This article contains spoilers for Youth Season 1 Episode 1.
Television has many an issue, but the absence of middle-aged and older women has become a particularly pressing one in recent years. Women over 50 still too often find themselves relegated to playing the mother of an actor barely a decade younger than them, or, worse, a grandmother long before they have any business becoming one. Roles that acknowledge their sexuality remain especially scarce, particularly substantial ones that seek more than a clap on the back for depicting something supposedly taboo. Sharon Horgan, however, may be about to change that with her latest series, Youth.
Horgan remains one of Ireland’s best-kept television secrets, despite her presence on British screens with the likes of Pulling, Catastrophe, This Way Up, and Motherland, and her success across the pond with HBO’s Divorce and Apple TV’s Bad Sisters. Inspiration from her previous work is notable, but more strikingly, Youth is reminiscent of Mrs Fletcher, the Kathryn Hahn-led HBO comedy that lasted just one season before HBO cancelled it in 2019, then removed the series from streaming amid the network’s tax write-offs. While 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, Youth feels like HBO’s second chance at delivering a coming-of-age story for women in their fifties.
If the irony of the title was not enough, the first episode opens with a montage of significant women thriving in middle age, including Maya Angelou and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A voiceover notes: “No decade moves faster than 50 to 60. You have to make every second of your time count.” Cue Alex (Horgan), a 50-something scrolling through social media, watching brain-numbing videos her algorithm forces upon her from AI animals to plastic surgery content. She only stops when her boss messages her, causing her to drop her phone directly onto her mouth. It’s relatable regardless your age, but no less sad, even if she does this in a gorgeous London flat viewers will envy.
Alex, played with Horgan’s familiar mixture of irritation, warmth, and comic neurosis, faces the pressures that weigh on women in the sandwich generation: growing children, ageing parents, feeling stuck in a career, and the dawning realisation that the life they built might no longer fit their reality. While hilarious, Episode 1 efficiently establishes Alex and the pressures closing in around her throughout its 29-minute runtime. To join the dream-worthy flat much of the episode is set in, she works as a book agent, though she remains keen to earn the approval she already has from her boss and close friend, Sam (Sharlene Whyte).
Then there is her son, Ruari, who graduates from sixth form, heads to university, and moves back home at 2am in the same episode. His behaviour suggests that his return may not be quite as impulsive as Alex believes, given that he stages a protest at his graduation, behaves with a teenager’s customary aloofness, and appears worryingly close to following in the footsteps of his father, a narcissist who loves the sound of his own voice, played by Owen McDonnell. First impressions of the teenager may not be strong, despite Murphy proving himself to be a capable actor in his own right (his father is Cillian Murphy), but it’s clear that Youth is interested in how boys and men can become shaped by societal messaging.
Despite Alex’s mounting stress, Horgan once again proves herself to be a darkly hilarious writer. During an important meeting, Alex develops lockjaw, a running bit the episode returns to during bouts of stress. When she asks a doctor whether this represents “the start of a general decline,” she is told that it’s “just an age thing.” Later, she entertains a date who is too eager to please before leaving early once they reach his bedroom. She’s more devastated by the loss of her burger, which she drops on the floor of a bus and cannot bring herself to eat after a woman watches her reach for it.
Things begin to look up when Patrick (Rupert Friend), a situationship and obvious love interest, re-enters her life with considerably more spark. While their scenes are minimal in the first episode, their chemistry is delicious, and their scenes are equal parts sexy and hilarious. Whether Alex will stand in her own way remains to be seen, but you cannot blame her for giving it a go.
If Youth continues at this level, Horgan will reiterate that the perfect subject for her particular brand of comedy is the coming-of-age story for women who have already come of age once, only to discover that growing up was never the end of the story. Appointment television has returned.
