Let’s take permission from the title of the new Apple TV+ series “Physical” and note the physical appearance of its star, Rose Byrne.
She’s profoundly unhappy, and one consequence of that is an expensive eating disorder that provides the show with a recurring dark-comic motif: Sheila picking up three fast-food burgers and checking into a motel room where she can take off her clothes and binge and purge in peace.
Abusing its status as satire, it doesn’t work hard enough either to generate real laughs or to coherently dramatize the serious issues — fulfillment, control, body image, the slow fade of idealism — around which it jury-rigs its story.
She’s an idea woman, a natural capitalist despite her radical leanings, and she quickly comes up with a moneymaking concept: home videos of aerobics routines.
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It’s the embodiment of the anger and exasperation she feels, but in dramatic terms, it’s a disaster — it’s so one-note and unfunny that we’re tired of it before the first episode is over.
But it is a problem that through 10 episodes we aren’t made to feel why — we’re shown the reasons for her unhappiness, but they don’t climb past the level of cliché.
The 1980s references and soundtrack do a lot of work, and you can float through the show on a cushion of apple bongs and shoulder pads, Depeche Mode and Pat Benatar.