Adults: Growing up is hard, but FX’s new sitcom makes it fun

Photo: FX

There comes a time in every generation’s lifespan where the “hip” shows directly appeal to them. With Millennials slowly drifting out of the coveted 18-35 demo, it is now Gen Z’s time to shine. Adults isn’t the first show to cater to the tastes of the younger generation, but it is the first in some time to do it so blatantly. In some ways, the marketing feels like a throwback to a time when networks made a more concerted effort to attract younger people. Whether or not the show succeeds in that regard is best left up to people actually in that age range.

Created by former Tonight Show writers Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, Adults follows a quintet of twenty-somethings as they navigate the complexities of adulthood together. In other words, it’s a hangout sitcom like Friends or How I Met Your Mother. The series is more down to Earth than those programs. Our young cast deals with joblessness, medical debt, and the looming sense of dread that comes with your post-college years. It’s a potentially heavy subject but treated with a light, goofy touch. You know deep down that these kids will be just fine.

A hangout sitcom lives and dies with its cast and Adults assembles a charming crew. Malik Elassal holds the group together as the sweet-natured Samir. His parents, mostly abandoned, house serves as a residence for the entire group. Lucy Freyer plays Billie, who has a season runner of wracking up untold amounts of debt. Amita Rao brings energy to Issa while keeping her bubbly personality in check. Owen Thiele plays the closest thing to a calm character as Anton. By far, the standout is Jack Innanen’s Paul Baker. Paul Baker, always referred to by his full name, is the newest group member by virtue of his relationship with Issa. He provides an outsider perspective while never really questioning any of the antics our group gets up to.

The show mostly sticks to episodic stories, but sprinkles in a few serialized elements throughout. There’s the running story of Billie’s unemployment and a fantastic guest arc by Charlie Cox. These segments help maintain a level of continuity that makes us feel more like a part of this weird gang. If there’s anything holding the series back, it’s the short episode order. With only 8 episodes in the season, there isn’t enough time to fully connect with the whole cast and it leaves some characters less developed.

Adults offers a slice of Gen Z life that feels familiar to anyone who’s experienced their early 20s. It’s a tricky balance, but the show nails it thanks to a game cast that provides solid laughs. Early adulthood is a strange and difficult time, but in the grand scheme of it all, it doesn’t last very long. Hopefully, these adults take their time growing up.

Adults is currently streaming on Hulu.

Final Verdict: Tune In

The Better Sister: Two sisters, one murder, zero thrills

Photo: Prime Video

Every now and again, a show comes along that feels designed to be as tedious as possible. To be fair, I don’t have any actual proof that this was the goal with Prime’s The Better Sister. It is, however, the only plausible explanation for the flat acting, dull plot, and muted color palette. Surely nobody set out to make something this lifeless, but they succeeded nonetheless.

Yet another mystery series based on a novel The Better Sister feels less like a thrilling page-turner and more like something you put down after reading the blurb. The series follows Chloe Taylor (Jessica Biel), the editor-in-chief of a popular magazine. Her idyllic life changes forever when she discovers her husband’s body covered in blood, the telltale sign of murder. Detective Guidry (Kim Dickens) takes the case and immediately suspects the Taylors’ son. This leads to the arrival of Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), Chloe’s estranged sister, and soon all of their secrets are out in the open.

In this case, “soon” is a relative term. The Better Sister is full of twists, but opts to hold back on doling them out. This is clear from the first episode, which waits until the last minutes to reveal Nicky’s true relationship with Chloe’s husband and son. It isn’t an inherently bad idea, but falls apart because there is zero interest in making the viewer invested in these people. Even as the mystery grows more complex and we reveal the siblings’ troubled past, there’s nothing to latch onto. These characters exist to move the plot from one twist to the next and that’s it.

The lack of investment in the characters leads to dull performances from most of the cast. The awful dialogue forces even terrific actors like Banks and Biel to give poor performances. To Banks’ credit, she at least gets to show some actual emotion as the less couth sister. Biel, on the other hand, clearly struggles to make Chloe stand out. It becomes obvious as the show goes on that there is some deep-rooted trauma she is holding in. That neither Biel nor the writers have any idea how to make that interesting to watch is one of the most damning elements of this show.

Everyone’s role is thankless in this one. From Kim Dickens as a no-nonsense cop to Corey Stoll as the now-deceased husband Adam. Even an appearance by Matthew Modine as Adam’s shady boss falters. He soon becomes just as dull and uninteresting as the rest of the cast.

Perhaps I’m being unfair to The Better Sister. After all, it isn’t as bad as some of the current frontrunners for worst show this year. Those programs have immense problems in both their premises and execution. The gravest sin this show commits is being boring. There’s potential, especially with such a fun cast, but the writing fails them. There’s so many options out there for your entertainment, especially in the mystery/thriller categories. This one is best left unsolved.

The Better Sister is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Dept. Q: A fascinating detective story with some familiar beats

Photo: Netflix

By now, you’ve likely seen enough detective stories with a broken protagonist who works through their issues by solving cases that the idea of another one fills you with dread. Doubly so, if said detective is snarky and borderline abusive to those around them. Dept. Q waits until the end of its first episode to showcase how it aims to be different, but the wait proves to be worth it. It doesn’t upend the well-worn tropes of this type of story so much as rearrange the parts.

Chandi Lakhani and The Queen’s Gambit creator Scott Frank team up for this adaptation of a Danish book series. Dept. Q follows Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), the aforementioned curmudgeonly detective who returns to work after a shooting incident that killed an officer and paralyzed another. While Morck wants to dive into solving that case, his superiors have other plans. Enter the titular department Q, a division focused on solving cold cases. Relegated to the unused basement, Morck partners with civilian employee Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) out of necessity and soon, the duo pick their first case. All the while, ambitious prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie) works on an important trial while ignoring cryptic threats.

A discerning viewer will probably put together how these two disparate stories connect before the show reveals it. Still, it’s a thrilling twist that adds to the stakes, something Dept. Q struggles with as it goes on. The series stretches the central mystery over nine episodes, causing a weak middle section. What elevates the material and keeps things moving is the program’s excellent character work. The writing places a lot of emphasis on the interactions between characters and deepens our bond with them.

Matthew Goode has the toughest task as Detective Morck. We’ve seen plenty of asshole protagonists throughout the years, but Goode finds some new avenues. He really shines in scenes with Manvelov’s Akram and with Jamie Sives’ James Hardy, a detective left paralyzed after the shooting. If there is a heart to this show, Manvelov embodies it. A Syrian refugee with previous police experience, Akram is looking for chance and he finds that with Morck. Sives provides an understated performance as a man grappling with his sudden disability. His scenes with Goode bristle with the energy of two people desperately trying to keep each other from falling apart. Add in Leah Byrne’s ever-charming Rose and you have a fantastic central cast to build on.

Unlike Frank’s previous Netflix work, Dept. Q clearly sets itself up for future seasons. This might be why I’m more willing to give it a pass for the slow pace in solving the major mystery. It’s clear this is a show being built to last. Something that feels like a rarity in the current landscape. Most series take things one season at a time, assuming that is all they’ll get. With strong characters and an interesting lead performance, Dept. Q presents a solid case for our continued attention.

Dept. Q is currently streaming on Netflix.

Final Verdict: Tune In

Motorheads: A teen drama that refuses to slow down

Photo: Prime Video

As a rule of thumb, you can tell how desperately a series is appealing to teens by how many Top 40 hits it jams into each episode. Using this, very specific, metric we can determine that Motorheads is the thirstiest show of the year. The creators know the audience they want and appeal to them relentlessly. It’s a program for the youth featuring one of their favorite things: restoring and racing vintage cars (citation needed on this claim).

Motorheads is the brainchild of John A. Norris, a producer on former YA hits like One Tree Hill and All-American. The series follows siblings Zac and Caitlyn (Michael Cimino and Melissa Collazo, respectively) as they move with their mother back to her hometown of Ironwood. There they meet mechanic and wannabe-biker Curtis (Uriah Shelton) and nerdy neighbor Marcel (Nicolas Cantu). With the help of their uncle Logan (Ryan Phillippe), the kids band together to beat the resident bully in a street car race. There’s also plenty of your usual teen drama along the way.

The town of Ironwood is your typical dying Rust Belt community with very little going on. That makes it at least somewhat plausible that there is a thriving racing circuit among the kids that no adult seems to know or cares about. It ends up being the best kept secret in town. Motorheads fills its episodes with every cliche of the genre. Love triangles, drunken parents, and criminal relatives are all present and accounted for. Even the mystery of Zac and Caitlyn’s father, who disappeared 17 years ago, feels reminiscent of other successful series like Outer Banks.

Where the show succeeds is in the chemistry between its young cast. While they’re often saddled with bad dialogue and clunky exposition, the kids are at their best during the quiet moments. When the program is content to just let the characters hang out and be themselves, it really shines. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of story to get through and those down moments are rare.

You’ve probably seen plenty of shows that look and feel like Motorheads. There’s nothing here that is reinventing the wheel. As long as it keeps spinning, series like this are happy to ride it out. 5 years ago, this would have been in a Primetime slot on The CW. Now, it sits on Prime waiting for you to take the plunge. Whether that’s better is up for debate. Either way, I don’t recommend it, even for the teens.

Motorheads is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Sirens: The Absurd Lives of the Rich and Famous

Photo: Netflix

Television has always been a place for both mocking and celebrating the rich, sometimes in the same show. Recently, the trend has been satires of the ridiculous lives rich people lead. Netflix’s new miniseries Sirens is born from that mold. The program plays like a mix of The White Lotus and Big Little Lies combining dark comedy with soap opera twists. It’s an intriguing premise with a star-studded cast to back it up.

Created by Molly Smith Metzler and based on her play Elemeno Pea, Sirens is the tale of two sisters who reunite over a hectic weekend at the lavish beach estate of a billionaire couple. Younger sister Simone (Milly Alcock) works for philanthropist Michaela (Julianne Moore) as her assistant. Michaela is the wife of the ultra-wealthy Peter Kell (Kevin Bacon) and spends most of her time on the aforementioned estate nestled on an island that they also own. Simone’s life on the estate takes a turn when her sister, Devon (Meghann Fahy) pays an unexpected visit. Will she be able to convince her sister to leave, or will she fall under the strange spell of this world of wealth?

Sirens is held together by the strength of its lead trio. Alcock does great work as the eager to impress Simone. She doesn’t come from money and she tries very hard to keep that a secret. Fahy’s Devon is her opposite to a comic degree. Brash, loud, and uncaring about how these people feel. She knows she doesn’t belong, and she actively flaunts it. Julianne Moore rounds out the group with a role tailor made for her. Both mystical and inscrutable, she plays Michaela as more than your typical rich housewife. It’s easy to see why she’s something of a cult of personality.

This is more than just your surface-level satire. Metzler and her team clearly have a lot of ideas regarding wealth, class, and the power dynamics involved. What ultimately holds the show back is that those ideas never coalesce into a workable whole. The more the plot zigs and zags from your expectations, the more muddied the messaging gets. The twists build on top of each other in interesting but rarely satisfying ways.

There’s enough here to hold your interest through the series’ densely packed 5 episodes. The show definitely doesn’t overstay its welcome. If you’re a huge fan of the lead actors or like your comedies to have a dash of melodrama to them, you’ll likely enjoy Sirens more than me. It’s got a fun cast and an intriguing premise, but it fails at bringing those elements together. In many ways, this is the ideal binge watch. Fun in the moment with nothing that will stick in your mind longer than a week.

Sirens is currently streaming on Netflix.

Final Verdict: Tune Out