Trying - Season 1 - The eight-episode series is the latest comedy Apple plans to drop all at once, making for a satisfying binge-watch similar to the tech company’s most successful and entertaining original series to date: Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet.

Like that series, Trying is built to be binged with episodes coming in at around the 30-minute mark and following an overarching narrative that nevertheless leaves plenty of room for individual episodes to step well outside the concerns Nikki (Smith) and Jason (Spall) have with regard to their future and possible future children.

For example, an early episode details the couples’ struggles to conceive and subsequent desire to begin the long, grueling process of adoption, only to introduce Cush Jumbo as one of Jason’s exes who paints a less than rosy picture of his past behavior.

On its surface, Apple TV+’s new British comedy series, Trying, is about a young couple and their unsuccessful efforts to have a child and start a family.

And while the notion of kids and the difficulties and pleasures they bring is front and center every episode, the series, from writer Andy Wolton, is also a stealthy comedy about growing up and accepting the challenges and rewards that adulthood has to offer.

That fairly broad conceit is made more palatable by terrific lead performances from Esther Smith and Rafe Spall, both of whom deliver charismatic takes on a young couple who sometimes inadvertently wear their flaws on their sleeves.

The series will appeal to anyone who enjoyed Catastrophe or New Girl, and especially anyone who loved Gavin and Stacey — though it lacks the caustic edge of Catastrophe and the delightful absurdity of New Girl.

Instead, Trying offers a fairly grounded take on modern love and how two people can change and be changed by a relationship that, despite some evidence to the contrary, is maybe the best thing they have going for them.