Time is often the not-so-secret ingredient in a TV show’s success. This is especially the case for sitcoms, which often need room to experiment with cast and character dynamics to land on a winning, durable formula. Think of the American reboot of “The Office” calibrating Steve Carell’s incompetent boss until he’s distinct from the Ricky Gervais original, or its cousin “Parks and Recreation” making Leslie Knope less clueless and more admirable in her idealism.
Without much serialized plot or a premise more complicated than “people work and/or are friends with each other,” the je ne sais quoi of a long-running comedy is a chemistry that can’t be anticipated — it has to be discovered. Such is the case with “Adults,” the FX series that kicks off its sophomore season this week. I frankly did not enjoy the show’s first batch of episodes, which strained mightily to generate zeitgeisty relevance and repeatable bits before its ensemble had fully cohered.
But in Season 2, the co-creation of “Tonight Show” alumni — and real-life couple — Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw no longer has the fake-it-til-you-make-it feel of trying to make fetch happen, to use a millennial reference the Gen Z protagonists would be unlikely to understand. Case in point: a subplot in the premiere revolves around Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), the breakout character his codependent housemates are horrified to discover has a secret group of “shame friends” — hard-partying bros from his early days in New York, before he found his people. It’s the kind of storyline that rests on the audience knowing Paul Baker (always known by his first and last name) well enough to grasp how off-brand this reveal is for a bisexual softboy his girlfriend Issa (Amita Rao) recalls borrowing her crop top for a Muna concert.
And the screen time is a smart investment in Innanen, who’s distinguished himself enough for Paul Baker to get a standalone origin story episode released earlier this month. Issa is another character who benefits from continued exposure. Yes, Rao’s performance is still deeply indebted to Ilana Glazer’s in “Broad City,” but the actor’s commitment is such that she makes the archetype of a sexually liberated, social justice-fluent, proudly obnoxious 20something her own through sheer force of will.
When Issa impulsively decides to freeze her eggs, she asks roommate Samir (Malik Elassal) to help her administer shots in a succession of slapstick chase scenes that see Rao sprinting across the set. Another episode dives into Issa’s nervous tic of becoming a “weird little guy” with a succession of cringe-inducing accents Rao powers through until they cross into funny. Shot in Toronto, “Adults” can’t offer much in the way of urban realism.
The crew rarely leaves the soundstage that play-acts as Samir’s absentee parents’ house in deep Queens, and the show’s established presence manifests not in shiny new locations but in more guest stars like Gaten Matarazzo of “Stranger Things” or Zosia Mamet of “Girls” stopping by for a few scenes. (The latter is a nice full circle moment after Season 1 referenced the famous “voice of a generation” line.) The characters’ living situation may nod to downward mobility and economic malaise, yet “Adults” embraces borderline fantasy when it wants to, like when the gang turns the living room into a full-on election war room — maps, rolling whiteboards and all — as Paul Baker campaigns for president of the local HOA. Guess I know which side of the age gap I’m on!) But the show’s metier is increasingly “Seinfeld”-style observation that could come from any time or place, including a masturbation plot that reads like a direct nod to “The Contest.” When the chronically unemployed Billie (Lucy Freyer) tracks down her old fake ID and realizes “we’re not the youngest people on Earth anymore,” “Adults” taps into a broadly shared experience without feeling forced. Compared to Season 1, the stakes of “Adults” have settled to a level just shy of nonexistent.
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