When HBO Max launched in the UK, Netflix lost one of its most-watched shows to the new streaming platform. That show, Friends (began in 1994 and ended in 2004) was constantly rewatched and clocked up 32.6 billion viewing minutes on the platform in a single year. I don’t understand why Netflix talks about things this way, but anything with a billion is clearly huge. Friends is a show that never appears to age, even though a lot of those in Gen Z have rightly pointed out where its views and attitudes have aged badly, but there’s a reason why a show this old is still resonating with people. The Hangout Comedy is one of TV’s easiest and most fun to watch. People you like to spend time with, have adventures with, and sometimes grow as people. Shows like Friends, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and perhaps to a lesser extent, How I Met Your Mother are endlessly rewatchable because they have a comforting, familiar rhythm and because you enjoy spending time with these people.

Though it’s the easiest show to watch, it clearly isn’t the easiest type of show to replicate. Netflix, which saw users bingeing Friends and The Office on a near-constant basis, tried its hand at the hangout comedy with a show called Blockbuster about the last Blockbuster video in existence. It was a hangout comedy, but it lacked the charm that the best in the genre do. There was also the awkward disconnect with the fact that Netflix, the first streaming platform, set an original comedy in a business that their own business model effectively killed off.

The hangout comedy is incredibly difficult because it relies more on cast chemistry and setting than anything else. There hasn’t been a good one to match the quality of Friends at its height for a long, long time. That is until now.

Adults, the Gen Z comedy from co-creators Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, is quite simply the best hangout comedy of the decade, and stands alongside any of the heavy hitters in terms of cast chemistry, gag level, characters you love and want to spend time with, and speaking to its audience on their level. Set in New York, it follows the lives of five roommates (so far, so familiar) as they navigate young adulthood without being fully prepared to be the adults of the title. Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw were only slightly older than the twentysomethings they were writing about when they pitched the series, so they know exactly who they are writing about. It’s also immediately clear that the pair and the writing staff have a deep love for the genre they are working in. Not to harp on too much about a Netflix show that barely anyone remembers, but Blockbuster felt designed by a committee where Adults instantly feels fresh and with something to say about the world whilst also winking at the sitcom tropes we are familiar with.

Adults is the kind of comedy that sneaks up on you. What starts as a show about five messy twenty-somethings sharing a house in Queens quickly becomes something much more entertaining: a relaxed, character-driven hangout comedy about friendship, financial independence, bad decisions, and the general chaos of figuring out adulthood.

What immediately stood out to me was how little Adults feels like a traditional sitcom. It isn’t built around delivering a punchline every few seconds or forcing every episode toward some huge comedic payoff. Instead, it lets these characters simply exist together, and that’s where much of the humor comes from.

They’re broke, emotionally messy, occasionally terrible at communicating, and almost completely dependent on one another. There’s something incredibly relatable about watching five people in their twenties try to convince themselves that they have their lives together, even though they’re clearly making everything up as they go.

That said, Adults, like every comedy before it, does take a little time to find its voice. Some of the early episodes lean heavily on awkwardness and chaos without always giving the characters enough emotional grounding for those moments to land. But once the ensemble chemistry starts clicking, the show becomes much more confident—and that’s when I found myself getting hooked.

Season 1 introduces us to the dysfunctional household at the center of the series. Samir (Malik Elassal) is the unofficial house leader, constantly trying to keep everything together despite being unemployed. Billie (Lucy Freyer) is a former overachiever whose confidence takes a serious hit after she loses her job in journalism. Anton (Owen Thiele) is the eccentric wild card with a mysterious remote job who develops an unexpectedly sweet friendship with Paul Baker (Jack Innanen). *The show has a lot of deeply funny long-running gags, but the fact that the housemates always address Paul Baker by both names is never not funny!

Then there’s Issa (Amita Rao), the impulsive, chaotic roommate whose relationship with Paul grows increasingly complicated as he faces the possibility of being deported to Canada.

The middle stretch of Season 1 is where Adults really finds its identity. The show understands that the funniest stories don’t always need to be huge. It simply lets these characters bounce off one another as they get themselves into increasingly ridiculous situations around Queens.

One of the standout episodes is “Have You Seen This Man?”, in which the roommates discover that a serial stabber is operating in their neighborhood. Naturally, everyone becomes paranoid—only for the situation to grow even more ridiculous when the completely oblivious Anton accidentally befriends the suspected killer and brings him directly into their orbit. It’s exactly the kind of story Adults does best: completely absurd on the surface but driven by the personalities and relationships underneath it.

The show also finds surprising emotional depth after an unexpected personal loss brings Anton and Issa together as they desperately search for cosmic meaning. Meanwhile, Samir and Paul cope with the same tragedy by essentially reverting to teenage behavior and drinking in the basement.

These moments work because the show doesn’t insist on making everything a joke. At the same time, I occasionally found Season 1’s balance between comedy and emotion uneven. Some dramatic beats feel as though they’re introduced primarily to set up the next joke rather than fully explore what the characters are feeling. The season really starts to unravel when the roommates finally decide to open their communal mailbox after ignoring it for months. Inside is basically a nightmare: utility bills, legal notices, and administrative problems they’ve collectively decided don’t exist.

Then they discover the biggest problem of all: Paul Baker’s visa has expired, leaving him facing deportation. Issa immediately jumps into action and comes up with a ridiculous solution—a shotgun wedding. Armed with Samir’s mother’s vintage wedding dress, the group heads to the venue, determined to make the plan work. Of course, this is Adults, so nothing goes according to plan. That was a turning point for me. The show had demonstrated that there was more to it than five funny people doing ridiculous things.

Cleverly, before the start of Season 2, the series dropped a standalone episode, Marathon Day. This prequel episode explains how Paul Baker (always both names) joined the group. The episode now serves as the first episode of the first season on Hulu and Disney+ in the rest of the world, effectively functioning as a brand-new pilot. Honestly, that’s the perfect Adults origin story: a terrible lie, an even worse plan, and a genuinely nice guy getting pulled into the chaos.

If Season 1 showed what Adults could be, Season 2 proves what the series is capable of. The second season is funnier, more confident, and much more comfortable with its characters. Across eight episodes, Samir, Billie, Paul, Issa, and Anton continue stumbling through relationships, careers, money problems, and the increasingly chaotic reality of living together.

Episodes like “The Scrub,” “Fake ID,” “Raccoon,” “C Alert,” and “Vote for Paul Baker” are particular standouts, but what impressed me most was how consistently funny the season remains without making the characters feel like caricatures. The show doesn’t just throw these characters into increasingly ridiculous situations; it understands them better. Their flaws are more clearly defined, their relationships have more history, and the consequences of their decisions actually carry weight.

Paul Baker’s increasingly complicated feelings for Anton become one of the season’s strongest emotional storylines, giving their friendship a completely different dimension. Meanwhile, Billie continues trying to figure out what she actually wants from life, often failing spectacularly along the way.

Samir and Issa also get more opportunities to explore their relationships and futures, allowing the characters to grow without sacrificing the chaotic energy that makes the show so entertaining.

The reason season 2 works so well is that the characters are actually changing. They’re still making terrible decisions. They’re still broke. They’re still getting themselves into absurd situations. But now those situations have consequences, and their relationships feel deeper because we’ve spent enough time with them to understand why they behave the way they do.

The cast is one of the biggest reasons Adults works.

Malik Elassal gives Samir the perfect combination of frustration and reluctant responsibility. He’s constantly trying to be the adult in the room while clearly having no idea what he’s doing himself. Owen Thiele absolutely steals scenes as Anton. His eccentricity could easily become too much, but Thiele gives the character enough warmth and vulnerability to make him more than just the weird roommate. Jack Innanen brings a surprising amount of heart to Paul Baker, especially as the character deals with his increasingly complicated feelings and his relationship with Issa. His performance is a big reason Paul’s more emotional storylines work. Lucy Freyer and Amita Rao are pitch-perfect, and the chemistry among all five actors makes even the smallest conversations entertaining. That’s what makes Adults feel more like a hangout show than a traditional sitcom. You don’t just watch these characters because you want to see what happens next. You want to spend time with them.

There’s something refreshing about Adults. It understands that being in your twenties isn’t necessarily about having everything figured out. Sometimes, it’s about being broke, confused, emotionally overwhelmed, and relying far too much on your friends while pretending you’re doing fine. The show takes that feeling and turns it into comedy without making its characters the butt of every joke.

Season 2 also isn’t afraid to let its emotional moments breathe. Beneath the raunchy humor, awkward situations, and completely ridiculous decisions, these characters genuinely care about one another. That’s what gives the comedy its weight.

And then there’s the finale. Without getting too deep into spoilers, the season delivers a major romantic payoff before dropping a final twist that completely changes the friend group’s dynamic. It’s a bold way to end the season because it doesn’t simply reset the characters for another round of roommate hijinks. It leaves them in a genuinely different place. That’s exactly what I want from a second season.

What I appreciate most about Adults is that it doesn’t try to convince us that these characters are particularly successful at being adults. Quite the opposite: they’re often disasters. But that’s the point. The show captures that strange period in your twenties when you’re technically an adult but still have absolutely no idea what you’re doing. Your friends become your family, your apartment becomes your entire world, and a simple problem can somehow turn into a completely ridiculous crisis.

After two seasons and a fun prequel special, I don’t just think Adults is funny. I think it has become a genuinely good character comedy. Season 1 had to find its voice, while Season 2 seems to know exactly what kind of show it wants to be. That’s a significant difference, and it’s why I’m even more invested in these characters now than I was when I started. Adults is messy, ridiculous, occasionally uneven, surprisingly heartfelt, and consistently hilarious when it’s firing on all cylinders. More importantly, it has developed a group of characters I genuinely want to spend more time with.

FX has created a comedy that doesn’t need huge gimmicks to work. Give these five roommates a house, a bad decision, and a little too much free time, and the chaos pretty much takes care of itself.

Both seasons of Adults are available now on Hulu in the US and Disney+ everywhere else.