From TIME · Judy Berman · · 3m
It Gets Worse is Gen Z's sharpest comedy yet
Leo Reich's new British series captures 20-something life with bleaker humour and deeper insight than its rivals.
In brief
Leo Reich's new British series captures 20-something life with bleaker humour and deeper insight than its rivals. It Gets Worse, premiering November sixth on Paramount Plus, is the most realistic Gen Z comedy yet, offering gallows humour about adulthood without the false optimism of earlier generations. Originally…
Lena Dunham guest stars as tech CEO
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Lena Dunham appears in a handful of scenes as the casually inappropriate CEO of a girly-branded data broker offering an entry-level position on her company's people team to an intern named Abi.
“a lot like HR, only you don't need any training”
It Gets Worse premieres November sixth
It Gets Worse, a British comedy created by and starring Leo Reich, premieres November sixth in the U.S. on Paramount Plus. It is the latest in a flood of Gen Z hangout comedies.
Three friends face eviction and scatter
The six-episode first season follows three best friends from college who are evicted from their shared flat and must scatter to temporary lodgings for a few weeks while their new place is prepared.
Ethan is a self-deprecating gay man
Leo Reich plays Ethan, a lightly spoiled, reflexively self-deprecating gay man whose search for love and direction is hampered by his aversion to seriousness and not knowing what he wants.
“one of the easiest lives in recorded human history”
Abi strives for mundane material comforts
Emily Fairn plays Abi, the conventional one diligently striving in the white-collar world for mundane material comforts. Her image depends partly on her boyfriend Tom, a possessive but well-meaning man in his thirties.
Sam is an aspiring writer and tutor
Olive Gray plays Sam, an aspiring writer who tutors rich kids to pay the bills and radiates maturity. She takes a makeshift room at an anarchist coop where her ex-girlfriend India Mullen lives.
The title swipes at It Gets Better
The show's title is an apparent swipe at Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project, whose promise to LGBTQ youth looks shortsighted in retrospect. It harbors none of the optimism that Gen Z attributes to millennials.
Adulthood never improves, only continues
For Reich, the liminal period does not end when you achieve your goals because that is never going to happen. It goes on until the world ends, and that might be soon.
Humour balances insight without preaching
It Gets Worse is a comedy of lowered expectations with gallows humour. Reich's roasts of older cohorts do not announce themselves, and he avoids invoking climate crisis or AI every two minutes.
“This is the worst time ever to be seven”
Sharpest Gen Z comedy so far
It Gets Worse differentiates itself from other Gen Z hangout comedies through its delicate balance of humour and insight.It achieves a level of realism that rivals like Overcompensating and Not Suitable for Work do not.
The headline
It Gets Worse, premiering November sixth on Paramount Plus, is the most realistic Gen Z comedy yet, offering gallows humour about adulthood without the false optimism of earlier generations.
