Adults Is the Zillennial Hangout Comedy Done Right

Warning: Spoilers for season 2 of Adults to follow.

It’s hard to think of a single episode of TV this year that made me laugh harder than Adults’ “Raccoon.” Framed around the central quintet’s largely fruitless efforts to get rid of a raccoon (and later, an opossum) that crept into their house, the episode is uproariously funny, chock-full of one-liners and hijinks. In a race to fix the problem in the half-hour before the acid they just took kicks in, all five characters find themselves engaged in some form of silly drama that connects to someone else. As they bounce around each other, wires get crossed, and messages get misinterpreted. There’s even a Challengers-style three-way makeout session. By the episode’s end, the animal invaders have been escorted off the premises, but before that, two characters who had been dating have mutually agreed to break up while a different pair of characters sink deeper into their will-they-won’t-they romantic slow-burn.

In short, it’s the perfect sitcom episode, a one-and-done installment that introduces a central obstacle and gathers its cast of quirky personalities in a confined space to watch how each person responds to—and eventually resolves—it. It’s remarkably effective.

Though “Raccoon” might be the highlight of FX’s terrific new sitcom, it’s not the only impressive installment. After a first season that arrived with tons of promise but quite a few “first season” growing pains, Adults, a hangout comedy following five 20-somethings all sharing a three-bedroom house in Queens, returns fully formed in its sophomore run. Like most sitcoms, which rely as much on distinct character archetypes as on cast chemistry and strong joke-writing, Adults has clearly benefited from time. The show hones in on each character's voice, and the result is a show that feels confident in its ridiculousness, unafraid to take risks, and all the better for it.

Adults, which was created by The Tonight Show alums Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, is just one of several “Zillennial” comedies currently in rotation. After the 2010s run of millennial comedies like Girls, Broad City, Search Party, and Insecure, the mid-2020s is churning out its own era-defining crop of generationally-specific funny series. Last year, the FX sitcom premiered right between the debuts of Benito Skinner’s college-set coming-of-age dramedy Overcompensating and Rachel Sennott’s influencer satire I Love LA. (Girls’ own Lena Dunham popped in with Too Much around the same time.)

Because they premiered in such close succession, it was impossible not to draw comparisons between them. But upon closer inspection, it became clear that, much like their forebears, each show had a distinct flavor. Overcompensating felt like a spiritual successor of ABC Family’s aughts-era college dramedy Greek while I Love LA felt like a slightly looser take on Girls. Adults, by contrast, feels like a callback to an earlier time, more in step with the multi-cam mischief of something like Friends than the prestige sheen of anything found on premium cable—a true hangout sitcom whose deliberately low stakes leave room to explore generational anxieties.

Of course, a hangout sitcom would be nothing without a cadre of characters you actually want to hang out with—and Adults has assembled a codependent cohort more than worth your free time. Owen Thiele is a delight as Anton, the group’s resident gainfully employed friend who has a knack for befriending everyone he comes into contact with. Jack Innanen, already popular thanks to his infectious social media presence, brings a comforting warmth to the sexually fluid Paul Baker, an aloof Canadian transplant who is almost too perfect—at least until his secret friend group of typically douchey frat-bro types comes to light.

Malik Elassal's eager-to-please energy adds necessary layers to Samir, the token straight friend, while Lucy Freyer, playing the unemployable Billie, is easily relatable as the group’s most anxiety-ridden member. But perhaps the real breakout is Amita Rao, whose Issa feels like a clear analog to Broad City’s Ilana Wexler. Her chaos-agent tomfoolery—whether she’s referencing movies she’s never seen or serenading a hungry audience with an impromptu cover of “I Dreamed a Dream”—frequently provides the show with some of its funniest gags.

And while Adults’ strengths lie in its low-stakes energy, the show works because it speaks to a deeper truth. Taken as a whole, it’s a show about a generation stuck in a perpetual state of prolonged adolescence, even as life circumstances demand that they grow up. Almost all of their problems stem from navigating that dichotomy; they are constantly trying to be seen as more responsible and adjusted than they actually are, whether they are performing for family members, considering fertility options, or simply looking for a new job. The show does feature its own serialized plots—Anton and Paul Baker, who got married at the end of season one to secure the latter’s green card, are the show's will-they-won't-they slow-burn—but by adhering to the “new episode, new problem” sitcom format, Adults can cover tons of ground as it throws its characters into fresh compromising situations each episode.

Some episodes take the theme head-on, like when Billie stumbles upon the girl who inherited her fake ID and has an existential crisis about the loss of her fun-loving youth or when Anton goes to great lengths to prove to his older sister (played by sitcom legend Raven-Symoné) that he’s mature enough to be taken seriously as the sperm donor for the child she and her wife want. But the show works best when addressing the kinds of small, petty anxieties that feel specific to a younger generation, like a need to scrub one’s digital footprint (lest you, a straight white woman, get caught celebrating the made-up holiday “Cinco de Homo” in a forgotten Facebook photo) or the tireless pursuit to avoid being stopped by one of the many TikTok influencers trying to rope you into a “Man on the Street”-style viral interview.

And as the show has expanded beyond the confines of its “friends crammed together under one roof” formula, it’s demonstrated real versatility and staying power. Just take penultimate episode “C Alert,” which follows Anton to his day job, finding a different kind of humor in the gap between corporate America's sanitized norms and his rambunctious life at home. (The A-plot revolves around his accidental use of the word, as the title suggests, the c-word, in a team meeting. Needless to say, his colleagues don’t respond quite as his friends do.)

Though a third season has yet to be ordered, it’s highly unlikely that FX plans to get out of the Adults business anytime soon. In addition to charting in the top 10 of Hulu’s most popular TV shows since its season premiere this August, it’s also become a hotbed for online discussion, generating the kind of widespread discourse that feels rare in a climate where no one seems to be watching the same thing at the same time. It’s a throwback to a different era of comedy that’s been updated to endear a new generation to the harmless joys of sitcom shenanigans. These may not be your Friends. But they are destined to become your new favorite Adults.