.

We wonder that because Byrne is so magnetic as Sheila, even a Sheila who is laid low by her own psyche. She’s able to show all of the emotions running through her head as her monologue rages, and when she finally breaks and goes on one of her binges, we’re completely in her corner. Scovel, who has generally played the office weirdo on sitcoms like Ground Floor, is surprisingly good as Danny, who on the surface doesn’t look like a controlling asshole, but he is so in spades. It’ll be interesting to see how he reacts as Sheila’s star rises and his either stays static or falls.

Without Sheila’s inner monologue, or at least without so much of it, Physical is a dark but winning show about Sheila’s eventual redemption and (maybe) revenge on everyone that made her feel the way she did. What we hope is that, as Sheila gains confidence in herself, the monologue is reduced or goes away entirely.

Sex and Skin: Danny is shown stark naked as the student leaves the house after Sheila kicks her out.

Parting Shot: Sheila is so transfixed by the workout, she passes out. The screen goes black and we hear “Is she, like, dead?”

Sleeper Star: Della Saba is Bunny, the woman Sheila follows into the aerobics studio. We don’t see a lot of her in the premiere, but it seems like she’ll be a critical piece of Sheila’s journey to empowerment.

Most Pilot-y Line: Besides the ubiquity of Sheila’s inner monologue, there was nothing else that stood out.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Physical is elevated by Rose Byrne’s performance, which makes the show watchable despite some clunkiness in its first episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Watch Physical On Apple TV+