Apple TV’s best sitcom of all time is finally back for Season 5 after a two-year break, and it doesn’t take very long for Trying to tackle the cliffhanger it last left off on. Just when Nikki and Jason’s life finally feels a bit more settled in and picture-perfect, Esther Smith and Rafe Spall are asked to take their characters’ warm, wonderfully steady marriage into some messier terrain. Princess (Scarlett Rayner) and Tyler (Cooper Turner)’s biological mother, Kat (Charlotte Riley), shows up and throws their family into a whole new kind of chaos.
As if that wasn’t enough, Nikki also has a charming new co-worker in her life (Colin Morgan), the kind of person who makes you wonder if this marriage is about to hit a really hard bump. Suddenly, the happy life this quintessential couple fought for and that audiences have come to love since Trying‘s 2020 premiere doesn’t feel quite as simple as it did before. However, that’s what makes the opening stretch of its latest season so exciting and one more example of why the show itself is Apple TV’s sweetest hidden gem. Six years later, the streamer’s laugh-out-loud half-hour series is finally asking some very uncomfortable questions about marriage, parenthood, and whether life ever really stops testing those who’ve found happiness.
What Is ‘Trying’ Season 5 About?
The season picks up right where Season 4 left off, with Kat at the front door of Nikki and Jason’s home. The couple is now dealing with an “additional” parent in their daily comings and goings, which leaves plenty of room for an anxious Nikki to spiral. The new dynamic has also created some hostility between Nikki and Princess, who is upset that her adoptive mother kept the truth from her while she visited Kat in Spain during Season 4. Meanwhile, Tyler is less sure how he feels overall about it, leading the couple to try to support their kids’ wishes but also figure out where Kat really fits in their lives.
At the same time, life is pretty much moving forward for everyone. Jason heads back to school after feeling inspired by Penny (Imelda Staunton) to become a social worker, while Nikki starts a new job in the travel industry. Without spoiling the gags that follow, it’s safe to say they both have the kind of first days that only Trying could pull off: awkward, sweet and deeply funny. Meanwhile, Princess and Tyler are growing into teenagers who have their own worries between what to text a crush to party-hopping with friends on Halloween. The season also follows Nikki’s sister Karen (Siân Brooke) as she manages to juggle life with her daughter, Stevie (Matilda Flower), while Scott (Darren Boyd) is still caught up in his latest adventure following last season’s decision — rowing across the Atlantic.
The common thread throughout Season 5 is not so much everyone “trying” to float on by but rather standing at a crossroads. Nikki and Jason are no longer learning to be good parents; they are holding onto themselves while raising full-grown teenagers. Across the season, Nikki starts to feel like she’s an outsider, especially as Kat’s return gives Princess so much she can’t offer. This very real fear provides some of the most tender moments of the season because even when Nikki and Jason are pulled in different directions, the show keeps coming back to how much they still want to find their way back to each other. Never once turning those big soap-opera moments into melodrama, Trying lets Season 5 become a story about learning to live with change without assuming change means something is falling apart.
‘Trying’ Season 5 Is Still One of Apple TV’s Best-Written Shows
A key aspect that has made Trying so special is its understanding of how funny normal life can be when people who are just doing their best get it slightly wrong. After four seasons, these new episodes lean into that even more, with jokes that don’t feel forced or overly set up. While Nikki and Jason’s first days in their new worlds exemplify this perfectly, so does the couple’s eyebrow-raising trip to Italy or Nikki and Karen’s dad, John (Roderick Smith) not knowing how to operate state-of-the-art kitchen cabinets while visiting his eldest daughter. The humor arises from how awkward, exposed, and out of place everyone can often feel. Yet Trying never laughs at them; it laughs with them, which has always been part of its charm, trusting its audience to find those moments just as rewarding as the bigger ones.
The fifth season also excels at making small moments feel significant. Between a text message, a bad assumption or withholding information, Trying turns all of it into something funny and tender simultaneously. Even Nikki meeting (and crushing on) Kerry works because the show never treats it like some cheap twist. Instead, it uses her charming colleague to explore something very interesting about Nikki and Jason’s marriage; showrunner and creator Andy Wolton‘s mature writing handles even shocking revelations with remarkable depth. More than anything, Trying‘s fifth season still understands something many comedies forget: people don’t stop growing once they get their happy ending.
The ‘Trying’ Cast Is as Lovable as Ever in Season 5
Image via Apple TV
Nikki Smith, played by Esther Smith, and Jason Spall , portrayed by Rafe Spall, have always been the heart of Trying , but Season 5 gives them a slightly different challenge this time around. They remain very funny, warm, and wonderfully chaotic characters but now must portray individuals who are more settled yet somehow less sure of themselves at the same time. Nikki Smith’s anxiety creeps in without making her feel irrational., grounding every spiral in something painfully human and completely understandable. Meanwhile, Rafe Spall continues to make Jason’s kindness feel easy and instinctive. He can get a laugh with one confused look then turn around and make a quiet parenting moment feel completely sincere.
Scarlett Rayner (Princess) also receives some of her strongest material yet this season and carries it beautifully. Princess is at the heart of the season as she consistently searches for answers she has wanted her whole life which adds weight when recalling Nikki and Jason first finding her in Season 2. Rayner plays her as older and sharper without losing her youthful essence. There is real vulnerability beneath Princess’s anger toward adults as she tries to work out what her biological mother’s return means for her family.
Around this trio is Cooper Turner who brings lovely awkwardness to Tyler as he navigates first love. Joining him are Siân Brooke and Darren Boyd whose performances continue making Karen and Scott’s chaos strangely touching. Also joining this season is Colin Morgan as Kerry who fits well into Nikki’s life without flattening him into a simple plot device. We must mention striking performances from Celia Imrie (hoarder) and Gbemisola Ikumelo (social worker) in guest roles that smartly tie into Jason’s new path — small yet impactful reminders of how far Nikki and Jason have come since trying to become parents.
The credits roll leaving viewers wishing for more time with this family (the eight episodes available for review were not enough). It is also a season that will have audiences laughing one minute then quietly tearing up the next — tugging at heartstrings in the gentle way that has always been its strength. Five seasons in, Trying remains one of television’s best-written , best acted ,and most emotionally rewarding comedies.
Trying Season 5 premieres with new episodes starting Wednesday on Apple TV.
- Esther Smith and Rafe Spall deliver another deeply lovable performance as TV’s most comforting couple.
- Andy Wolton’s writing finds huge emotional payoffs in life’s smallest moments.
- Scarlett Rayner shines as Princess in the show’s most emotionally rewarding storyline yet.
- The Kerry storyline adds real tension without turning into cheap relationship drama.
