Physical Season 3 Episodes 1 and 2 Review: Into the Groove/Dress You Up
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Apple TV+’s Physical has always been something of a hard show to quantify. Is it a drama? A dark comedy? A cautionary tale? Are we meant to outright hate its heroine or secretly sympathize with her? Is this a critique of the specific selfish excesses that defined the 1980s or a story of unexpected female empowerment?
In many ways, Physical is both all and none of these things. (Often at the same time.) But as the series begins its final season, it’s more apparent than ever that the show needs to really figure out what it’s trying to say. And, to be clear, the first two episodes of Season 3 offer a promising start — though the show’s seeming inability to let go of some of its worst tendencies is concerning.
Despite this being the final season of the show, there’s a lot about Physical Season 3 that feels almost like a reboot. Sheila’s recovery has reached a new phase — the cruel internal monologue that previously undercut her every action is gone, she’s regularly attending group therapy sessions, she’s trying to be a better, more present mother to the daughter the show’s suddenly remembered she has, she’s divorced Danny at some point during the break between seasons.
More scenes take place at Sheila’s office than at her home. She and Greta are managing a successful business partnership (even if they do rely too heavily on money from Greta’s husband, Ernie). Secondary characters like Bunny and Tyler seem to have disappeared completely, and although Sheila’s ex-husband is (unfortunately) still around, his role is fairly small, not to mention generally humiliating.
And season’s larger arc isn’t — at least initially, anyway — focused on Sheila’s self-destructive spiral, but rather the sudden rise of competition in the exercise and home fitness space, despite the first two seasons essentially behaving as though she were the industry’s primary groundbreaker.
Her peak competition is Kelly Kilmartin, a buzzy TV star Kelly who’s dipping her toe into the female-fronted fitness craze. Sheila not only views her as her primary rival — she’s bitter that Kelly “got there first” in terms of doing what she herself does while she was arguing over the height of the step she works out with — but sees her as an example of everything she isn’t. (Kelly’s, of course, blonde, curvaceous, confident, and a regular guest on late-night television shows.)
At first glance, it seems as though Sheila and Kelly’s rivalry is destined to be another girl-on-girl cat fight, in its first two episodes Physical Season 3 throws viewers a distinct curve ball. Because the Kelly that thus far exists in the show…isn’t technically real.
I mean, yes, she’s real in the sense that Kelly Kilman is a real person in the universe of this show that Sheila Rubin exists in. But the Kelly Kilman we spend most of this episode watching is a figment of Sheila’s imagination, a sort of replacement if you will for the self-critical inner voice that bullied her through the first two seasons, given a new identity and a form viewers can see.
It’s an interesting trick, and Deschanel is clearly having a blast as a big-haired, Southern, vaguely tartish woman who’s using her image and body to get what she wants. Physical doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp yet on the differences between the “real” Kelly and the one in Sheila’s head, but since I’m not entirely sure that Sheila’s actually even met the real Kelly yet or whether she’ll ever even technically exist as a person in her own right in the world of the show, but I’m willing to see where it goes over the rest of the season.
Mostly, it’s just nice to see Sheila have an external force to argue with/push back against (even if that external force is technically a manifestation of her own psyche). Plus, for whatever reason, Sheila’s idea of Kelly isn’t quite as overtly mean and/or cruel as the voice that lived inside her head, and which was often so vicious it made the show difficult to watch.
In these initial Season 3 episodes, the show has also found a refreshing sense of humor, about the world that Sheila wants so badly to conquer. (The sequence in which Greta delineates their target “lady buckets” and the photoshoots where Sheila tries on different personas is genuinely hilarious.)
Unfortunately, despite the fact that Physical has tried to reinvent itself a bit headed into its final chapter, the show has also inexplicably held on to its worst element: John Breem
Look, no shade on Paul Sparks, who is a talented actor, but this character barely served a purpose on the show’s canvas when Sheila was actively having an affair with him, let alone now, when she’s just taken her career to the next level. Surely there’s literally any other character that Sheila could turn to for help navigating the world of business than this weirdo guy she had a weird sexual relationship with?
And not only that — for some inexplicable reason Physical has also apparently decided that Breem needs his own subplot, involving his unhappy wife and family. It’s just such an obvious ploy to keep Sparks on the show, particularly when Breem has long been its worst character. Are viewers out there really clamoring for more of this guy’s story?
To be fair, Danny, who also sucks, is still around, but at least his character still has some legitimate connection to Sheila that makes sense (they have to co-parent). Am I interested in his existential crisis or attempts to hit on random ladies at the pool? Of course not, but at least I can understand why his presence is still theoretically necessary within the world of the show.
The first two episodes of Physical Season 3 certainly feel like an improvement over much of what we saw last season, and it’s easy to believe this is a show that can stick the landing in its final episodes. (It’s just going to have to finally figure out where it’s going first.)
Stray Thoughts and Observations:
- Look, Bunny and Tyler’s relationship basically the only thing that got me through Season 2 of Physical. If they’ve been ignominiously written out of the show before it ends I’m going to be livid. Sheila owes her entire career to Bunny and there’s so much unfinished business between them.
- To its credit, the pacing of these first two episodes is much better than previous efforts: Brisk and generally propulsive throughout. (Save for any scene involving Breem which often feels as though they wandered in from a different show.)
- I go through phases where I deeply hate Sheila, so I think I forget to say this as often as I should, but Rose Byrne’s performance throughout every scene of this show is exceptional.
What did you think of the season premiere of Physical? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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New episodes of Physical stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.