Entertainment
‘Adults’ Season 2 Review: Hulu Series Gets a Much-Needed Growth Spurt
Like a clingy ex holding out hope for a reunion, “Adults” is desperate to show you it’s changed — for the better, and quite possibly for good. The FX comedy (streaming on Hulu and airing on FXX) didn’t transform so totally between its first and second seasons you’ll question what brand new show just slid into your viewing queue; it merely evolved enough to convince you the bad times are a thing of the past, and the good times of the present never have to end.
That’s both expected (for ensemble comedies, if not TV in general) and a notable feat, considering its initial impression. Created by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, “Adults” — a Gen-Z “Friends” minus one friend and plus people of color — debuted to mixed reviews and cultural apathy. Critical consensus puts the first season somewhere between Hulu’s D.O.A. “Not Suitable for Work” (53 rating on Metacritic) and Amazon’s slightly buzzier “Overcompensating” (72). Whatever viewership it tallied wasn’t impressive enough to be included in the renewal announcement.
Dig deeper and there are cracks in the sitcom’s foundational elements, i.e. perspective and characters. “I always thought the world was going to be waiting for me, and instead, they’re just annoyed that I’m here” is about as close as “Adults” gets to a take on twenty-something malaise in 2026. That’s OK — hang-out comedies don’t have to be about anything urgent — but they do need to be inviting, and Season 1 is rarely that.
Take the man behind the quote, Samir (Malik Elassal), who’s introduced as an aspiring FinTech bro in the middle of making amends for sleeping with a woman who was too drunk to consent. Yee-ikes! Then there’s Billie (Lucy Freyer), who threatens her boss with a (fake) sexual harassment claim in a misguided attempt to climb the ladder. Double yikes! And these two are our “will they or won’t they” couple! Who’s rooting for them? Who’s even eager to hang out with them?
Hence, changes. Season 2’s biggest swerve is also the easiest to overlook. At the end of July, “Adults” released a standalone episode with a proper origin story for our familial five-some. Origin story? Standalone episode? After a bad first season? That’s right, they made a new pilot! Hulu even lists “Marathon Day” as the first episode of Season 1, bumping the former premiere (“The Window”) to an inconspicuous Episode 2. Of course, that means anyone who logs in to watch Season 2 will have to scroll back to the beginning of a season they think they’ve already watched to find one of the new episodes (and many more may watch “all” of “Adults” without ever realizing there’s one more episode, lurking right where they started). But hey, “Marathon Day” isn’t for the devout; it’s to convert the dubious.
Does it work? Kind of. In explaining how Paul Baker (Jack Innanen) joins the group, “Marathon Day” effectively reorients the ensemble around a new focal point (Paul Baker) while providing the series a fresh (albeit broad) thesis statement: True friends can save you when you can’t save yourself. That’s good! That’s smart! That’s comforting!
But while the new pilot is a step up from the old pilot, it’s inconsistent with its character logic and light on laughs. Too often in Season 1, storylines chase the edgiest angle without considering the consequences for its characters. Samir’s original introduction aims for laughs about what it’s like to be single after coming-of-age during #MeToo, but in doing so, it labels one of the series regulars as dumb, sketchy, and narcissistic, which doesn’t line up with the rest of his depiction.
Billie’s false sexual harassment claim runs into similar issues, as does her arc in the new pilot, when she betrays her principled stand — honesty is always the best policy — to help Anton (Owen Thiele) avoid getting caught in a lie. Her elaborate assistance could work as a testament to how far real friends will go for each other, but not when she’s also lying about her job title to impress people (and secure preferential treatment at her beloved office supply shop). She’s selfless and selfish! She’s all over the map! Just tell me who these people are so I can laugh with them!
To its credit, “Adults” started course-correcting before the first season wrapped. Where the original pilot saw its characters struggling to accept that being the victim of horrific abuse doesn’t equate to being a good person, the second-to-last episode, “Annabelle,” forces them to face the same perceived incongruity when Paul Baker and Anton look after a young woman visiting New York for access to essential health care… and she quickly reveals herself to be an ungrateful hellcat. The two men go out of their way to meet her acidic insults with instructive kindness, but in forcing them to see her beyond the stereotype of a helpless no-nothing from the sticks, Annabelle (Lilah Guaragna) drags “Adults” to its deepest connections and heartiest laughs yet.
Season 2 nearly wipes out trying to ride that wave. The first scene sees Issa (Amita Rao) so overwhelmed with excitement, she extends a long take by breaking the fourth wall. (“It’s Season 2, Paul Baker. We’re doing a oner.”) There’s a recurring joke where one character references a movie no one has seen (including the referencer), and the episode — which is all about erasing or coming to terms with embarrassing secrets they’ve since outgrown — ends with footage of the cast’s own semi-embarrassing videos, as a gag reel-esque shortcut to connect with the audience.
Does it matter that the videos fall well short of anything as shame-inducing as what their characters reveal? Or that characters shout meta filmmaking terms while reveling in a shared ignorance of some of the most popular movies ever made? Or that the joke the oner builds to makes no sense? Not really. The premiere is in kitchen-sink mode, throwing everything it can at the audience to convince them it’s worth sticking around.
And it is! Turns out “Adults” didn’t need to shoot a new pilot because the Season 2 premiere serves the same function, only better. The blind confidence in every joke, coherence be damned, actually works to 201’s advantage once the A-story sets in: Paul Baker has a secret. The sensitive, sweet, bisexual himbo is also a loud, agro, straight-coded bro — how he presents just depends on who he’s with. So when Paul Baker’s chill, “adult” friend group comes face to painted-ass with Baker’s roaming gang of frat-like freaks, a chaotic war to identify the one true Paul ensues. (Naturally, the two crews try to mingle, and naturally, it goes badly.)
Not only does “The Scrub” explicitly ask us to question what we think we know about these characters, it also shrewdly juxtaposes the core five-some against a truly obnoxious horde of man-babies. Similar complaints were levied against the main ensemble in Season 1, when their arrested development and self-centeredness soured the chill hang. But to start Season 2, there’s a gaggle of guys who rate each other’s shits, smack each other’s balls, and howl uncontrollably at the sight of six-pack. They can’t even feign maturity for the length of a lunch without giving into their solipsistic cravings. The message is clear: These guys suck, which by comparison, makes our protagonists look pretty fun.
Briefly combining the friend groups makes for a rollicking start, and Season 2 keeps spirits high by leaning on a stockpile of sitcom tropes. After a lore-building dump of their dark secrets, Billie pretends not to freak out over getting older, Anton really freaks out when his sister refuses to see him as a grown-up, Issa gets a new job, everyone switches rooms, and everyone might get evicted! Toss in a clever subversion of the drug-trip episode (with a real-time ticking clock counting down until the acid hits), and “Adults” finds its groove in the comforting embrace of classic comedy concepts. Rather than reaching for topical talking points, it thrives within relatable, time-tested conventions.
Better still is how the season handles its love triangle. At the end of Season 1, Issa agrees to marry Paul Baker in order to keep him from getting deported. But when she gets cold feet, Paul Baker has to pick one of the other three housemates — and he chooses Anton. That would be all well and good (everyone loves Anton), except for their low-key flirting (throughout the back half of the season) and high-key kiss (in front of everyone, post-nuptials, at their friends’ urging). Now, in Season 2, Issa is on the lookout for signs that her boyfriend is crushing on another housemate, while Anton and Paul Baker keep a watchful eye on one another, as much to quell further flirtation as to savor it.
How Kronengold and Shaw navigate the relatively fresh waters of a sexually fluid friend group proves to be one of the series’ strongest attributes, in part because they don’t over-emphasize or over-complicate the raw human emotions driving the romance. They give each character ample room to be understood, by the audience even more than each other, and they edge the relationships forward within the sturdy structure of a laugh-first sitcom. Thiele remains the stand-out actor (he’s completely dialed in), and Innanen is innately affable (or very, very good at playing innocent without slipping into stupidity), which makes putting the pair at the show’s center a crucial, rewarding adjustment.
Perhaps all “Adults” needed was time — eight episodes is a tight timeframe to hone a hang-out comedy, especially when remembering past versions (“Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “New Girl”) got thrice as many episodes in a single season. If so, Season 3 is on pace to be an all-timer. “Adults” is a show about finding yourself in your twenties, and in Season 1, it felt like it. Too many brash blunders led to too much spoiled fun. But Season 2 clocks the fitful maturation process without mirroring as many of its youthful mistakes.
That’s the nice thing about TV when it’s made the right way: Change isn’t just real. It’s expected.
Grade: B
“Adults” Season 2 premieres Thursday, August 27 at 9 p.m. ET on Hulu and FXX. All episodes will be released at once on Hulu and air weekly on FXX (with two episodes the first week and single episodes thereafter.)
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Amazon MGM Studios has announced a series order for Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a darkly comedic murder mystery from Fifth Season and Made Up Stories, based on the bestselling book series by Benjamin Stevenson.
You‘s Penn Badgley will star, with David Hemingson (The Holdovers) set as showrunner and executive producer. Badgley returns to Amazon after wrapping a starring role opposite Meghann Fahy in their forthcoming rom-com You Deserve Each Other — also from Fifth Season, along with Likely Story. The project gets off the ground at Amazon MGM after an attempt at series development of the book at HBO.
Set deep in the dense mountains of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone follows Ern Cunningham (Badgley), a mystery-writing expert who reluctantly attends a family reunion to welcome his brother Michael home from prison — the same brother Ern helped convict. When a frozen body appears and a snowstorm traps everyone inside, the deaths begin to mount. Everyone in his family has already killed someone — either by accident or otherwise.
Mariner Books published the book in 2022. It’s Stevenson’s first in an internationally bestselling series, dubbed Ernest Cunningham Mysteries, whose fifth installment is currently in the works.
Hemingson exec produces alongside Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky and Jeanne Snow of Made Up Stories, Molly Allen, Badgley and Stevenson. Fifth Season and Made Up Stories are producing and will together serve as the studio.
Fifth Season and Made Up Stories reteam following collaborations on series including The Good Daughter and Wolf Like Me for Peacock, Roar for Apple TV+, Nine Perfect Strangers for Hulu, Pieces of Her and Anatomy of a Scandal for Netflix, The Last Anniversary for AMC and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart for Prime Video.
In a statement on the series order, author Stevenson shared, “I am blown away by the vision and enthusiasm everyone has for bringing this book, and Ernest Cunningham, to the screen. Penn perfectly captures Ern’s clueyness and cleverness, and David has brought bags of wit and heart to the script. With the passion of Amazon MGM Studios, Bruna and Steve behind us we have an absolutely killer team, and I can’t wait to solve a murder with them!”
Peter Friedlander, Amazon MGM’s Head of Global Television, added: “Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is a brilliantly inventive series that subverts the murder mystery genre in the most unexpected and entertaining ways. Ben created a world that is darkly funny and wickedly clever. Paired with David’s sharp storytelling and Penn’s magnetic presence, and with our incredible partners at Fifth Season and Made Up Stories, this series is going to be something truly special for Prime Video.”
No stranger to murder, nor successful book adaptations, Badgley is coming off of a starring turn as serial killer Joe Goldberg in the hit thriller series You, based on the book series by Caroline Kepnes, which originated at Lifetime before moving to Netflix for its final four seasons. Otherwise best known for starring in The CW’s Gossip Girl, his upcoming slate includes the Bleecker Street thriller NDA, in addition to You Deserve Each Other. He is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, CAA, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
Oscar-nominated for his script The Holdovers, the holiday dramedy directed for Focus Features by Alexander Payne, Hemingson also produced that film, marking the screen debut of Tony‘s Dominic Sessa. Otherwise best known for creating the ABC series Whiskey Cavalier, the writer-producer has also worked on The Catch, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, Kitchen Confidential and myriad other series. He is repped by 3 Arts, WME, and McKuin Frankel & Whitehead.
A stand-up comic, as well as an author, Stevenson’s books have sold over a million copies in 29 territories. The latest in his Ernest Cunningham series, Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief, released in March. He is repped by Leslie Conliffe at Intellectual Property Group and Pippa Masson at Curtis Brown Australia.
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It’s a confusing time to be a WNBA fan.
On the one hand, the league has hit record ratings highs, with the Aug. 16 matchup between the Atlanta Dream and the Indiana Fever marking the most-watched WNBA game ever on cable.
But that success came as the league has been caught in the throes of a culture war, with political controversies surrounding Fever players Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham dominating discourse about the league and fueling chatter on conservative media — including Fox News, which has devoted 13 and a half hours this summer to covering the WNBA, per Media Matters.
The controversy has fueled attention and social chatter for women’s professional basketball, but crediting it for the league’s viewership victories does a disservice to the actual game play. Women’s sports have been on an upward ratings trajectory over the past couple years and the WNBA in particular received a shot in the arm from Clark, whose sharp-shooting ability has served as a tide that’s lifting all teams.
The haters, meanwhile, aren’t nearly as big a factor as social media would indicate.
“The people that want to see it fail will use this as a reason for not watching, when they probably were never watching to begin with,” veteran sports journalist and Northwestern professor Melissa Isaacson told TheWrap. “The people who are really women’s basketball fans will continue to enjoy it as a product that continues to improve.”
For anyone unfamiliar with the drama, it boils down to two main controversies. The first centered on Clark, who was a major factor in the ratings records for the 2024 NCAA Women’s Championship. Clark’s stardom has remained, though an ugly dynamic has emerged where nearly every move made against her by a Black player sparks claims from the right that it is racially motivated, to the extent that 11 Republican lawmakers wrote WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert saying she had not addressed “repeated acts of unnecessary physical hostility and violence” against Clark.
The other side of the controversy involves Cunningham, who has been dubbed “MAGA Barbie” and become the right’s favorite WNBA player, after voicing her opposition to transgender women playing in women’s sports. The furor led to two former NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, trolling trans rights advocates by citing their intentions to enter into the 2027 draft as they test the gender eligibility requirements.
The WNBA subsequently shut that down. And to be clear, no one takes them seriously.
While the WNBA league has become the right’s latest obsession, that intense interest will eventually cool as the next outrage takes center stage. And given that most right-wingers are engaging with the league on external platforms like social media or Fox News, fading attention might not even play much of a factor — if at all — in viewership.
For the most part, the WNBA’s most loyal fans have not been swayed by the drama. It’s unlikely any true fans will stray.
With the pipeline of incoming talent from the college ranks, USC Annenberg professor Miki Turner told TheWrap, “the dub is here to stay.”
“It’s been here 30 years already, and profit margins were low for about the first 10-20 years of its existence, so the fact that it has survived and expanded gives me hope that they can rise above all of the current drama,” Turner said.
In the grand scheme of things, the controversies shouldn’t faze the growth of the league, which signed an 11-year media rights agreement with Versant for USA Network to present WNBA games starting with the 2026 season.
The way forward requires some “better leadership in the front office” and a strategic approach forward from players as they engage — or don’t — with media, according to Turner. “Players are going to have to not so much watch what they say, but watch how they say it,” Turner said. “Maybe at this point in time, [Caitlin Clark’s] silence is golden.”
P.S. Streaming, linear, theatrical, creators: audiences have more places to spend their time than ever. At TheGrill Sept. 30, we’re talking with the people competing for that attention. AI Creator Day kicks things off Sept. 29. Subscribers get 50% off through Sept. 8 with code PROPERKS50.
Dolly Parton tribute specials draw eyes
Following Dolly Parton’s death on Tuesday, several networks mobilized to air specials paying tribute to the beloved country music icon and philanthropist, with each program drawing notable audiences.
ABC News’ “Dolly Parton: An American Original – Special Edition of 20/20″ scored 4.03 million viewers, almost doubling ratings for CBS’ “Dolly Parton – An American Icon,” which went head-to-head with ABC’s special and brought in 2.17 million viewers. “Dolly Parton: An American Original” also scored the best non-sports 10 p.m. telecast on any network in three months, since the season finale of CBS’ “Boston Blue.”
Rosie O’Donnell holds down ratings for Kimmel
Rosie O’Donnell made a splash in her stint as a summer substitute for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and the early ratings said so as well. On her first night hosting for the week of Aug. 24, O’Donnell brought in 1.87 million total viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures reported by LateNighter. It marks the biggest audience for any of Kimmel’s guest hosts so far this summer.
While O’Donnell outpaced the fellow late night shows in the demo, the viewership didn’t by any means outpace Kimmel himself, who typically cracks 2 million viewers. Ratings for her full week of hosting will be available in the coming days.
“Big Brother” scores ratings growth
As CBS’ “Big Brother” celebrates its 1,000th episode tonight, the reality competition show is seeing notable ratings growth. Season 28 is averaging 5.21 million multiplatform viewers, a 10% increase year over year, according to Nielsen live-plus-seven-day figures.
Demo viewership across both multiplatform and streaming are also up, with the 25-54 demo rising 21% while the 18-49 demo rose 15%.
ICYMI:
- “Outer Banks” Season 5 launched atop Netflix’s most-watched TV shows lists with 9.4 million views, sliding down from last season
- Sunny Sandler’s “Don’t Say Good Luck” led Netflix’s top movies with 12.8 million views
- DC Studios’ “Lanterns” debuted among the top five series premieres on HBO Max
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The Edinburgh TV Festival has announced the winners of its 2026 awards. HBO series The Pitt was named Best International Drama, while The Celebrity Traitors won Best Entertainment or Reality Series. The Celebrity Traitors host Claudia Winkleman took home Best TV Presenter – Entertainment. BBC transgender drama What It Feels Like for a Girl scooped […]
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