FX's Adults is Gen Z's How I Met Your Mother

I’ve been watching a ton of TV recently (round up post coming next week because it’s seriously a lot), and this past weekend FX’s new sitcom Adults was my drug of choice. When I saw that Owen Thiele was one of the stars I was immediately locked in - I loved him in Theater Camp (2023) and was reminded of his charm more recently in Overcompensating, so I was excited to see him in a lead role.

I was also hoping that Adults would be a contender for Gen Z’s Girls or Sex and the City: a show that follows a group of friends living in New York City and perfectly encapsulates the culture of a generation. This is decidedly not that: it’s missing the It factor that made both of those shows classics. I do think part of this is due to its only having eight episodes - sitcoms need 18-22 episodes per season to really find their stride! This is something I’m willing to go to war over! After all, eight episodes of a 25 minute show only leaves us with about three hours of material to work with, which doesn’t leave enough time for all the random side quests and plot points that lead nowhere - both staples for all great sitcoms. And you need straight up home runs every episode to really get a good season out of eight short episodes (I actually do think Overcompensating accomplished that, but I wish they had 18-22 episodes as well). Adults did not have that - I didn’t really like the pilot episode, I found it to be a bit stiff and politically reactionary, mostly coasting on Gen Z stereotypes rather than saying anything interesting. Episode two didn’t really do it for me either, but they hit the ground running in episode three and I laughed out loud at least a few times each episode after that. The last three episodes are especially fantastic, so I would’ve loved to see them keep going with that momentum.

But anyway, without that It factor, Adults is decidedly not Gen Z’s Girls/SATC. And that’s okay! As a generation we might still be too young for that. Instead, I think it’s Gen Z’s How I Met Your Mother: a show about a group of 20something friends that isn’t the funniest thing you’ve ever seen but you can’t stop watching it because has some great lines and memorable plots, and really great characters and relationship dynamics. Also, artificially, the title sequence for both shows is nearly the same!

At a very basic level, the gender makeup of the groups are the same in both shows, but it goes beyond that. Paul Baker (Jack Innanen, who is at times distractingly good looking) starts off as the Marshall of the group: a big goofy sweetheart with Issa (Amita Rao) as his more Ilana Wexler coded Lily. But by the end he’s decidedly the Robin: a Canadian and new addition to the group that two group members are in love with (I’m assuming this will be a long running conflict in the show, as it was in HIMYM). Paul and Robin even share a plot line of potential deportation back to Canada! Anton (Owen Thiele) is a platonic Barney (hear me out): he is called a friend-slut by the rest of the group because of his unquenchable need for people to like him, which is like if Barney Stinson was celibate. (I was a Barney/Robin truther and I’m an Anton/Paul Baker truther so….). Samir (Malik Elassal) is like if Ted was too lost to be pretentious and Billie (Lucy Freyer) is like if Ted was a bisexual woman and able to experience empathy.

One of the truly great things about How I Met Your Mother is when they play around with the different pairings of the five group members, and that is something I think Adults does very well right off the bat. All five characters get one on one or small group time with each other, and it’s a really effective way to see the intricacies of not only the relationships between characters but the characters themselves. By doing this they set up Anton and Paul’s little mutual crush very well, and at the same time set up Anton and Issa’s deeply trusting friendship, which lays the foundation for either a throuple or a lot of conflict and tension that they’ll be able to work through. They also establish Samir and Paul as a very cute little best bro duo, which I love.

I’m not saying Adults is a carbon copy of How I Met Your Mother, but it didn’t just fall out of the coconut tree! There are notes of New Girl and Broad City as well, but I was immediately struck by the HIMYM vibes. I think with a few more (longer) seasons, it could prove itself to be an iconic Gen Z TV show with some truly memorable episodes and moments, and I hope we get to see that happen. I also hope it dodges the HIMYM series finale flop bullet!