There are plenty of shows that could have been titled Youth.
uncertain
that → be → shows
Most have casts in their teens and 20s.
asserted
Most → have → teens
One of these is called Adults, the joke being that its postcollegiate characters are more like children—playful at best, feckless at worst.
asserted
characters → call → children
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.
uncertain
it → premier → son
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.
asserted
humor → do → 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.
asserted
that → cling → age
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.
asserted
she → go → it
“I have 10 years left as a sexual person,” she determines in the premiere.
asserted
she → have → premiere
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.
asserted
she → raise → 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.
asserted
that → endure → 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.
asserted
pool → dodge → girlfriends
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.
uncertain
she → Set → disappointment
She treats him atrociously.
asserted
She → treat → him
Then again, the double standard that dictates she’s now too old for men her own age is also pretty atrocious.
asserted
she → dictate → men
At work, meanwhile, Alex is longing to be treated like the accomplished veteran literary agent she is.
asserted
she → long → agent
They have a great, funny and foulmouthed and in many ways candid, rapport.
asserted
They → have → rapport
But the more we see of this perceptively drawn relationship, the clearer it becomes that Sam doesn’t quite consider Alex an equal.
asserted
Alex → see → relationship
In the office, she questions Alex’s judgment.
asserted
she → question → judgment
Outside of it, Sam fails to keep her friend’s secrets, with real consequences.
asserted
Sam → fail → consequences
It’s a delicate problem for our protagonist to navigate.
asserted
protagonist → ’ → ?
If Sam were simply toxic, Alex would simply need to realize it and free herself.
asserted
Alex → need → herself
Instead, Sam is a pragmatic businesswoman with trust issues rooted in her marriage.
asserted
Sam → root → marriage
Which means it may be worth the hard work it would take to save the friendship as well as the professional relationship.
uncertain
it → mean → friendship
No one working in TV is better than Horgan at writing—or playing—selfish and self-sabotaging characters that, like members of our own families, we love all the more for how much they frustrate us.
asserted
they → work → us
She’s been doing it since her first series, Pulling, a portrait of faintly desperate single women at that age (30ish) when everyone else seems to be marrying, starting families, and getting serious about their careers.
asserted
everyone → do → careers
Ruarí can be infuriating; he rots in bed watching manosphere videos and treats his mother like a servant.
asserted
he → rot → servant
He’s earnestly confused about how to be a man in the world.
asserted
He → ’ → world
Horgan is not the kind of TV creator who makes half-hour dramas with the occasional awkward beat and calls them comedies, though.
asserted
who → make → them
Her shows, even the one about murdering an abusive husband, will always make you laugh out loud, and Youth is no exception.
asserted
Youth → murder → husband
Sometimes it’s pure physical humor; one episode makes an unexpected, perimenopausal period into a running joke (“Apropos of nothing, she’s back”).
asserted
she → ’ → nothing
Sometimes it’s the pleasure of witty banter or a ridiculous sentence that makes perfect sense in context: “If I send you my dad’s number, can you help him turn his IRA podcast off?” (I do wish Horgan had made a bit more space to flesh out Alex's parents, played by Bríd Brennan and David Hargreaves.)
asserted
Horgan → ’ → Brennan
Alex and Sam’s work yields a menagerie of delightfully ghoulish literary-world types, from a snakey rival agent who greets them as “sluts” and “lesbians” (Freddie Fox) to a creepy author (Douglas Hodge) who self-published a terrible yet depressingly popular romantasy novel after Alex dropped him as a client (title: The Goblin Seed).
In interviews, Horgan has said she sees Youth as a complement to Pulling and Catastrophe, the mid-2010s Prime Video comedy in which her character and a guy who was supposed to be an anonymous hookup (Rob Delaney) decide to build a family around a surprise pregnancy: “There’s a small element of autobiography to it.”
asserted
who → yield → it
The tones are certainly similar, though the range of emotions has broadened with proximity to life’s hard deadlines (fertility, mortality).
asserted
range → broaden → deadlines
“I just don’t know if there’s anything left in my life that I like anymore,” Alex admits.
asserted
Alex → know → that
She and Sam and Patrick could all be characters from the previous two shows, 10 or 20 years on, with more residual mess than they’d expected to be cleaning up by middle age.
uncertain
they → expect → age
Youth suggests that, in fact, disorder springs eternal; if it isn’t a canceled wedding, it’s an elderly parent losing toes to diabetes.
uncertain
it → suggest → diabetes
The Aporia
