Trying on Apple TV+, developed by Andy Wolton, is a hidden gem that’s essential for anyone needing a little bright spot to balance out the influx of dark genre television. When Ted Lasso premiered during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the show’s success proved that people want to see wholesome, endearing content that can make viewers laugh and cry simultaneously. Since then, various parts of social media have asked for more content like it, not realizing that there’s one bursting from the same network, waiting to be uncovered.
Starring Rafe Spall and Esther Smith as Jason Ross and Nikki Newman, Trying is ultimately a love story that centers around a couple’s desire for a baby and the winding but rewarding adoption process. While their romance is an intriguing and cleansing balm that fills TV with a bit of happy content, the showcase of adoption and its complications is a rare and significant topic to explore. The series realistically tackles heavy issues with meticulous and sensitive care, showcasing to the audience the stories about varied and relatable angles many people in their 30s experience daily. Its wholesome approach to day-to-day activities, along with its incredibly gifted cast, make Trying a breath of fresh air full of laughter.
It’s Wholesome
The last few years have made it abundantly clear that viewers want more wholesome content to consume. There’s a reason why The Golden Girls is still a classic to date, and it’s mainly because, in the age of mockumentaries and crude comedies (which do their part, too), people also want to watch warmer exhibitions of daily activities that focus on acts of kindness or good things happening to people that deserve it. It’s why shows like Ted Lasso and Abbott Elementary are tremendous hits as well. And through this approach, Trying feels like a warm hug even when uncertainties are looming over for characters.
The series centers around Nikki and Jason’s adoption journey, while, at the same time, showing us the lives of their friends and parents along with how people navigate the trials in their path. No, their journey isn’t easy, but it’s undoubtedly worthwhile, and the very first episode makes it clear that the show isn’t going to subvert expectations wrongfully. While episodes establish that challenges will continue to arise, the writing promises that good things are coming to give characters the reprieve they need. In this sense, the trials become more understandable, and the benefits the characters reap feel earned.
It’s a Love Story
Further, the resounding success of a show like Netflix’s Bridgerton proves that people want to see more love stories on screen. Since the days when LiveJournal and FanFiction.net were primary uses, fans have rallied to showcase that romance sells, and allowing characters to be happy together gains far more traction than splitting them apart. There’s an unrealistic belief that happy couples will bore viewers, but the opposite proves true. And on a show like Trying, fans never have to worry about Jason and Nikki breaking up because their journey as a couple is part of the appeal. They’re not only in this together to the end, but their romance is entirely effortless in the narrative, allowing them to be happy as a couple while they navigate through other challenges.
However, Nikki and Jason aren’t the only couple in the series because Nikki’s sister, Sian Brooke’s Karen, and her wildly dramatic boyfriend (now husband), Darren Boyd’s Scott, give us a different kind of romance. Still, all that said, the series isn’t just a love story about romantic relationships but familial and friendships, too. It’s a love letter to children and their place in our world, caseworkers, people who mess up and redeem themselves, and the people who cross our paths, leaving a mark for the kindness they’ve shown. Thus, centering love stories allows Trying on Apple TV to carefully craft a sweet, believable, and inspiring narrative.
The Cast Is Incredible
One of the most admirable feats that British television often carries through within shows is the inclusion of theater actors in series and films. And Trying on Apple TV is full of some of the best stars. At the top of the list is the indomitable Imelda Staunton, whom many might recognize as Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter or, more recently, Queen Elizabeth in The Crown Season 5. Staunton is exceptional at playing stoic guarded characters, but Trying gives her the opportunity to play someone who feels like home — someone warm, profoundly kind, and easily approachable. While her character isn’t in Season 3, her presence in the first two seasons makes Trying a must-watch.
And since we’re on the topic of actors from Harry Potter, a fun fact that viewers of Trying might not know is that Rafe Spall is Timothy Spall’s son (the actor who played Peter Pettigrew). Spall and Nikki Smith have exceptional chemistry as the series’ main couple, and the cast’s performances, whether in emotional moments or bonkers, hilarious ones, are thoroughly exceptional through and through.
