Apple TV’s ‘Trying’ brings humor and warmth to the adoption process

Apple TV+ has blessed us with some exceptional television in its year-and-a-half of existence. From the award-winning Ted Lasso to the pure joy of Mythic Quest and the quiet might of something like Little America, the streaming platform has its fair share of hits — including the charming comedy series Trying.

The show follows Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall), who choose to pursue adoption after repeated struggles to conceive. The adoption process puts them through repeated hoops; interviews, inspections, and a general, growing sense of inferiority.

“It’s… this world we live in where everybody seems to have a brilliant life and fantastic Instagrammable dinners, when you’re at home burning the fish ‘n’ chips,” director Jim O’Hanlon tells Mashable in a phone interview. “I think that’s what makes the show so relatable beyond the adoption thing.”

O’Hanlon got involved with the series early on, after reading the script for episode 1 and coming off his run as director of Amazon’s Catastrophe. He directed both seasons of Trying but got more involved in scripts during Season 2 as executive producer.

“I’m drawn to stories and projects and characters where you believe the characters where they’re rooted and grounded and real, but also very funny,” he says.

Keeping Nikki and Jason grounded was key, because even when Trying lends itself to sitcom shenanigans, it always reels things in and ends up being more surprising for it. A Season 2 episode sees Nikki speaking to a potential adoptee even when she’s explicitly told not to, and instead of the slip-up exploding in their faces, she and Jason have a quick laugh over it before moving on.

“I thought it was very warm,” O’Hanlon adds of the first script that attracted him. “It didn’t feel sort of cynical or nasty, yet it didn’t shy away from real emotional moments, darker emotional moments, and the sadness of Nicki and Jason not being able to conceive themselves.”

The show also doesn’t shy away from the realities of adoption, a largely grueling process for those who undertake it. Writer and creator Andy Walton is himself adopted, bringing a different perspective from the show’s characters — at least, until Nikki and Jason get a kid. As a parent himself, O’Hanlon has endless sympathy for the characters.

“People who adopt have to have to go through so many hoops that I did not realize,” he says. “It was fascinating learning about all that, but what it did to the first series is it gave us a really great narrative spine.”

Each episode effectively becomes a step in the adoption process; the decision to adopt in the first place, the interviews with friends and family and former partners, a picnic in the park with other hopeful adoptive parents — each scenario rife with comedy and despair as Nikki and Jason realize how much growing up they themselves have to do.

“Imagine if you were I were suddenly told ‘You’ve got to prove all this stuff about your life,’ and you’re looking around going, ‘But my life is rubbish!'” O’Hanlon elaborates. “‘It’s chaos, I don’t know what’s going on half the time, we don’t go to any lectures like our friends do, we don’t go to the theater properly, we don’t cook proper meals — they like quinoa and lentils and we’re eating beans on toast!”

Season 1 culminates with a panel — a word most viewers won’t have heard in this context but which is everything to prospective adoptive parents. The panel determines everything, and a bad panel interview can tank the entire process. Nikki and Jason get approved, making Season 2 the tumultuous emotional journey of being matched with a kid.

“Now it’s not just about academic or intellectual milestones, it’s about real-live flesh and blood kids and then having to try and find one and get a kid that likes them and that they spark with,” O’Hanlon says.

O’Hanlon thinks of the seasons as four-hour films, with cinematic levels of character depth and dimension. The production team works with an adoption consultant on scripts and more to make sure everything is authentic — and the response to Season 1 indicated huge success.

“We’ve had huge feedback from people who’ve gone through the process saying how they felt it was so authentic, how true to life but also how funny,” he says. “It made them laugh, even though they had gone through this.”

Season 2 also widens the net with existing characters, diving deeper into Nikki and Jason’s friends who are separating, as well as Nikki’s sister’s engagement to a man who is, to put it mildly, the worst. As with the adoption storyline, arcs about infidelity, doubt, and hopelessness are all guided by that warmth that serves as Trying‘s North Star. 

“Nikki and Jason: They are the heart of the show, and the chemistry between them and the relationship and the love between them is the heart of the show,” O’Hanlon says. “But we also felt we’ve got some really fun interesting characters around the edges, let’s bring them in and broaden the canvas a little bit.”

With a third season already commissioned by Apple, that canvas will only keep growing.

You can stream both seasons of Trying on Apple TV+.