Adults
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Every generation gets its own versions of a 20-somethings hangout and make mistakes sitcom. Living single, friends, how I met your mother, Broad City. And now Gen Z's got Adults, a silly new series about a group of friends cohabitating in Queens, New York.

As always, trying to be responsible while being young, dumb, and barely able to afford health insurance is a challenge, but it also makes for fun and possibly all too relatable TV fodder. I'm Aisha Harris, and today we're talking about adults on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

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Joining us today is co-host of Slate's ICYMI podcast and former Pop Culture Happy Hour producer Candice Lim. Welcome back, Candice. Hello, Aisha. Great to have you. We've got basically a little PCHH mini reunion of alumni. Also with us is author and freelance writer Kiana Fitzgerald, who also worked on Pop Culture Happy Hour as a producer once upon a time. Hey, Kiana. Welcome.

Hello. Thank you so much. So happy to be here. It's so great to be here and to talk about this show, of which I think we all have many, many thoughts. And it's going to be fun. It's going to feel like an episode of Adults. We'll all get the vibe. So there are five main friends in Adults. Owen Thiel plays Anton, who's highly sociable and has a job he barely cares about. Okay, can you guys do this in truly any other part of the house? I have to go off mute in a second and say, uh-huh, or else I get an email. Yeah, I'm okay.

Lucy Frayer plays Billy, the type A hustler of the group. I literally sent myself to the hospital because of a work email. I mean, that is mortifying. It's not good. I'm done. I'm unclenching. Yeah? Yeah. I'm starting from scratch with a looser for your...

Amita Rao is Issa, a flighty goofball. Her hookup-turned-new-boyfriend is the kind-hearted and ditzy Canadian Paul Baker, played by Jack Inanen. So, are you living chastely? Yes, super chastely. Chastely, chastely, chaste the rainbow. No, that's... What's going on with you? No, that's not true, Father. We have sex all the time.

And finally, there's Samir, played by Malik Alassal. I'd say he's probably the messiest of the bunch. Social security number? Um... You don't know your social? No, I do. It's just that my mom, she knows the f*** out of it.

Been there, been there. But at least he's saving money by living in his childhood home with all these friends while his parents are away on a very, very long trip. It's like Gilligan's Island. I don't know. It's like a three-hour tour turns into weeks, months. It's strange, but good for them. The series touches on a lot of things 20-somethings face, including sexual assault, which will come up in the conversation today. Adults is streaming on Hulu now. And Candice, I'm going to start with you.

Tell me, are you an adult? And I turn it back to you by asking, is this show a recession indicator? Because... Okay, so here's my deal.

like this show enough. I think it is interesting that this show is coming out around the same time as another show on Prime called Overcompensating, which has like similar DNA. Overcompensating, it stars Benito Skinner. It takes place in college. This show is kind of post-college. This show is not as good as Overcompensating. I do think it's better than Sex Lives of College Girls, but I wonder if part of my...

middling okayness with it is the fact that Ben Cronengold and Rebecca Shaw, they are the creators of the show. They kind of came from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon world. They are one year older than me. We technically are in Gen Z, but I am at the tippy-toppy of Gen Z, so they are like tippy-toppy plus one. Is it possible that this show...

is written about people from a distance versus from a lived experience. There's something not fully connecting with me there, but I will say, if anything, I do like the chemistry. It reminds me a lot of sitcoms I love that you listed. I think it's most like How I Met Your Mother, but I don't cringe at it. I'm kind of okay with the comedic timing of it all. That's interesting that you say you don't cringe at it because Kiana...

We were talking before we started taping and you said this was a very cringy show for you. Tell me more. Oh my goodness. It was excruciating for me. I'm not going to lie. Toward the later part of the season, I started to kind of feel better about it.

But when I watched the first episode, I was like, okay, that's what I'm in for. Sure. And then I started the second episode and I was like, I can't, I need a break. I just, I couldn't handle two episodes in a row. That said, there are some really fun, like small moments throughout that make it worth it.

There are a lot of callbacks that run throughout the show that I think are really special and tie everything up together. But I don't know if it was worth it for me to experience as much as I did. There were so many moments where I just had to cover my face and not look at what was going on. I was like, I can't do this. So it's so interesting that Candace didn't feel cringy at all. Well, wait, can I pull on that a little bit more? Is it the sense of humor? Is it the...

Is it just too relatable? Like what? Does it hit too close to home? Like what? That's a good question. I, you know, we've all been in our 20s. We've all experienced some BS. So, you know, there are some relatable moments, especially when I think about, ironically enough, my NPR crew when I first started as an intern. We were a hot mess. I feel bad saying that publicly, but we were. Yeah.

And it reminded me a lot of that in some moments. But for the most part, it was the lengths and the depth of the cringe. It was just that was intentional. And that's the point and the purpose. But I don't know if everybody enjoys that kind of content. But I still feel like I've connected better with the show toward the end. Yeah. Yeah.

I think I lie kind of in the same general area as both of you. I felt, and this is, I think, just common for most sitcoms like this, and any TV show that's first starting, but like, especially if it's a show where it's like, we're all going to hang and we have to expect...

Like, these characters have been friends for a very long time. And it's like that chemistry has to be there out the gate. Like, it has to be there from the beginning. And for me, it did feel... I've listed all those TV shows. I also was getting to some extent, like, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I feel like it has some similar vibes going on there, especially because the very first episode...

It's focused on a character, a side character who's not like part of the main group, but a side character who is accusing someone else of sexual assault, which leads Samir to question whether he has ever gone too far with some of the women he's dated and to search and literally ask them, like, have I gone too far? Hey, you don't think I've ever like. What? Like crossed the line. What? Sexually. No. Oh.

Obviously not. I mean, when would you have crossed the line? I don't know. You just said that men don't realize half the time, so half the time I wouldn't realize. That premise itself feels very... We're throwing you in the deep end right from the beginning, and you're going to learn to swim, or you're not. You're either swimming with us or you're not. I wanted it to feel a little bit less derivative of all these other shows that I was thinking of, especially... I mean, I think Issa Amita Rao, she's very funny, but she also, I feel as though someone...

could have told her, you're going to be the Alana Glazer of this show. Yeah, exactly. And I don't think it's her so much as it is, like, the dialogue and what is written. I'm having, like, the worst time at this hospital today. And I know that sounds cringe because there are, like, cancer kids here. But I'm just, like...

My friends just weren't taking me seriously. But it did feel, oh man, I wish you could find your own groove. And I do think by the end of the season, it finds its own groove in a way. I know the people who, as you said, Candice, the people who wrote the show, they are like cuspers, I guess, just on the edge of Gen Z. But like, it kind of pushes back on this idea that Gen Z doesn't go for cringe humor. It doesn't go for that. But like, I'm curious what you think about, does this feel like a Gen Z...

Like, does it feel specific to the times? Yeah. So this is me talking about my community. Thank you so much. So I think the main question I ask when walking into a sitcom surrounding a friend group, and let's be very specific, they are also housemates, is would I hang out with these people? I'm going to say no. Because I think...

This show is trying to be different for a few reasons. The first one is that marketing-wise, you know, they put the first episode on TikTok broken up into like 13 parts. That's what Paramount did when they put Mean Girls on TikTok. And so part of me was like, OK, they're clearly trying to get at Gen Z. They're trying to get at the audience that the show is about. That's allegedly who wrote the show as well. I do want to talk about the socioeconomics and the dynamics of the show because I

I think four to eight years ago, if this show had come out, I would hate it for a million reasons. One being like, it's so politically insensitive. The way that they have no boundaries with each other is wild. The way they're going to the restroom is wild. What's wrong? Period cramps? No, she's two weeks out. Oh, I'm sorry, Bills. Okay, open up. What? Yeah, get a pee between your legs. You've been in your leg all day. No. He's the best at that. But the other thing is that like...

Four years ago, I think the biggest criticism would be the fact that none of these people seem below upper middle class. I think this show has like a stealth wealth hidden underneath it, which is that I think this show is about not feeling bad for a friend group who I think are pretty much variations of the exact same person and ethos.

And not feeling bad that they grew up without struggles. I mean, for example, Samir doesn't have a job. He like falls into a fintech job and he actually bunks the interview for a very valid reason. But he just becomes a gig worker just because. The fact that his parents own the home in Queens that he lives in with his friends and they don't pay any rent. I mean, the question that they never bring up is like, if I was Samir, I would spend every single day of my waking life asking, Samir.

Are my friends really my friends because they want to be my friend or is it because I give them free rent? I'm their landlord. I'm their landlord. It doesn't really come up. But on top of that, I think this is a group of friends who started on second base and they don't have the ambition or energy or grit to even try to go to home base. And the question is, can you live with that? Or is that cringe to you? Or do you know people like that? Or is that you? Mmm. Ah.

Candice dropping gems and not like... And they're uncut. I want to come back to those uncut gems. But Kiana, can you respond to that? Like what, does that make sense? Yeah, I mean, I really appreciate Candice for being so like in depth and specific about the optics of it because watching it, I was just like, you know, in hindsight, yes, they are privileged. Like it's very clear, like every step of the way they're displaying their privilege in great, great amounts. Yeah.

So it does feel as though they are not pretending, but they're moving through life in a way that they're acknowledging that they do need help.

Candice, you're on point. They seem stunted in a way. I mean, my whole thing too is I think the show is willing to say just because you have friends does not mean you have community or accountability. Okay. So I see your point and I absolutely think you, again, you have blown my mind in ways that I haven't really thought about. But I also do think, and maybe this is part of the like Trojan horsing, it's the stealth wealth thing. Like,

This show, to me, stood out because, A, you do have all these people living in the same house who, like, most of them are not paying. Well, none of them. I don't think any of them are. None of them are. I mean, if you were in your 20s, if I was in my 20s and I could do that, I absolutely would do that. Come on now. It's expensive. I guess what I think is interesting is the fact that they are, you know, living in Queens and...

And they do seem to struggle a little bit. Like there's an entire episode dedicated to one of them, maybe not having health insurance or like rushing to do the health. So like,

It's a tricky balance to strike, but I also do understand your point, Candice. No, no, no. Go in. Go in. I guess what I'm curious about is one of the things that comes up is that Paul Baker is Canadian and his visa is coming up. And that also feels very, very timely. What did you make of that? In general, just like what do you make of the political impact?

tones that this show tries to strike. Kiana? Yeah, I feel like they're definitely trying to inject a lot of perspective and opinion into it.

you know, Paul Baker's character is notoriously fluid. He has some moments with another character on the show that are surprising, but toward the end, we kind of see how it all comes together. I feel like I saw that coming from a mile away, but maybe that's just me. I mean, I guess I was just like, I saw it like in motion, but I was like, are they gonna do this? And then of course I should have known that they would because they did everything else. So yeah, I think the Paul Baker character, he's probably my favorite. I think he's,

incredibly adorable. He's the least stressful. I think that's probably why I gravitate toward him. In terms of the way that they kind of, not shoehorn, but like the last two episodes feel like they take a sharp turn and we just kind of start getting all of this information that we didn't have before. So yeah, there is kind of like a transition at the end of the season that I feel was not quite earned.

I agree. I think this show changes like its tone every two episodes. There are times that I'm like, oh, is this girls? No, it's Broad City. No, is it like Search Party? Is it edgy new girl? And the thing is, the benefit of a show like this, which historically has been on networks like ABC and Fox, is like because it's on FX, they can be edgy. They can have storylines where a girl who's about to get an abortion says, take me to where they filmed 9-11. Which is

Was a joke that killed me. But the thing is, like, that's the toad. That's the toad of, like, this show, which is that you have friends who are offensive sometimes and they just kind of roll with it. But I think in terms of, like, who I gravitated towards, I loved Owen Thiel as Anton. He's also an overcompensating, which is also really interesting. Oh, interesting. But the episode that I think actually kind of hit for me the most was episode three. It's when this neighborhood stabber starts...

This neighborhood stabber is being looked for and Anton finds out that he has been texting with him. And the entire episode is like Anton kind of flirting with the neighborhood stabber. Seriously, Anton, you can't just soul bond with every person you meet. It's not normal. Why not? Because some people stab people.

I loved that episode because it went into classic ABC storyline. The A was like Anton, you know, flirting with a stabber. And B was Paul Baker and Samir trying to sell a gun. Like it's so...

it's so wild but that stuff reminds me of like Modern Family right where like everything starts way out here it comes together at the end and you're like oh my god finally they they finally they landed the plane and you're so happy but I have to admit I don't think the show ever picked up to that point I'm not so faithful in like the next season just because I don't think these characters are ever gonna change I think

this is who they are. I do wonder if this was like a traditional network sitcom and had more time to flourish, if we like the show might have benefited. To that point, though, I do think for me, the last two episodes were the ones where I was like, OK, I think I could continue on with this show. I especially loved, as you've already mentioned, the abortion story, which is not even actually really about abortion, but like the

They basically take in for the weekend a teenager who has come to New York specifically to get an abortion because she can't get it where she lives. I thought that was just handled so well. That's the best of them trying to meld all of those different tones together. I hate you two. I wish I was having this abortion at Sarah Jessica Parker's house. Okay, Annabelle. We all wish we were having this abortion at Sarah Jessica Parker's house, okay? With Matthew and Andy and Brooke Shields and Marcy. F*** you.

That's when it got funny to me. Because before, I was just stressed. But I was able to kind of see the humor between them and see the moment that they were creating. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know if we've had a cast that's been largely unknown like this in like a year, two. I mean, Owen Thiel is actually to me the most famous person on the show. Owen Thiel was the only one I knew because of Theater Camp. Yeah. He was a very small role in Theater Camp. And I was like, oh, I remember this kid. Yeah. Yeah. The only person I know is Owen because he like.

has a podcast and everyone else was super unknown to me. And I mean, the fact that they were able to get Julia Fox on one of their episodes to me was super keying in of like, ah, like this is very much Instagram to book like a bunch of unknowns and then to kind of bet on their chemistry, which I do think works, is a jump.

And a risk. And I like that. And so if anything, I don't think the friendship sitcom is dead. I wonder if the friendship sitcom just will not be viewed in the traditional way it has been before. And all I mean by that is like maybe it's like vloggers who end up making the new friendship sitcom, you know? Yeah. The chemistry seems to be there. It goes down easy, I think. Cringy, but easy.

Once I got into it, I was like, okay, I get it now. I get the rhythm. So I would agree. Yes. We are mostly pro adults, safe to say.

Well, we want to know what you think about adults. Find us at Facebook.com slash BCHH. That brings us to the end of our show. Candice Lim, Kiana Fitzgerald, thanks so much for being here. And honestly, like you helped me decode and like understand the show on a completely different level. This is why we need more intergenerational conversations happening. Yes, yes. We should have booked a 70-year-old on this pod. Yes.

Thanks so much for being here, y'all. Thank you. Thank you. And this Sunday in our podcast feed, we're going to have another monthly mailbag bonus episode for our Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus supporters. We'll be answering very important questions about summer. Your questions, in fact. What's better, the beach or the pool?

And what are our favorite summer cocktails? We had so many thoughts on thoughts. Sign up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org slash happy. And we'll also have a link to that in our episode description. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Mike Katzeff and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello Come In provides our theme music. And thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Ayesha Harris, and we'll see you all next time.

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