Vlad Bunoan

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Yong Chavez

ABS-CBN News North America

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784880803750Apple_Trying_key_art_16_9.png" style="width:960px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Apple TV</div>Season 5 of “Trying,” Apple TV’s feel-good comedy series, deals with Nikki and Jason facing fresh uncertainty when the biological mother of their adopted children suddenly reappears, stirring emotions that no parenting handbook could ever anticipate. It is another emotional crossroads for the couple who have spent years navigating infertility, adoption, and parenthood with equal measures of humor and vulnerability. Created and written by Andy Wolton, the acclaimed series has earned its devoted following by treating life’s hardest conversations with warmth instead of sentimentality, allowing its characters to stumble, recover, and grow without losing sight of their humanity.For Esther Smith, who stars as Nikki and also serves as an executive producer, that connection was apparent from the very beginning.“Initially, when I first read the script in Season 1, I felt such a connection to these characters, particularly Nikki, and I felt like it was such an important story to talk about, an important world to look into. That world of adoption, and what that means for a family and a set of people.”Over the years, audience reactions have deepened her appreciation for the UK-set series beyond the work itself. Viewers who have experienced adoption or similar family journeys regularly share their own stories, reminding her that the show reaches people in deeply personal ways.“It’s such a beautiful experience that I’ve not had before, working on a show, where you get that feedback of actually what it means to show something where people feel seen,” Smith says. “We’re lucky enough to be in our fifth season now, and you keep that with you every season. You kind of keep those stories, and it’s a lovely reminder of how important storytelling is.”<div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784880825450Apple_TV_Trying_Photo_050101.jpg.photo_modal_show_home_large_2x.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘Trying.’ Apple TV</div>That sincerity extends to one of “Trying’s” greatest strengths: its central marriage. Television comedies have long leaned on endless bickering between spouses as reliable comic fuel. Nikki and Jason find laughs somewhere else. They tease each other, make mistakes, lose patience, and occasionally misread situations in spectacular fashion. Even so, affection remains the foundation of every disagreement, making their relationship feel familiar in ways that resonate with anyone who has shared years with another person.Smith says that creating a marriage that audiences genuinely wanted to spend time with was intentional from the outset. “Particularly in Season 1, it’s a lot of those two. You want to spend time with these people.” She believes the series benefits from focusing on fundamentally decent people trying their best.“No one’s bad in this story. They’re just ordinary people who are not perfect, who enjoy spending time together,” she says. “There’s heartbreak in it, and the show touches on some real heartfelt, moving moments, but you know that you’re going to kind of leave feeling something positive or uplifted.”Even the smaller observations about marriage ring true because they come from everyday life.“Whatever’s happened during the day, you’re both gonna go back home, lying on the pillow next to each other, and then the next day happens.”<div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784880849167Trying_Photo_050102.jpg.photo_modal_show_home_large_2x.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘Trying.’ Apple TV</div>Season 5 introduces a wrinkle that could have easily become melodrama. Nikki develops an unexpected attraction to someone she meets through work, a storyline that initially gave Smith pause.“I was a bit scared. I was a bit nervous because I didn’t know how that was going to go,” she admits.Her concerns faded as the scripts unfolded. Rather than manufacturing chaos, the story examines what happens when two people who have built years of trust encounter an uncomfortable reality.“There’s a conflict between these two as a couple, and it only makes them stronger,” Smith says. “Being together for such a long time, these things in life happen. Those moments, they’re real, and actually, it’s how you meet them and deal with them that informs your relationship.”Rafe Spall, who plays Jason and executive produces alongside Smith, sees the same storyline as another example of the show’s honesty. After spending five seasons inhabiting Jason, he believes the character’s response reflects something many couples recognize.“I think they deal with it in a really good way, in a really mature way, in a very healthy way, and I think that’s pretty representative of long-term relationships,” Spall says. “Long-term relationships are constantly tested. That real and sometimes difficult things happen, and it’s about how we deal with them.”<div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784880875355Trying_Photo_050201_big_image_post.jpg.large_2x.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘Trying.’ Apple TV</div>He hopes audiences leave with more than a few laughs.“I think that the audience look at it and go, ‘Oh, that’d be nice to have a partner who could go through my difficulties with me and be there for me.’ I think that’s a nice aspect of the show.”That emotional balance between comedy and heartbreak has become the series’ signature. Spall credits Wolton’s writing for finding a rhythm that mirrors real life.“I think one of the great merits of the show, and one of the reasons it’s sustained for five seasons, is because it does get that very difficult balance between pathos and humor. Ultimately that’s pretty reflective of life. A way of dealing with difficult situations is to employ humor. It’s a way of coping.”Still, he believes scripts alone cannot guarantee that connection.“You can have all these intentions. You can have a great script, but it being translated onto the screen, in my experience of being an actor for 25 years, is a strange kind of alchemy. You can’t really account for it. It either happens or it doesn’t. It’s magic, really.”<div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784880896810Trying_Photo_050104.jpg.photo_modal_show_home_large_2x.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘Trying.’ Apple TV</div>“Trying” also shines a light on people who rarely receive much attention on television: social workers. Throughout the series, they serve as compassionate guides through the adoption process, carrying enormous responsibility without ever becoming simplistic plot devices.For Spall, the profession already held personal significance.“In my own life, I’ve got social workers that are close to me and my family, and I’ve always been acutely aware of what an important, difficult profession that it is,” he says. “It’s a calling in many ways. It’s not well paid enough for the emotional energy that goes into it. It’s a very, very difficult thing and a very noble profession.”His admiration only grew while making the show.“I’m really pleased to play a small part in representing that on television because social workers are unsung heroes. They put themselves in danger. They have to make high-pressure decisions all the time.”<div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784880912830Trying_Photo_050206_big_image_post.jpg.large_2x.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘Trying.’ Apple TV</div>After half a decade, the line between actor and character has naturally begun to blur. Spall smiles when discussing how much of himself has found its way into Jason.“There is a lot of me in Jason,” he says. “Doing a show for so long means that the writer then writes for you, and that the line between yourself and the character starts to get thinner. I also, in real life, live with the leading lady, so that&#x27;s nice too.”The collaboration extends beyond the set. Smith and Spall, who fell in love with each other in real life in the course of the show, have spent so much time inhabiting Nikki and Jason that real conversations sometimes feel as though they have wandered out of an episode.“There is that, actually,” Spall says when asked whether Wolton seems to overhear their conversations. “Also sometimes Esther and I have conversations where we’re like this is very much like a Trying-type, Nikki and Jason conversation.”Perhaps that explains why “Trying” continues to feel lived in. The series never chases dramatic twists for their own sake but finds comedy in awkward misunderstandings, emotional weight in ordinary conversations, and optimism in people who keep choosing one another through life’s inevitable complications. Nikki and Jason may have started their journey hoping to build a family. Five seasons later, they have become one of television’s most convincing portraits of what sustaining that family actually looks like.

Season 5 of “Trying,” Apple TV’s feel-good comedy series, deals with Nikki and Jason facing fresh uncertainty when the biological mother of their adopted children suddenly reappears, stirring emotions that no parenting handbook could ever anticipate.

Season 5 of “Trying,” Apple TV’s feel-good comedy series, deals with Nikki and Jason facing fresh uncertainty when the biological mother of their adopted children suddenly reappears, stirring emotions that no parenting handbook could ever anticipate.

Here in Hollywood: Apple TV’s ‘Trying’ shows hard realities of adoption and how love can win

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Here in Hollywood: Apple TV’s ‘Trying’ shows hard realities of adoption and how love can win

Yong Chavez,

ABS-CBN News North America

Published July 24, 2026 05:05 PM PHT

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Trying

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