Just to be clear, this is not a review. I don't do reviews of TV shows, movies, music or anything else creative. It's because I have far too much respect for artists and know firsthand that practically anyone can write an article, speak on a podcast, etc., about what someone else has created. It takes far more talent, discipline and courage to create something from nothing and then (if you're one of the lucky ones) put it out there for consumption and inevitable critique. So yeah, this is not a review; this is just someone wondering what happened with Physical's Annie Weisman and the other show creators/writers that would result in the series taking such drastic turns (beginning with episode 5) that it makes you wonder if the series was threatened with cancellation unless big changes took place. A quick recap:
Physical traces Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne) a middle-aged housewife in 1980s San Diego who discovers aerobics as a source of empowerment and escape from her eating disorder, troubled marriage to a failed college professor turned politician, and everything else wrong in her life. I very much wanted to like this show having lived in San Diego, followed Rose Byrne since her American breakout role in Troy, and have deep affection for almost all things 80s -- so this premise piqued my interest and I was able to breeze through Physical's first season in a matter of days.
But for what is billed as a "comedy/drama", Physical plays like a depressing, oftentimes enraging show that breaks one of the golden rules of storytelling -- your protagonist must elicit empathy. In other words, we have to care about, share (or at the very least, understand) the feelings of the main character. Sheila Rubin should be someone that you root for and instead, you more or less despise everything she does, everything she says, and (through an ongoing narrative device the show uses) everything she thinks as well. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is because Sheila Rubin is one of the worst people in the world -- self-serving, jealous, manipulative, negligent, two-faced, deceitful, and a bad wife and mother to boot.
Now by no means am I saying that every TV protagonist needs to be likable. There are far-worse flawed, even despicable characters that we've rooted for, despite the fact that they were drug kingpins (Breaking Bad's Walter White), crime bosses (Tony Soprano), serial killers (Dexter's Dexter Morgan) or just all around ruthless criminals (Animal Kingdom's Cody family.) But the difference is that all of these antiheroes have something redeemable about their actions and agendas. Walter White dives headlong into drug trafficking to provide for his wife, son and unborn child; Dexter's killings can be argued justifiable because he's (mostly) just offing the guilty; and Tony Soprano and the Cody's -- for all their reckless violence, murder and mayhem -- exhibit a family first trust and loyalty that's at least somewhat admirable.
In contrast, Sheila's only agenda is herself. At one point, she declares "aerobics saved me." But with every selfish, immoral decision she makes, it seems much more like the opposite is true -- aerobics didn't save Sheila; she's sold her soul for it. She's that character you love to hate -- like the WWE's Iron Sheik or J.R. Ewing from Dallas -- except unlike those two characters, it's not by design.
On the contrary, after a few episodes, shouldn't I be in Sheila's corner, earnestly hoping she actually makes something of her budding career? Shouldn't I be against all the people and circumstances standing in her way?... Instead, I'm at the point where I prefer that Sheila fail, as it becomes more and more clear what a horrible person she already is and is further becoming by the episode. What has Sheila done to deserve such contempt? Well so far she's:
- Blackmailed her business partner Bunny...
- Repeatedly abandoned her husband Danny and their efforts for him to win election to state legislature...
- Cooked the books and embezzled money from the aforementioned political campaign...
- Rationalized stealing from both her friend Greta and from an old ballet teacher...
- Extorted money from her parents...
- Drained the family bank account to pay for hotel rooms so she can better hide her eating disorder...
- Ignored her young daughter who is obviously autistic
It begs the question, who exactly is the villain on Physical? With the exception of Breem (with his ultra-weird Mitt Romney meets Marshall Applewhite persona) you like every single other character on this show more than you like Sheila. And with every non-sequitur plot twist and character change, this becomes truer and truer.
Which brings us back to my topic sentence... What the hell happened in the writers room on this show? Because it seems like halfway through season 1, the executive producers or other highly influential persons connected to the show threw a grenade in that room and ran. It's one explanation for why (beginning with episode 5) Physical began a slew of inexplicable and extreme plot twists, awkward character expansions and gratuitous backstory reveals that would have the writers of Melrose Place cringing. Some examples:
- The subplot of Greta's husband's fetish for shaving women's heads (and Greta -- who up to this point had been established as a conservative, mousey housewife -- surprisingly choosing to indulge her husband's freaky sexual desire.)
- Deep diving into John Breem's ultra-stoic, hyper-religious personality and his weird personal life, including his Stepford Wives-ish spouse and family.
- Tyler's (Bunny's surfer boyfriend) health crisis.
- Bunny's seemingly added at the last minute backstory of having immigrated from war-torn Lebanon and being estranged from her family.
- Sheila's revelation of being sexually abused as a child by one of her father's friends (which, I'm sorry, but at this point, is as trite a plot twist as there is.)
It's not just that all of these new elements were jammed into the show's final episodes, it's that they were introduced so clumsily, with almost no build-up or foreshadowing. Bunny has a friction-filled get together with her sister in episode 5 that comes out of nowhere. Til then, Bunny comes off as a typical soCal bottle blond who exists simply to both challenge and assist Sheila's aerobics aspirations. There's no hint at all that she's Lebanese. Not that TV characters can't be developed or have new dimensions added as a series unfolds, but after episode 5, where Bunny has that contentious meeting with her sister and they discuss how they escaped Beirut, we get zilch. We see or hear nothing else about Bunny's family drama or Lebanon for the rest of the season.
Other plot points (Danny's infidelity; Sheila's hatred for Danny's campaign manager) are executed less awkwardly and have an appropriate slow build, so when the powder keg finally blows, it will be all the more effective in amping up the drama. But again, it's as if the show's exec producers (which include Rose Byrne) took a pause from filming and said, "Guys, we need to shake things up. How can we make the supporting characters more interesting? Believability and being true to the natures of the characters we've built to this point be damned! We need some shocking reveals and we only have five episodes left to deliver!"
And through it all, Sheila grows less and less sympathetic. The worse was in the season finale. Danny loses the election and we hear Sheila's hateful, venom-filled thoughts about him. "Cant even pull off a local election. This is what you've tied yourself to... He's just a loser; a weak pathetic loser."
The inner monologue continues and turns into another of Sheila's frequent self-loathing sessions, as she (yet again) abandons Danny at a moment he needs her and instead heads off to the aerobics studio. The shows writers will probably tell you that the entire sequence is supposed to be a turning point in Sheila's life. She's finally "taking back her power", unhitching her wagon from dead weight, and breaking free so she can pursue her own dream and establish an identity beyond that of the faithful wife (which by the way, she has been at no point during the series.)
But that interpretation/explanation would work much better if Danny was a selfish, abusive, ungrateful asshole of a husband. Instead, apart from his dalliance with one of his former students (and maybe force-feeding Sheila a cream puff), the worst thing you can say about him is that he's overly naive and idealistic. Moreover, there are several moments where he praises his wife, calls her his muse and his rock, and declares that none of the good things happening with the campaign would be possible without her. In short, Danny is a far less flawed, far more supportive (and thus more likable) character than Sheila and I genuinely hoped he'd win the election. With Sheila, as she connives and schemes new ways to grow her aerobics business -- while simultaneously disregards her daughter walking in circles, throwing fits, and suffering from sensory overload (all classic signs of autism) -- I find myself just hoping the neighbors don't hear as I scream at the TV, "You are such an awful person! Get your daughter some help for God's sake!"
And all of this, every shortcoming this show has, is all due to bad writing and poor plotting and characterization. It makes one wonder why such obvious deficiencies weren't corrected before episodes began filming. Maybe it was because at the time Physical came across Apple +'s path, the streamer was playing catch up in the streaming wars and so badly needed content that everyone was willing to overlook the fact that the show's scripts needed doctoring.
Or maybe it was the collective clout of Weisman and Byrne, combined with a Times Up-inspired climate that was encouraging more greenlighting of women-focused shows not only at Apple + but across the entire television landscape.
Or maybe Apple + just likes poorly written shows. The Morning Show, another one of Apple's flagship series, suffers terribly from heavy handed dialogue and stereotypical characterizations.
Oh well, on to season 2. (Because 80s!)
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