There are plenty of shows that could have been titled Youth. Most have casts in their teens and 20s. One of these is called Adults, the joke being that its postcollegiate characters are more like children—playful at best, feckless at worst.
HBO’s Youth, a comedy premiering Sept. 20 about a divorced 50-year-old sandwiched between her college-aged son and declining parents, sounds like it might be similarly ironic. As in everything its creator and star, Catastrophe and Bad Sisters hitmaker Sharon Horgan, does, the title’s rueful humor conceals an emotionally complex truth. This is a perceptive, spit-takingly funny show about clinging to the most desirable aspects of youth while also craving comforts that can only come with age and experience.
If youth is, as the saying goes, wasted on the young, then Horgan’s Alex is a character actually equipped to savor what little she has left of it. With the petulant son, Ruarí (Aran Murphy, a near-clone of dad Cillian), whom she raised with minimal help from her ex-husband Lorcan (Owen McDonnell) packing up for uni, she’s resolved to end a long celibate streak. This search for not just a sex partner, but also the enduring love that has so far eluded her should be aided by Alex’s genuine youthfulness.
But with guys like Lorcan and another former flame, Patrick (a rakish Rupert Friend), dodging adulthood with girlfriends decades their junior, the dating pool seems sparse. Set up on a blind date with a patient 67-year-old (Tim McInnerny’s Michael) who looks like he could be her dad, she can’t hide her disappointment. She treats him atrociously.
Then again, the double standard that dictates she’s now too old for men her own age is also pretty atrocious. At work, meanwhile, Alex is longing to be treated like the accomplished veteran literary agent she is. The trouble is, her boss, Sam (Sharlene Whyte), is also her best friend.
They have a great, funny and foulmouthed and in many ways candid, rapport. But the more we see of this perceptively drawn relationship, the clearer it becomes that Sam doesn’t quite consider Alex an equal. In the office, she questions Alex’s judgment.
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