My Comfort TV: Watching Younger

By: Elizabeth Stevens

I have decided to stop judging myself for wanting to watch comfort television. No post-apocalyptic dramas, no violent thrillers, no suspense at all, really. I have enough generalized anxiety as it is these days. I have loaded up a queue filled with all the Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers movies, and am dipping in and out of some silly tv shows as well. Which brings me to a recommendation! 

I started Watching Bunheads (not my recommendation) for that small-town quirk that Amy Sherman Palladino brought so beautifully to Gilmore Girls, and sure enough, its practically the same show. Which means I got bored of it pretty quickly and never finished the first season (shrug emoji). You can watch the first episode for a fun story that’s pretty self-contained, but it all goes downhill from there. But! That lead Hulu to suggest another a quirky comedy starring Sutton Foster, a TV Land series called Younger that I had never even heard of, also starring Hilary Duff, whom I hadn’t thought about in something like twenty years and now have a substantial crush on. The premise is this: forty-year-old Liza (Sutton Foster) goes through a divorce and can’t get hired in publishing after the fifteen-year hiatus she took as a stay-at-home mom. Since all the jobs seem to be going to twenty somethings fresh out of college, her roommate suggests she should just lie about her age. It works! Confusion, hilarity, and drama ensue.  

There are a few things to love about this show. Firstly, truly excellent female relationships, from colleagues to best friends to lovers, and across generation gaps that aren’t often bridged. There is also the all-too rare Equilateral Love Triangle, with the twenty something Josh and forty something Charles bringing equally dreamy qualities to the table. I’m truly on the fence about who I want most for Liza, and am surprised to find myself leaning towards—young hipster tattoo artist? Am I sure? 

Amidst all the silliness and occasional raunch, the show lands the emotional moments with subtlety and top-notch performances by the supporting cast. They manage to deal with the complication of having a protagonist who is making pretty dubious moral and ethical choices to further her career by making her deal with real consequences in her personal and professional relationships, instead of sweeping it all under the rug. And New York has never looked brighter, with gorgeous on location shots and a skyline to soothe the weary, quarantined soul. The show has six seasons so far, with a seventh in production, and I'll likely watch it all the way through. It’s not going to change your life, but it will sure brighten it up a little, and we could use all of that we can get these days, right? 

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2058661913?playlistId=tt3288518