2 out of 5

Created by: Darren Star

covers seasons 1 – 7

A good premise for a harmless movie gets magically stretched to seven seasons, where “magically” stands in for… well, kinda just ignoring the premise mostly, and making a dumb romcom series with attractive people. When Younger tries to hang on to its tenuous concept past a logical breaking point – a 40 year old divorced mum, Liza (Sutton Foster), fakes being 26 to get past ageist bias in her job market – it gets increasingly silly, as the stakes can never be much more than “Liza loses her job,” and – spoiler – nearly everyone in her inner circle finds out her secret, season by season. Meaning that, yes, you can assume that each season focuses mostly around preventing one person or another from learning the deal, and while that makes for a breezably fun first season, when the cycle starts all over in season two, and then season three, and so on, as the actress ages and her in-show 26 year old pals approach 30…

If better writing distracted us from this, it would be absolutely fine, but we’re stuck in other cycles with all the extra accoutrements: of Liza and friend / coworker Kelsey (Hilary Duff) falling into and out of relationships, bickering with one another over ultimately trite matters, and the writers fluffing both of these ongoing interactions with cringey she-said / she-said methods, or getting up to childish business where people jump to 100 in their reactions before asking a single question. Such stuff is admittedly half hour soap opera / popcorn comedy bread and butter, it just generally requires more engaging characters, or additional subplots, or something to keep it fresh. No – there’s no growth here (if anything, characters regress), and things feel mighty unprogressive for a late 20teens show, with some very unhealthy relationship dynamics that you think are going to turn into some type of “moral of the episode,” but no, negging and gaslighting are a-okay as long as people are attractive and wuve each other so muches.

But: this is moreso a reaction as we get deeper and deeper into the show, and thus require Liza (and Kelsey) to be written worse and worse to keep up the dramas. On the plus side, main boy squeeze Josh (Nico Tortorella), though surely 50% of the bad relationship dynamics, gets written with some atypical traits for sexy tattooed boy, and Tortello brings a lot of humanity to the role. And the first season, if spattered with cringey “old person doesn’t get hip references” humor, approaches a very watchable, zen bingeyness, as it’s closest to being able to make some light points about ageism, and is more realistic about its stakes, and highlights great chemistry between Foster and Duff, as well as Foster and Debi Mazar, who plays her character’s roommate and is, appreciably, an ongoing highlight throughout, acting as a voice of reason, and perhaps as a mouthpiece for writers frazzled by carrying on the idea for so many episodes. (There’s an additional shoutout needed for Miriam Shor, who essentially plays “shrew,” but does so with consistently enjoyable aplomb.)

The bingey quality mostly remains in season 2, and despite the plot repetition, there’s admitted curiosity as to how the story will expand… but, as suggested, that curiosity fades pretty fast from season 3 onward.

Still, you can switch over to hate watching it at that point. Enjoy!