This article contains spoilers for Youth Season 1 Episode 2.
HBO is wasting little time in introducing audiences to its latest comedy, releasing the first two episodes of Youth on September 20. Where Episode 1 established Alex’s (Sharon Horgan) increasingly complicated relationship with middle age, Episode 2 begins to show just how difficult it is for her to make time for herself when everyone around her seems to need something from her. Her career no longer feels satisfying, her son may be hiding something serious, and the relationship she desperately wants to pursue is already at risk of becoming another source of stress.
Two episodes are enough to prove that Youth has many charming qualities, but what is strikingly apparent is how well cast the series is, with Horgan having chemistry with every scene partner she has. This is particularly evident when Alex and Sam (Sharlene Whyte) meet best-selling author Charlotte (Ann Reid) and her no-nonsense daughter, Lily (Harriet Walter). While the show’s US audience may not be as awestruck as I – or its UK audience will be – by the casting, their scenes are even better. Charlotte has written 83 books, and her latest manuscript is so raunchy and racist that Sam and Alex want her to tone down some of the explicit passages. The latter point receives considerably less attention than the former, but it is a prevalent issue in the literary world to introduce for later exploration, even if there is no guarantee the series will return to it.
There is also an interesting tension between Alex and Sam, with Alex beginning to question whether they are really equals in their friendship. Horgan and Whyte are entertaining together, particularly as the boundaries between their professional relationship and personal friendship become increasingly blurred. An awkward work meeting puts Alex on the spot, with Sam dismissing her belief that pursuing Yafa Barghouti’s work is the right choice and asking her to concentrate on Charlotte instead. Alex ignores her and tells Yafa that she wants to read more anyway, a small but significant decision that suggests she is beginning to push back against the influence of others.
Her problems at home, however, are considerably more complicated. Ruari (Aran Murphy) remains home from university, adamant that dropping out is the right decision because he wants to become a stand-up comedian instead. Beneath the comedy, however, something is evidently very wrong. An anonymous message later calls Ruari a sex offender, while a trip back to Kent sees two of his former flatmates tell Alex that Ruari is a pervert. Alex is left trying to understand what happened during his short stay while Ruari retreats further into himself. The episode wisely leaves the circumstances surrounding Bridget unresolved, though one wonders if a 30-minute, eight-episode comedy has enough room to explore the imprint of societal messaging on young men fully.
The situation becomes even more complicated thanks to Alex’s ex-husband, who is gleefully saved in her phone as “Dick for Brains.” He thinks Ruari should take a gap year while pursuing stand-up, but he cannot take him to Toronto with him and his younger partner, leaving Alex to explain to the teenager why the move is no longer happening. It is another reminder of how much responsibility continues to fall on Alex, even when the decisions concern their son. Her ex-husband can offer an opinion about what Ruari should do, but Alex is the one left dealing with the consequences, reinforcing the episode’s broader sense that everyone wants something from her without considering what she might want herself.
Thankfully, Patrick (Rupert Friend) provides some brief respite. Their chemistry was obvious in Episode 1, but Youth gives it considerably more room to breathe here, and the result is even more delicious than the last. Patrick keeps trying to contact Alex before eventually asking her out, and when they finally spend time together, Alex admits she wants a relationship. He feels the same way, but given the series’ emphasis on Patrick being a childless 40-something with no serious relationship history, things are almost too smooth. Likewise, things are going almost too smoothly for a Horgan series, given her history of tumultuous relationship depictions in Divorce and Catastrophe. Still, there is something giddy about watching Alex with Patrick, as if all her other worries disappear whenever they are together. She wants this, and she wants him, which makes it particularly painful when Ruari’s problems repeatedly intrude on their time together.
That conflict eventually reaches breaking point when Patrick tells Alex that he does not want to become another source of stress in her life. Prone to self-sabotage, she hears it as confirmation that everything is too much and that wanting a relationship somehow makes her a bad parent. She tells him not to follow her, and he respects her wishes, even though it is obvious that she does not actually want him to walk away. The writing and acting are excellent here, with Horgan capturing the devastation and irritation of someone hearing what they feared rather than what was actually said. Friend is equally effective as Patrick, though it’s easier to feel sympathy with Alex than the man seemingly taking the easy route out.
With Alex now at a crossroads with Ruari, her career, and Patrick, Youth continues to find comedy in the less glamorous realities of middle age without losing sight of the questions raised in its premiere. Horgan has already established Alex as a woman caught between the life she has built and the life she still wants, and Youth is proving increasingly funny – and increasingly painful – as it finds the tension between the two.
