REVIEW: ‘Physical’ Season 3 Episode 1 — “Into the Groove”

Physical is easily one of the best examples of intrusive thoughts and eating disorders in adult women I’ve ever seen, and now it’s in its third and final season. Created, written, and executively produced by Annie Weisman and directed by Stephanie Laing, Physical is now in its third and final season. With a cast led by Rose Byrne as Sheila, Physical Season 3 Episode 1 is set in a San Diego that is becoming increasingly fragile as Sheila tries to capture any semblance of power that she can in the fragile beach paradise of sunny 1980s San Diego.

For the last two seasons, Sheila Rubin has moved from a sad and dutiful housewife with bulimia who hates her life to a tormented business owner who hates her life less but is finally in recovery from her eating disorder even if her life is falling apart in other ways she’s pushing for entrepreneurial success. While Sheila very much reaped what she sowed last season, she also chose herself. Sheila embraced being an asshole in order to choose herself, throwing out the niceties and her marriage at the same time.

Now, in Physical Season 3 Episode 1, “Into the Groove,” Step Up With Sheila is a success, and Sheila is trying to keep up with her recovery guiding her body and her mind to combat the intrusive thoughts she’s fought for the last two seasons. A dark comedy series, Physical Season 3 is the final jazzercize sculpted leg of Sheila Rubin’s journey.  Up until this point, Sheila battled her way out of an unsatisfying marriage to her husband Danny (Rory Scovel), fostered a dangerous relationship with real-estate mogul John Breem (Paul Sparks), and confronted the dark voices she’s lived with for as long as she can remember. With the help of her loyal friend Greta (Dierdre Friel), Sheila has kicked Step Up With Sheila into higher gear pushing for TV time. But now, Sheila finds her status challenged by rising celebrity exercise goddess Kelly Kilmartin (Zooey Deschanel), who becomes not only a professional threat but an intimate one.

As an opening episode, Physical Season 3 Episode 1 sets the stage for the season in a somber fashion. As a series, the dark in “dark comedy” as a genre has been doing a lot of work. While Byrne as Sheila is effortlessly funny, she is also heartbreaking. She’s filled with regret and rage and self-hate in a way that makes her an unlikable lead. But in the second season, audiences got to understand her on a deeper level, pulling back the layers of her identity and giving her some element or hint of redemption.

While the bulk of the episode focuses on Sheila’s success and progression forward in her business and with Greta, the end of it exposes the raw nerve that is still exposed in Sheila’s psyche. When talking with Greta, Sheila explained how she was struggling now that her critical and vicious inner voice in her head was silenced.

Since being in recovery, Sheila has made herself go silent, but she isn’t necessarily at peace. In fact, she notes that she wonders if that degrading voice is what fueled her to get where she is now, even with the pain it caused her. I see myself in that. When I got better, I didn’t want to be better, because my success had come as my body was being run into the ground. I didn’t know who I was without the pain I caused myself and to see that so thoughtfully displayed in a comedy series? Well, Physical remains tremendous in that regard.

In a series that has made Sheila’s extreme personal demons feel wildly relatable even in some of the absurdist moments, Physical Season 3 excels once again by highlighting Byrnes’s unique and dynamic portrayal of mental illness in adult women. Sheila is still dealing with her complex set of personal demons that haven’t been exorcised with her aerobics, even if she’s using her recovery to reach for personal empowerment and attempt to improve her self-image.

As a series, Physical dives into a burgeoning fitness industry and a world of aerobics in a comedic way, but Sheila’s attempt to turn it into a full-fledged fitness empire is filled with a level of powerlessness that hurts to watch in a stellar way. Physical Season 3 Episode 1 also introduces Zooey Deschanel to the cast as Sheila’s main antagonist, and she’s fantastic, right down to the southern belle act. And with her, it’s proof that the voice isn’t gone. It’s just different and corporeal.

Physical Season 3 Episode 1 is a fantastic and somber start to the final chapter of the series, ending with a close-up of Byrne holding in tears, realizing that the voice is back is absolutely gutting.

Physical Season 3 Episode 1 is streaming now on Apple TV+ with new episodes on Wednesday in August.