Adults Season 2 builds on the sitcom’s strong first season, delivering sharper writing, bigger comedic swings and an even more confident ensemble. The FX and Hulu series remains a warm, chaotic hangout comedy about five housemates learning what it means to be grown-up, but its second season proves the show is capable of something truly great.
Created by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, Adults follows Samir (Malik Elassal), Billie (Lucy Freyer), Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), Issa (Amita Rao) and Anton (Owen Thiele) as they navigate the misadventures of adulthood. While the characters frequently struggle to act like adults, the series itself has experienced no such growing pains. Season 2 is more self-assured than the first, with its already impressive ensemble performing at the top of its game.
Adults Season 2 takes bigger comedic risks
The series swings for the fences this season, moving confidently between cringe comedy and screwball farce. Billie’s attempt to remove a compromising photo from social media and Anton’s effort to save his job after an intergenerational misunderstanding both showcase the characters’ tendency to trip over their own feet. Their mistakes are often painful to watch, but they remain irresistibly endearing.
Adults’s screwball instincts are most effective in an episode built around an acid trip that goes awry when a raccoon wanders into the house. What initially seems like a predictable story about psychedelic chaos becomes a ticking-clock comedy, as the friends must deal with the animal before the acid takes effect.
Unfolding in real time, the episode becomes a madcap countdown that distills the group’s complicated relationships before completely upending them. It is a genuine turning point for the series, yet it still finds room for ridiculous practical animal effects and the kind of relatable observational humor that creates an immediate connection between viewers and the friend group.
Internet paywall jokes filled that role in Season 1, but Season 2’s funniest moment may be the episode’s gag about confusing a microwave’s normal timer with its cook timer. It is a simple joke, but it is hard, dang it!
The cast remains Adults’s greatest strength
The raccoon episode is also one of the few occasions when all five central actors spend an entire episode together in isolation, further demonstrating their airtight chemistry. They are excellent as a group, but Season 2 also gives each performer opportunities to stand out individually.
In Elassal’s performance, Samir’s tendency to overthink creates some of the season’s most stressful comedic dilemmas. Freyer carries many of the most awkward storylines with impressive control, navigating cringe comedy with grace and a series of inspired pratfalls.
Innanen briefly moves away from Paul Baker’s gentle “soft boy” sweetness to play a fratty bro type, and the contrast gives the season an immediate burst of energy. Rao and Thiele are both high-energy charisma bombs who light up the screen, but this season also allows them to pull back and reveal more vulnerability.
A late-season episode that pits Rao’s and Thiele’s characters against each other at the office is an instant highlight. It is also proof that the cast’s chemistry is strong enough to sustain countless more episodes.
Adults Season 2 needs longer episodes and seasons
Unfortunately, viewers cannot spend forever with this group because Season 2 runs for only eight episodes, or nine if the prequel released earlier this year is included. That is not enough time to spend with the characters, especially when the central appeal of the series is its hangout-sitcom format.
The short season does ensure that every episode feels polished, with no genuine weak link among them. Still, larger stories can be felt pressing against the edges of the season. The finale, in which Paul Baker runs for president of the local Homeowners Association, could easily have become a three-episode campaign arc in another sitcom.
The same is true of the fan-favorite slow-burn romance between Anton and Paul Baker. More episodes would give the series room to develop that yearning, along with the other relationships that make the show so compelling.
When Adults first premiered, it drew comparisons to Friends because of its similar “friends in New York” conceit. The biggest difference between the two series, however, is not their comedic styles or the generations that created them. It is simply that viewers had more time to spend with Friends.
Audiences could watch Friends week after week for roughly 20 weeks each season and feel like part of the group. Not every episode needed to be perfect. Sitcoms benefit from a little looseness and room to grow, just like their characters.
Adults viewers appear to agree. Comment sections on videos about the series are filled with demands for 22-episode seasons, complete with holiday specials. If even a quarter of those additional episodes matched the quality of Season 2, they would be more than welcome.
After all, when the biggest criticism of a show is that there is not enough of it, that is a strong sign it is doing something right.
Adults Season 2 premieres Aug. 27 at 9 p.m. ET on Hulu and FXX.
Source: mashable.com
