As A Gen Z'r Who Feels Like She Has No Idea What She's Doing, FX's Adults Gets Me In A Way Most Shows Don't

Have you ever seen a show that genuinely resonates with you? I might have found one.

Look, we live in a golden age of television. There are so many great TV shows that are coming out as part of the 2025 TV schedule that it’s almost hard to keep track. We have the upcoming season of The Bear. We also have the last season of Squid Game. We could even discuss the next (and possibly final) season of Shrinking, which is one of the best shows on Apple TV+. There are so many.

But, what about some new shows, right? I think I've found one for all my fellow Gen Z’rs out there who feel like they're just as lost as I am. Let’s talk about it.

Being An Adult, In General, Is A Hard Thing To Adjust To

So, I’m about to be so honest with you – being an adult is hard.

I’ve been out of college for five years, and I will say that my first year was my hardest – I didn’t have a full-time job; we were still very much stuck in COVID-19 times, so the job market wasn’t super great, I was going through a lot of mental stuff, and life was just hard. After some time, I got out of it, but that doesn’t change the fact that being an adult, in general, can be difficult.

We’re not really taught in school how to deal with certain situations – such as how to call a hospital about health insurance claims, how to apply for checks at a bank, or even how to appropriately respond to an email or ask for something at work, or whatever the case may be. For years, in our twenties, it’s essentially just a string of carefully thought-out responses that either end with us being proud of our choices or making a mistake that will teach (haunt) us for the rest of our lives.

Usually, the latter.

I hadn’t really found a show in my life that truly captured that feeling for a bit…, but now I think I have, and that’s Adults.

FX’s Adults Really Capture That Perspective With A Comedy Mindset

Two big Gen Z-type shows are currently out, which people are talking about – Overcompensating on Amazon Prime and Adults on FX on Hulu, which is what I’ll be discussing today. Both are fun shows, but Overcompensating talks about modern-day college, and I really wanted one that went beyond the campus green.

Enter Adults, and man; I have never laughed harder than at some of the jokes on this show.

Is it something that’s going to be life-changing? Of course not. I doubt we are ever going to get a sitcom about friends living in the same place that will be as big as Friends or any of those early 2000s shows. What Adults can be is something that my generation – and really anyone just trying to figure out their lives – can relate to.

The characters in this show aren’t the best people – they make huge mistakes. Oftentimes, though, there are plenty of errors that you could easily make in your daily life, as well.

For example, one of my favorite moments occurs in Episode 6, where one of the main characters, Billie, attempts to host a dinner party and cook a roast chicken in the oven. However, when it comes out looking perfect, it’s still practically frozen on the inside – because she hadn’t taken it out to thaw beforehand, and she didn’t realize she had to.

While I’ve never been that bad, I have had my fair amount of instances where I tried to cook a whole bird in the oven, and it just didn’t work out, and I’d get so frustrated because my mother always made it look so easy. Why is the meat dry? Why did the skin burn? Why can’t I make it look golden? It’s so annoying.

It’s moments like this where the show truly connects with me because I honestly have no idea what I’m doing. I’m just winging it half the time – and so are these characters.

The Characters Are All Still Growing – And Sometimes Aren't The Best, Just Like In Real Life

As I mentioned above, there’s also something about these characters that I like a lot, which really makes it one of the best Hulu shows out there. They aren’t all great people. In fact, they can be jerks sometimes.

That really adds to the character development we see. Because they can be idiots and make stupid decisions, it shows that there’s always room for growth. Some of the decisions backfire pretty severely, and it often leads to hilarious situations that really only happen to someone in their twenties.

When these things happen to them, it really does stink, but they learn from it. They grow, and that counts as another life lesson because what else can they do? From dating people they really shouldn’t, to learning how to live with others, it’s the kind of show that really examines what it’s like to grow up and become not just an adult but a good human – or at least someone who knows how to do their taxes.

And It’s Nice To Have A Sitcom That Takes A Hard Look At Your Twenties And Doesn’t Glamorize It

I think the biggest reason why I enjoy the show so much is that it doesn’t glamorize your twenties. Look, we can love the Friends cast and their characters as much as we want, or wish we were all living the hectic lives of those in the Sex Lives of College Girls, but in reality, being an adult is messy.

These shows only give us the fun parts and sometimes the not-so-fun ones, but they don’t show the terrible mistakes, the dull moments of adulthood, and people just trying to learn to live. That’s something I really like about Adults. It’s the kind of show that isn’t afraid to get real and tell you how it is, and I think that’s the kind of series we all need right now.

While I don’t think Adults is going to become a worldwide phenomenon, I do think there’s a lot of room for it to grow, and I feel that a lot of people like me will connect to it. And hey, you get a funny series to watch, as well as some life lessons that come with it. It’s a win-win scenario.