‘Adults’ Review: FX’s Chaotic Comedy Nails the Weird, Unhinged, Beautiful Struggle of Being Not Quite There Yet

There’s a reason why coming-of-age comedies never really go out of style. From Friends to How I Met Your Mother, these half-hour sitcoms have proven time and time again that we’re all just older kids in bigger pants, still trying as best we can. Whether you’re 24, 34, or 44, there’s something deeply comforting and hilarious about watching a bunch of weirdos fail forward, together. This is the case for one of TV’s best new comedies of 2025 with FX’s Adults starring a magnetic and striking cast of relative newcomers who perfectly capture the chaos, cringe, and camaraderie of being Not Quite There Yet™. 

Taking the messy, deeply specific growing pains of our twenties and sticking them into a blender to create sharp writing, millennial burnout, and a Gen Z group chat energy, the series created by Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon alums Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw delivers a laugh-out-loud showcase that feels absurdly relatable but also totally fresh. 

What Is ‘Adults’ About?

Aside from a stacked writing room and executive producers like Nick Kroll (Big Mouth), Sarah Naftalis (What We Do in the Shadows), and Jonathan Krisel (Baskets), Adults brings a mix of grounded chaos and off-the-wall wit right from its first episode.

The FX comedy follows five friends — Samir (Malik Elassal), Billie (Lucy Freyer), Anton (Owen Thiele), Issa (Amita Rao) and her very Canadian boyfriend, Paul Baker (Jack Innanen) — as they try to navigate the bumpy terrain of growing up without ever actually growing up. Crashing together at Samir’s childhood home in New York, the five of them are sharing meals, anxiety, toothbrushes, and the occasional identity crisis. Did we mention they also watch each other poop?

One of the best parts of Adults is how each episode walks the line between downright absurd and achingly relatable. Whether they’re navigating the healthcare system, bombing a dinner party, dealing with a dead therapist (RIP George), or trying to make sense of their messy love lives, this friend group is doing their best to become people — despite not really being “good” or even “people” quite yet.

With the show zeroing in on the highs and lows of that awkward phase during adulthood where we think everything is possible, but nothing feels manageable, the show never romanticizes the struggle. Instead, it embraces every level through a balance between disorder and catharsis in 30-minute bursts of hilarity. It’s this element that makes the show such a chaotic, charming hug of a series.

Bordering a tone and style of humor that sits somewhere between Broad City, Friends, and whatever your very unhinged TikTok feed looks like at 3 a.m., the series never goes for traditional sitcom setups or payoffs. Instead, so much of Adults leans into the surreal side quests that bring out the most humor and charm — like AirTagging a romantic interest, speaking to a psychic to get closure, or thinking you’re making the best choice for your BFF only to somehow turn them into a medical spit-roast.

The Cast of ‘Adults’ Brings the Chaos (and the Chemistry)

The ensemble here isn’t just strong across its series — it’s electric and incredibly fun to watch as each combination between the cast sets up another element of humor. Elassal leads the pack as Samir, whose sweet, overthinking energy feels like if Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation and Seinfeld’s George Costanza had a lovechild. He anchors the show’s emotional moments with neurotic tenderness, even as he spirals into a full-on identity crisis because he can’t properly degrade someone during sex.

Freyer’s Billie is a scene-stealer. As a young woman who has strong ambitions, she’s painfully relatable even if she’s struggling at work, bleeding from her butt, and has the hots for Mr. Teacher — also known as Andrew, played magnificently by Charlie Cox. The chemistry these two share is also exciting, even when we can see how hard she’s projecting any aspect of growth onto someone who’s spinning off in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, Innanen’s Paul Baker might be the sleeper MVP with his laid-back charm and sharp observations. He’s quick to his feet and a straight-shooter. But of course, he’s balanced most strikingly by Rao’s Issa, who delivers deadpan brilliance and anchors some of the show’s most piercing insights about being seen past a persona. She’s also the perfect bestie to Thiele’s absorbing Anton, who is a one-man hurricane of co-dependency with the emotional boundaries of a puppy — especially when he unknowingly befriends a stabber. 

With just six episodes made available for review, the show promises more guest stars like D’Arcy Carden and John Reynolds, but it makes great use of its surprise talent like Ray Nicholson as the aforementioned stabber with a sinister smile that is all levels of The Shining. Or Cox, who is at his absolute best with some of the funniest work he’s done on-screen. As a character in the middle of his own mid-life crisis and taking pony doses of ketamine while dancing to Boney M, we find ourselves laughing just as much as we’re cringing. Not because he’s twice their age, but because he’s proof that no one ever really figures it out.

This wildly human aspect makes it fun to see these twenty-somethings interact with older people who look put together, but are just as lost and weird. With this effervescent cast weaving and bobbing through some rather kaleidoscopic layers of comedy, the premise in every episode feels so distinct. And like the best comedy, you find yourself laughing with each of these characters as opposed to laughing at them — a surefire sign that it’s a cut above the class.

‘Adults’ Is So Damn Funny, Period.

With a show that offers some brilliant bits that spiral into absolute mayhem like the roast chicken party from hell — also starring Julia Fox in her funniest, most self-deprecating element yet — the FX comedy isn’t by any means trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s more like, setting that damn wheel on fire and then riding the shit out of it into a bodega.

For a show this funny and brilliant, its best comedy lives in the details: a group smell, trying to sell a gun that the store doesn’t want, or having 40,000 unread texts from hundreds of strangers you meet and think you’re going to be friends with (we’ve all been there, you friend sluts). Every episode is a compact, semi-deranged gem that ends not with an afterschool-like conclusion, but a fiery escalation because Adults thrives in the fallout.

And that’s really what makes Adults stand out most. It’s not about “figuring it out” or tying things up in neat little arcs. The show is all about failing spectacularly with people who love you anyway. With humor that is brutally honest and uproariously funny, the show lets its characters be messy without punishing them for it. It’s that kind of grace from the showrunners sprinkling in a ton of heart with A+ writing and the cast’s razor-sharp performances that makes Adults one of the more honest and funniest portrayals of growing up in recent memory.

Rating: 4/5

FX’s Adults premieres with two episodes on Wednesday, May 28 at 9pm ET/PT on FX, all eight episodes streaming next day on Hulu.