Cast: Rose Byrne, Rory Scovel, Dierdre Friel, Della Saba, Lou Taylor Pucci, Paul Sparks and Ashley Liao.

If you accept going in that Physical is a dark and tormented character study propelled by an ultra-intense performance from Rose Byrne, there are things to be engaged by.

At a local mall — the type her pompously progressive hubby views as a scourge — Sheila catches sight of an aerobics class led by the energetic Bunny (Della Saba).

Creator Annie Weisman (Almost Family) has a very good sense of what makes Sheila tick, even if the first season handles certain details in her traumatic backstory more perfunctorily than might be ideal.

Sheila is hard to like, but nobody knows that better than Sheila, and the role offers Byrne a ripe chance to play the contrast between all-too-perfect exterior — her cheekbones and springy hair could go off and star on a show of their own — and a tragic internalized isolation that leaves her constantly distracted and prone to making the worst decisions possible.

She’s a ticking-time-bomb anti-heroine in the half-hour tradition of shows like Weeds, Hung or Nurse Jackie, and Byrne makes her appropriately terrifying in her drive.

Were Physical actually the story of Sheila and her path from misery to empowerment via aerobics — a completely unnecessary in medias res opening shows that by 1986, she’ll be superstar of some sort — it would be recommendable, if not always pleasurable.

A real possibility: Physical was supposed to be an ensemble, but Byrne being as good and as forceful as she is throws the balance off

I’m not sure what the tone of that ensemble would be, nor am I sure that Weisman has really found the tone here — though Physical should put an end to those early rumors that Apple was sanding rough edges off its shows in order to make an aspirational brand