Let’s get Physical!
On Wednesday, Apple TV+ released the trailer for the third and final season of its dark comedy series Physical. The hit series has already featured a bevy of stars like Rose Byrne, Rory Scovel and Murray Bartlett, and now it’s time to add Zooey Deschanel to that list with her return to scripted television.
The show, set in a picturesque 1980s San Diego beach town, follows the complex transformation of Byrne's Sheila Rubin as she works from a housewife riddled with self-image adversities to a mega fitness mogul.
In the previous two seasons, Sheila has extricated herself from an unsatisfying marriage to Danny (Scovel), grappled with an immoral relationship with real-estate powerhouse John Breem (Paul Sparks) and stood up to the dark thoughts that plagued her own mind.
Season 3 finds Sheila and her fitness career on the precipice of something great. She’s a national television personality who has managed to turn her love for exercise into a thriving fitness show — that is, until Deschanel's Kelly Kilmartin hits the scene.
The rising celebrity exercise goddess is ready to challenge Sheila physically and emotionally. In a dark ballet studio lit by a red hue, Sheila hauntingly manifests a vision of Kelly amid other dancers who stare at her blankly. “Oh no,” Sheila exclaims, “she’s in my head.”
The upcoming season will depict Sheila’s attempt to hold on to everything she’s worked doggedly to achieve. She’s found a way to overcome her struggles with a passion for aerobics and the revolutionary business she subsequently created, but Kelly’s presence throws a wrench in the works.
“You’re just hanging on by a thread,” the blonde competitor says to Sheila. She continues with what sounds like an eerie threat: “Just waiting for that moment to snap.” The rest of the trailer shows Sheila on what might be the brink of insanity, constantly snapping at people and bathing in a tub of cookies.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Byrne, 43, said during a Television Critics Association virtual panel in February 2021 that Physical is "about paving that path for those wellness gurus and lifestyle gurus, which are now sort of a dime a dozen, but back then was groundbreaking."
The show, which launched its first season in June 2021, follows the nuanced struggles of the female lifestyle guru — someone we take for granted today but was entirely radical in the ‘80s.
The 10-episode season will also feature stars like Dierdre Friel, Della Saba, Ashley Liao and Lou Taylor Pucci.
Physical's third and final season 3 premieres Aug. 2 on Apple TV+.
