In its first season, Adults established a strong foundation as a delightful hangout sitcom. In its second season, it builds something truly great.
The bones of the show are still very much the same. Created by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, Adults continues to follow the misadventures of housemates Samir (Malik Elassal), Billie (Lucy Freyer), Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), Issa (Amita Rao), and Anton (Owen Thiele) as they navigate what it truly means to be grown-up. While they often struggle with adulthood, Adults has faced no such growing pains. Season 2 is sharper and more self-assured than the last, with its already strong ensemble operating at the top of their game.
Adults Season 2 levels up without growing up.
Owen Thiele, Lucy Freyer, Jack Innanen, and Amita Rao in “Adults.”
Credit: Michael Gibson / FX
Adults swings for the fences this season, going big on everything from cringe comedy to screwball farces. Examples of the former include Billie’s quest to scrub a compromising photo from social media, or Anton’s attempts to save his job after an intergenerational misunderstanding at work. Both storylines exemplify Adults‘ leads’ tendency to trip over their own feet in ways that are somehow as endearing as they are tough to watch.
The show’s more screwball tendencies shine in the season’s strongest outing, an installment centered on an acid trip that goes awry when a raccoon wanders through the house. Suddenly, what you think will be a predictable episode involving psychedelic shenanigans becomes something much greater: a ticking time bomb in which the raccoon must be dealt with before the acid kicks in. Playing out in real time, the episode is a madcap countdown that manages to distill the friend group’s complicated web of relationships to their purest forms, then upend the dynamic entirely. It’s a series game changer that still somehow finds time to fit in some ridiculous practical animal effects, not to mention the kind of relatable observational humor that creates an instant connection between the viewer and the friend group. Internet paywall jokes served that role in Season 1, but Season 2’s winner has to be this episode’s gag of mixing up a microwave’s normal timer and its cook timer. It’s simple, but it’s hard, dang it!
Adults‘ raccoon episode is also one of the few times its core five actors get to spend a whole episode in isolation, which further proves their airtight chemistry. But as great as they are in a group, they also get to shine individually. In Elassal’s hands, Samir’s tendency to overthink leads to some of the season’s most stressful comedic dilemmas. Freyer deftly carries the bulk of the season’s most awkward storylines, walking the line of cringe comedy with grace (and some inspired pratfalls). Innanen briefly breaks from Paul Baker’s soft boy sweetness to play a fratty bro type, and that contrast starts the season off on a high note. Rao and Thiele are both high-energy charisma bombs who light up the screen, but at several points this season, they get to pull back and reveal some vulnerabilities. A late-season installment that pits them against each other at the office is an instant highlight, and proof that I could watch them (and the rest of the cast) bounce off one another forever.
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Adults deserves longer seasons.
Amita Rao, Jack Innanen, Owen Thiele, Lucy Freyer, and Malik Elassal in “Adults.”
Credit: Michael Gibson / FX
Unfortunately, I can’t watch them bounce off one another forever because Season 2 only clocks in at eight episodes. Nine, if you count the prequel episode that released earlier this year. That’s simply not enough time to hang out with Adults‘ characters — especially when the whole point of the show is that it’s a hangout sitcom.
That Adults only has eight episodes means that the ones we do get are polished, without a true weak link among them. Yet you can feel more story crowding in at the edges. The finale, which sees Paul Baker running to be president of the local Homeowners Association, could easily have been a three-episode arc in any other sitcom, complete with a full campaign. The same goes for the fan-favorite slow-burn romance between Anton and Paul Baker. I will never say no to more episodes of yearning!
When it first aired, Adults drew comparisons to Friends due to its similar “friends in New York” conceit. But the starkest difference between the two isn’t their comedy style or the fact that they were written for and by different generations. It’s the fact that people can spend more time with Friends. They could watch it week to week for some 20 weeks each season and really feel like they were part of the group. Sure, not every episode can be a winner, but sitcoms deserve a little shagginess and room to grow, just like their characters.
Adults viewers appear to agree: Check any comment section on a video about the show, and you’re guaranteed to find demands for 22 episode seasons (complete with holiday specials, naturally). If even a quarter of them are as good as what Season 2 has to offer, I’d be more than satisfied. After all, when the worst thing about a show is that there isn’t enough of it, you know it’s doing something right.
Adults Season 2 premieres Aug. 27 at 9 p.m. ET on Hulu and FXX.
