Series Review: Adults

Adults (Season One)
Directors: Jonathan Krisel, Stefani Robinson, Anu Valia, Jason Woliner and Nick Kroll
Good at Bizness Inc., Home Team, FX
Streaming on Hulu: 05.28.2025

A good sitcom is a time capsule: something a generation can look back on and say, ‘Yes, that’s exactly how it was.’ With Seinfeld, it was the outfits of the early ‘90s, while Friends tapped into the laissez-faire attitude surrounding the rise of coffee shops in the late ‘90s. Arrested Development — unknowingly at the time — skewered the housing developments (many of them empty) that led to the 2008 financial crisis, while also lightly ribbing the Iraq war. Adults, FX’s newest sitcom now streaming on Hulu, may very well become Gen Z’s time capsule. “We are in a post-DeBlasio, pre-Avatar 3 moment,” Issa (Amita Rao, Deli Boys) one of the show’s leads, says at one point, and perhaps no line better sums up the angst of today’s youth who straddle the ever-thinning line between pop culture and politics, all the while none of it makes any sense. 

Like many sitcoms, the ensemble cast tries to strike a balance across the personality spectrum. There is the neurotic Sammir (Malik Elassal), the “mature” Billie (Lucy Freyer, Paint), the laid-back Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), the provocative Issa, and the outgoing Anton (Owen Thiele, Overcompensating). Much to the show’s credit, the chemistry between these five works. And the show is at times laugh out loud funny — impressive considering it is also an on-the-money satire about Generation Z. Adults doesn’t fall into the easy pitfalls satire can set, the show does not pander, nor does it reach for low-hanging fruit, playing only in clichés. The show’s creators and writers Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) based the show on their own experiences of being young adults in New York City, which is probably why nothing ever feels too forced. 

Adults also finds humor in the surreal, refusing to be too constrained by reality. Some of the show’s best humor comes from literal interpretations. In the pilot (the worst episode of the season but not without its moments) an acquaintance, Kyle Haberman (Will Ropp, The Fallout), gets sexually harassed at work, only to earn the status of local celebrity/hero and become the envy of everyone around him. At a rally to support Kyle, Issa tries to get behind the barricade only to be stopped by Kyle himself. Kyle pulls out a card with the word VICTIM printed on it, and touts it like a VIP pass at a concert, explaining how you need one to get in. Moments like this (pulling a literal victim card) are reminiscent of another wonderful FX comedy Man Seeking Woman, created by the equally wonderful Simon Rich (Miracle Workers, The Last Girlfriend on Earth). It’s disarming and clever, another example of Adults avoiding the trap of pandering. And while the pilot struggles, the rest of the season has no trouble finding its footing. —Norm Schoff 

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