This article contains spoilers for Youth Season 1 Episode 8.
If you thought a Sharon Horgan series exploring the complexities of your 50s would end smoothly, you were wrong. The autofiction auteur has always favoured stories that capture life’s messiness. British sitcom Pulling follows three single women living in London, offering a raw look at single life as they navigate the complexities of modern dating and relationships. Catastrophe follows two virtual strangers who try to make a relationship work after an unexpected pregnancy, drawing on the showrunner’s own marriage dynamics to show the hardships of marriage and parenthood. Youth itself follows a 50-something London literary agent, Alex (Horgan), navigating a brief empty-nest spell, parenting a teenager, ageing parents, menopause, and midlife dating. Horgan is known for drawing from her own life while keeping a layer of fiction, and she hasn’t failed yet, even across other series like Divorce and Bad Sisters.
That may be why the finale of Youth’s first season falls so short. Set mostly at the Women’s Lit Awards, it tries to bring its many storylines to a close, but it fails to do so in any way that feels complete or satisfying. Perhaps it’s a good thing that Horgan leaves things open-ended, as there are likely plans for a Season 2, even if no official renewal has been announced as of this review. Yet there’s a difference between leaving storylines unresolved and abandoning them completely in favour of focus elsewhere. Storylines such as Jessie’s stalker, introduced just last week, aren’t revisited and instead feel like throwaways meant to fill screen time. Jessie doesn’t show up to the awards, and Alex accepts her award on her behalf. But we get no explanation for why, and Alex doesn’t seem concerned after what she learned last week, leaving audiences with the first of many unanswered questions.
Instead, Charlotte (Ann Reid) and Liv (Harriet Walter) take up much of the episode’s focus. Reid and Walter are legends of British television, and watching the pair bounce off each other with thinly veiled insults, alongside Charlotte’s clear lack of interest in her daughter, adds an interesting dynamic to Youth. But they aren’t more interesting than Alex and Patrick (Rupert Friend), Sam (Sharlene Whyte), and Frank (Robbie Gee), or even Ruari (Aran Murphy) and Plum (Libby Mai). The misguided focus on their relationship weakens an episode that should close out the relationships we’ve spent seven episodes investing in, even if the series takes the realistic route and separates them.
Charlotte receives her Lifetime Achievement award, handed to her by James Norton playing himself. Horgan’s short “Oh” when he enters the stage is nothing short of masterful, even if much of the script she wrote for herself in this episode revolves around reminding Charlotte to thank Liv. She, of course, doesn’t, and Liv suffers a stroke just as her mother starts her speech. Charlotte continues, unconcerned with what is going on at her table. It’s hard to find any humour in it, given that the storyline’s development stalled weeks earlier.
Youth has also built towards a major fallout between Alex and Sam. While their conflict comes to a head in the finale, the confrontation fails to fully explore the damage done to their relationship. Neither woman is content with the other’s choices – Sam never believed Patrick was good enough for Alex, and she didn’t believe Yara Boughati was the writer their agency needed. Alex believes otherwise, and she evidently has little time for Sam and Frank’s marital woes. Horgan and Whyte give as good as they get, sparring with wit and cruelty as they depict two friends who love each other, but know they’ve each crossed a line.
Admittedly, Sam was right about Yara Boughati. The writer heads to the newly named Cole & Noble, delivering a harsh wake-up call to Alex. Sam, meanwhile, spends much of the episode running around the awards like “Challenge fucking Anneka,” in Alex’s words – another line for British audiences to laugh at – trying to land a writer who will never write for them. That’s the least of Sam’s priorities, though, as Frank leaves their home to give them both much-needed space. Whyte and Gee share a humorous chemistry and bounce off each other well, but the series underutilises it and, in turn, fails to let audiences invest in the breakdown of their marriage.
The same goes for Ruari. He spends much of the episode thinking Plum has rejected him after their brief entanglement in Episode 7, drinking his way through the awards as she fails to show up. All is well, though, as the teenager gets the happiest ending of all when Plum turns up late, and they kiss. It’s a sweet moment, but it feels like too easy a resolution for the storyline about masculinity and social media messaging, which deserved more exploration. Murphy has proved a talented actor in his own right, beyond his surname, though the writing could have given him more to work with.
When Alex asks the ever-creepy Malcolm (Douglas Hodge), “When did it all stop being fun, eh?” she could just as easily mean both life and this episode. The two meet throughout the finale, with the latter hanging around like a bad smell, and it culminates with Alex waking up at his place. She’s horrified and doesn’t remember what they did, though it’s not long until Sam calls and tells her that Malcolm is signing with their agency. It’s an uneasy development that makes your stomach turn, but the finale barely gives Alex or the audience time to process it before reuniting her with Patrick.
Patrick messages Alex throughout the episode, attempting to explain the pros-and-cons list she found last week. He wrote it after a therapy session and doesn’t want to lose something as good as they have for something he isn’t sure he wants. But Alex knows what he’s giving up, even if he doesn’t, and she tells him he should be relieved that she’s making the decision so easy for him. It’s gutting, especially if you were rooting for the pair. Horgan and Friend’s easy chemistry makes their separation feel like a waste of something promising, even if, unlike some of the finale’s unresolved dynamics, their parting has been worked towards. It fits with Horgan’s fascination with the harsh realities of dating, especially in your 50s, when knowing what you want doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll find someone who wants the same thing.
Youth was, for the most part, a success for Sharon Horgan, who delivered another largely relatable series with her trademark comedy. It may have faltered at the finish line, but one could view the finale as a dark exploration of midlife, where relationships unravel, and problems remain unresolved because of circumstances beyond our control. Horgan has explored this territory before, even if too many storylines here feel forgotten rather than deliberately left open. If we’re lucky, this won’t be the last time we see Alex and co., and some of those unanswered questions will get answers.
