This article contains spoilers for Youth Season 1 Episode 3.
After the first two episodes of Youth, you would not be alone in desperately wanting Alex (Sharon Horgan) to catch a break from the domino effect that has become her fifties. As personal and professional pressures have piled up, she has found it increasingly difficult to make time for herself, so Episode 3 takes her out of London and to Frankfurt on business in the hope that a change of scenery might offer some respite. Unfortunately for Alex, getting away does not mean getting a break, particularly when she is forced to bring Ruari (Aran Murphy) with her, who has little interest in being there.
Frankfurt provides plenty of opportunities for Horgan to mine Alex’s professional life for comedy. She and Sam are at the Frankfurter Buchmesse to pitch new titles and build partnerships, though so are Charlotte Arbor (Anne Reid) and her daughter Liv (Harriet Walter), who are looking for a new publisher for Wagon Burner after Alex and Sam’s notes from last week. The pair are hoping to find someone more ambitious and aligned with the book’s rather outrageous material, though Sam doubts anyone will want this particular version of the book. She is right, though it may be less about its content and more because Arbor can no longer be sold as original or new, a significant plot point considering that middle age is only the beginning of the misogyny that surrounds women society views as past their prime.
Alex, meanwhile, is pitching Yafa Barghouti as the original new voice publishers are seeking behind Sam’s back, only to discover that Dragon Seed, written by Malcolm Hammond (Douglas Hodge) – the author she fired – has become a hit. Despite her reasons for firing him, with Hodge playing Malcolm’s creepiness effectively, it’s another reminder that Alex’s professional confidence is hardly as secure as she would like it to be. She is good at what she does, but Youth keeps finding ways to make her question whether her instincts are actually working in her favour.
The episode also gives Alex and Sam plenty of time together, and their friendship remains one of the series’ most entertaining relationships. Though, given what Alex is keeping from Sam, it’s likely that this will not last. Horgan and Whyte are certainly up to the challenge when it all comes to blows, with their chemistry making even their disagreements feel like the inevitable result of two people who know each other too well despite how often they surprise each other (a scene in which they discuss blow jobs is a particular highlight).
Ruari, unsurprisingly, makes the trip considerably more complicated. Murphy does a stellar job of playing the aloof teenager, particularly when doing all the wrong things – performing a Nazi salute in Germany is enough to raise your stress levels, never mind Alex’s. Likewise, when he sends Alex a series of increasingly alarming text messages while on a night out, they initially suggest that something far more serious has happened, before Youth reveals what is really going on. After getting drunk during freshers’ week, Ruari hooked up with Bridget (Scarlett Rayner), only for the situation to become uncomfortable when they woke up together, leading to his branding as a pervert. Even though there is a long way to go with this storyline, Horgan handles it carefully, finding humour in an uncomfortable situation without losing sight of its severity or the emotions running through it. “No one in your family is a pervert, not even on your dad’s side,” she tells him, in one of the episode’s funniest lines, before making it clear that he does not have to return to university until he is ready.
Since Episode 1, inspiration from Horgan’s previous work has been notable, particularly with Catastrophe and Divorce, something which should come as no surprise seeing that Horgan is the autofiction auteur, with her work blurring the line between creator and protagonist. Horgan creates, writes, produces, and stars in the series, which continues to be reminiscent of Mrs Fletcher, the Kathryn Hahn-led HBO comedy that was cancelled after its first season in 2019, then removed from HBO Max amid the network’s tax write-offs in 2022.
If the debut two episodes reaffirmed that the Tom Perrotta series aired at a time when audiences were not ready for its raunchiness or exploration of a woman rediscovering her sexuality after her son left home, Episode 3 revels in its status as coming-of-age story for women in their fifties. The main difference is that Mrs. Fletcher featured a lesbian porn addiction, alongside its titular character exploring her sexuality with both women and men, while Alex remains stuck in a rut with the latter – particularly Patrick (Rupert Friend).
Horgan favours depicting relationships as messy, avoiding fairy-tale romances and choosing to focus on two flawed people trying to connect as romance, resentment, and a fear of commitment collide to create a relationship so unglamourous you may recognise it as your own. Alex’s relationship with Patrick is therefore less reassuring than she would hope. When he does not respond to her messages, Alex becomes convinced that something is wrong, only for him to respond the following morning as though he cannot understand why he would not be speaking to her. Alex tells him that Sam thinks she does not see Patrick as a serious person, and he points out that she has effectively said as much herself.
Perhaps this is where the autofiction auteur label we associate with Horgan comes into play, because Alex has a point, even if she does not want to admit it. Patrick has not exactly fought for her, and his decision to sleep with other people makes it difficult to believe that he is prepared to offer her the relationship she wants. He later messages asking which flat she is in, deletes the message while she is typing, and then responds with a simple “haha” when Alex jokes that she is a 34C rather than “flat.” They are two people who clearly want something from each other but remain incapable of saying what that is.
The episode also finds another way to remind Alex that her body is changing without following the path she expected for her sixth decade. After months without a period, she assumes she is going through menopause, only for it to return heavily while away. She contacts a menopause clinic to ask whether what she is experiencing is normal, before her mind inevitably jumps to the possibility of cancer. While I am nowhere near my fifties, there is something oddly comforting about Youth finding comedy in the indignities of ageing without making Alex’s anxieties seem ridiculous.
By the end of the episode, Alex is left with more answers than she had at the start, but somehow even more problems to deal with. Ruari needs her, Patrick remains out of reach, and her professional life is taking another knock. Three episodes in, Youth continues to find comedy in the less glamourous realities of middle age without losing sight of the anxieties underneath them. This is Horgan at her best.
