'Adults' review: More than just Gen Z 'Friends'
FX's newest comedy offering may be called Adults, but the characters at the center of the show are still trying to figure out what, exactly, being an adult means. How do you repair a boiler? Or navigate a hospital bill? Or even land a job? Adults' ensemble would love to know.
Like the many hangout sitcoms that have come before it — think Seinfeld or Living Single — Adults examines the day-to-day lives and challenges of a tight-knit friend group. Here, however, creators Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) filter familiar beats of friend drama and romantic woes through a Gen Z lens. The result is more Broad City than Friends — although comparisons to both are apt — with Kronengold and Shaw delivering a heightened look at early adulthood that's chaotic, heartfelt, and current.
Adults boasts a killer ensemble cast
Adults introduces an instantly lovable television friend group in its five lead twentysomethings, each of whom come with a host of relatable worries. The whole crew crashes at Samir's (Malik Elassal) parents' house. In theory, that gives him authority, but Samir's struggles to find work and keep the house in order while his parents are on vacation leave him with major anxiety about the future.
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Joining Samir is his childhood bestie Billie (Lucy Freyer), whose career-driven dreams have stalled, leaving her wondering whether she peaked in high school. Meanwhile, the eternally charismatic Anton (Owen Thiele) struggles with personal boundaries, somehow managing to become everyone’s friend — even a local stabber. Rounding out the group is the unapologetically brash Issa (Amita Rao), who worries that her status as the resident "wild card" leads her friends to not take her seriously, along with her boyfriend Paul (Jack Innanen), a "sexually fluid delight" who brings a charming go-with-the-flow vibe to the household.
Together, these five will weather the storm of their twenties, from ill-advised hookups to the nerves that come with hosting your first "grown-up" dinner party. The cast of young comedians gels instantly, establishing the kind of natural chemistry that is able to propel any show from good to great (or in this case, from great to must-watch). It helps that the roommate conceit of Adults naturally intensifies the ensemble's intimacy — if you don’t already buy that the characters are friends, wait until you see them all cram into a bathroom together as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Adults showcases modern-day adulthood in all its messy glory
Amid its more raunchy chaos, Adults also tries its hand at tackling more serious subject matter, like panic about health insurance or harassment in the workplace. Thankfully, the series never gets preachy, instead finding humor in its leads' wild reactions to these topics. ("How can I make this about me?" is a common thread throughout Adults, leading to cringe-worthy situations that left me both howling with laughter and hiding my face in my hands.)
On top of addressing these thornier topics, Adults also places major emphasis on the role technology plays in its characters' lives. After all, you can't make a show about young adults in 2025 without incorporating tech in some way. Here, that manifests in plots involving tracking friends with AirTags or parsing a long list of vaguely named phone contacts. None of these references come across as forced — in fact, Adults' treatment of tech as an everyday facet of life feels fresh and relevant, helping distinguish it from its older hangout sitcom predecessors.
Of course, there are also elements of Adults that will feel familiar to any hangout sitcom lover, like longstanding friend group traditions, or hints at a romance within the group. Guest stars abound too, like a cameo from Julia Fox, or Charlie Cox (Daredevil: Born Again) showcasing his comedy chops as an English teacher on a downward spiral.
Still, it's Adults' main ensemble that proves to be the major draw here, with Kronengold, Shaw, and the show’s leads creating a friend group that’s codependent and flawed to the extreme, yet relatable and sweet in their support for one another. These five may not be the most sure of their directions in life, but even in its early episodes, Adults knows exactly where it's going, and it relishes the chaos and growing pains it takes to get there.
All episodes of Adults are now streaming on Hulu.
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Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
