PHYSICAL
Created by Annie Weisman, “Physical” is an American comedy-drama television series set in 1980s San Diego and follows Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne) through her journey of self-discovery via aerobics, the first season of which premiered on Friday, June 18, 2021, on Apple TV+.
“Physical,” defined by Byrne’s raging performance, plants us deeply inside Sheila’s mind. And what’s there is a welter of resentments, embedded by 1980s America and by painful personal history.
Leotard Rose Byrne wears in promotional imagery, evokes a particular moment in American cultural history: the early 1980s when Olivia Newton-John ruled the charts and spandex and legwarmers became a workout uniform for newly fitness-obsessed women. The last vestiges of cultural idealism had faded in favor of the obsessive pursuit of aesthetic perfection; this may just have been the time our current era was born. Which makes Sheila Rubin, Byrne’s character, a woman both of her time and radically ahead of it.
Sheila is in a marriage that might lend itself well to interesting storytelling: She and her husband, Danny (Rory Scovel), share a history of affection and of political commitment as leftist activists. With Danny lost in ambition and in a run for local office in San Diego, Sheila finds herself at loose ends. Adrift in her relationship and in life, she responds with a sort of coiled rigor, eventually finding in aerobics the release she’s long sought in bingeing and purging — her eating disorder, we’re told, an expensive habit that’s led to the decimation of her savings.
Sheila is relentlessly self-conscious in a manner that suggests both “Greed is good” appetites and the Instagram age. Her internal monologue, which we hear in voice-over, levels anyone who can’t meet her impossible standard, including and especially herself.
Where can I watch “Physical”?
Exclusively available for streaming on Apple TV+. You can also watch the show on Amazon Prime (Cancel Anytime).