Greer Riddell is a London-based film and television journalist writing about comedy, streaming and the evolving media industry in the UK and USA. She works at Collider, covering the latest in film, television and entertainment through interviews, features, reviews and industry coverage.
Her recent brand collaborations include HBO, Warner Bros., Netflix, Hulu, Sky, Disney+ and DC Studios. She has covered titles including Saturday Night Live UK, Rivals, Scrubs, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Ludwig, Supergirl and Stranger Things.
Her recent interviews include Florence Pugh, Mike Faist and Christopher Abbott for Netflix’s East of Eden, Taika Waititi and Jenna Ortega for Klara and the Sun.
It’s the Gen Z version of Lena Dunham‘s Girls, but with even less optimism and considerably more hook-ups. It Gets Worse is a sex-fueled sitcom with sharp writing and a strong set of characters you’ll find yourself more disgusted with than sympathetic toward. It captures the messiness, self-awareness and general hopelessness of being young in the modern world, and you’ll feel glad you’re no longer in your twenties.
Written by and starring Leo Reich as Ethan, the series is a British-Canadian collaboration produced by A24 for Channel 4 and Crave. It’s been a year since Ethan, Abi (Emily Fairn) and Sam (Olive Gray) moved to London, and now their landlord is asking them to leave their first house share. With a new contract looming, the three friends must find somewhere else to live, but their housing arrangements soon become the least of their problems. They drift apart, fall into toxic relationships and increasingly questionable situations before eventually moving back in together. All three are beginning to question whether the humiliation they are living through will eventually get better. As the title suggests, it doesn’t.
‘It Gets Worse’ Is a Far Cry From ‘Girls’ Millennial Optimism
When Girls first aired on HBO in 2012, Dunham was hailed as the main millennial commentator, with her series frequently praised for its accurate depiction of young women navigating adulthood. Now, her involvement in It Gets Worse feels like a passing of the baton, mentoring the next generation as they create a series that is truly their own commentary. But Reich’s project is a far cry from the optimism of the generation that came before; this is Gen Z’s turn, and their outlook is considerably bleaker.
On the surface, It Gets Worse is about the difficulty of making friends as a young adult, particularly when those friendships are often built around little more than sex, partying and whoever happens to live closest to your dingy London flat. It captures the reality of moving to the capital away from your family, where the jobs, money and social life are supposedly waiting rather than settling for the get-married-to-your-high-school-boyfriend life. But Reich’s series is interested in the downside of that supposed freedom. There is an emptiness to life on the other side of university, when the bubble of youth has burst, and you find yourself at the mercy of situations and people rather than feeling in control of your own future. Ethan, Abi, and Sam’s storylines are permeated by depression and Gen Z’s seemingly genetic sense of dread, as they struggle to recognize their own worth or understand what might actually make them happy. The series is essentially waiting for them to realize that they are the ones in control of their futures, rather than continuing to let other people and circumstances dictate their every move.
Reich’s scripts are wonderfully wry, rarely straying away from the controversial and relishing the opportunity to shock the audience. Yet their cynicism feels entirely in keeping with the way Gen Z communicates. It is self-aware, picking up on generational stereotypes and narratives and amplifying them for a laugh, while simultaneously making you feel sorry for the people at the center of them. It Gets Worse has Gen Z’s anti-perfectionist, messy and occasionally gross vibe down to a T. It’s littered with references to MUBI, Monzo, Hinge, ChatGPT, negroni sbagliatos and turmeric shots. There’s even a cameo from Chicken Shop Date‘s Amelia Dimoldenberg as Emily, a woman who was engaged to overseas royalty and owned a Tesla — the defining signal of success.
‘It Gets Worse’ Captures the Horror of Being Young and Directionless
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/it-gets-worse-review-3.png?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" />
Image via. Paramount+</figure>
One of the more unusual elements of It Gets Worse is its narrator, novelist Zadie Smith, who reads the poetic yet abstract writings of Gray’s Sam throughout. You’re initially encouraged to keep up with the metaphors and abstractions, hoping that somewhere within them lies a poignant emotional explanation for why these friends behave the way they do. However, they gradually fade into obscurity when you realize they aren’t necessarily providing one. Ethan later confirms that details included in Sam’s writing aren’t factual in any way, just put together in an attempt to reconcile their friendship in the finale.
Throughout the series, the three friends have drifted away from the personalities that made them click in the first place. It Gets Worse posits that the people you were at university, when you first met and became friends, were perhaps the real versions of yourselves. The world outside that youthful bubble, along with its responsibilities and fears, has changed you, and perhaps the answer is to find your way back to those earlier selves. It is a rather romantic notion, but one that deserves some scrutiny. While there is certainly something to be said for remaining true to yourself, your university self is also your younger, more naive self, and that’s clear from the situations Ethan, Abi and Sam find themselves in. Growing up inevitably changes people, and It Gets Worse is at its most interesting when it acknowledges how difficult it is to work out which parts of yourself you should leave behind and which are worth holding on to.
The series also loves to make its audience uncomfortable. It accurately shows the horror of being a young adult making questionable decisions, but knowing we’ve all gone through that stage doesn’t always make for an easy or particularly amusing watch. Andrew Scott, best known for playing Fleabag‘s hot priest, begins the series as Brian, Ethan’s therapist, who he subsequently hooks up with. The relationship isn’t established before the dirty talk begins, making the encounter all the more shocking when Brian reduces Ethan to being a “hole for daddy.” Similarly, Sam tutors a young boy preparing for his GCSE exams, only for it to emerge that he has a crush on her. He even follows her to a spoken-word night, where she has just spent time slating him on stage for being an incel. Some of the sexual encounters are genuinely difficult to watch, not necessarily because they are explicit but because of how emotionally toxic they are. It Gets Worse doesn’t shy away from the fact that the horror of being in your twenties often comes from the decisions you make yourself.
Living With Your 30-Something Boyfriend in Surrey Is ‘It Gets Worse’s Idea of Hell
Image via. Paramount+- Image via. Paramount+
- Image via. Paramount+
- Image via. Paramount+
- Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+- Image via. Paramount+
- Image via. Paramount+
- Image via. Paramount+
- Image via. Paramount+
- Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+
Image via. Paramount+While Reich’s Ethan is the most charismatic of the three leads, Fairn’s Abi is arguably the most outwardly relatable. She is keen to settle down with whichever man can offer her the sort of life she can upload onto Instagram, ideally making residual school acquaintances think better of her in the process. Without really considering who or what would make her happy, she settles for Tom (Sean Delaney), who is just about every thirty-something heterosexual man in London rolled into one. He goes bouldering, idolizes Anthony Bourdain and cooks various cuts of meat using TikTok tutorials while mansplaining the entire process. While Ethan endures disastrous hook-ups, vomits on himself and eventually has to move back in with his Mum in Edgware (heaven forbid), Abi is busy pursuing the suburban “dream.” It Gets Worse understands that, for a 24-year-old, one of the greatest failures in life is settling down. Abi also works in HR, if things weren’t already bleak enough.
That is perhaps the series’ genius. Reich has a laser-focused grasp on character and voice. From the three leads to supporting roles such as Louise (Emmeline Downie), every person feels like a personality you would actually encounter in real life. You immediately understand what type of person they are and what Reich is trying to say about them, often through the way they talk rather than what they actually say. It is a particularly impressive knack for characterization, and one that gives the series its sharpest comedic moments. One standout involves Abi discovering Tom’s silicone sex toy and confronting him about it over the dinner he has just prepared for her and her friends. There are also situations where, if you’re outside the Gen Z bracket, you might struggle to believe they actually happen, like a warehouse sex party that is filmed and subsequently screened as a tragic art project. It is the sort of storyline that makes you question whether Reich is exaggerating for comic effect or simply documenting a generation that has become accustomed to turning every personal humiliation into content.
Ethan’s relationship with his mother (Vicki Pepperdine) is another highlight. Their dynamic is amusing to watch, particularly as the lines she delivers, such as “keep the noise down, your voice travels”, feel so authentic that you could easily believe the two are a real mother and son. It is also fun to see Blake Harrison, of The Inbetweeners fame, playing another gormless character, this time Roger, Ethan’s mother’s lodger, who also happens to have a crush on her.
It Gets Worse will appeal to plenty of Gen Z viewers, who will marvel at Reich’s ability to put people who sound and act exactly like their friends on screen. There are countless quips and lines to enjoy in the script, and its understanding of generational attitudes is impressively sharp. Yet it also drags you down into the dank depression of being back in your twenties, trying to survive independently for the first time, surrounded by questionable friends and without a clear point of view. It is a series that knows exactly how to make its audience laugh, but it also wants you to recognize the uncomfortable reality behind the comedy. The freedom of moving to London, making new friends and building a life for yourself can quickly become an exhausting cycle of flat-sharing, disastrous relationships and trying to convince yourself that everything is going to plan. Ethan, Abi and Sam may be surrounded by opportunity, but none of them seem particularly equipped to make the most of it.
Reich has created a sitcom that is unapologetically Gen Z, complete with the generation’s distinct vocabulary, cultural references, self-awareness, and seemingly endless capacity for humiliation. Its strong set of characters are brought to life by an even stronger script, although its relentless cynicism and emotionally uncomfortable scenarios can make it a rather draining watch. It Gets Worse may be an accurate reflection of what it feels like to be young and directionless today, but it is also a reminder of just how miserable that experience can be.
It Gets Worse premiered November 6 on Paramount+.
It Gets Worse
A candid Gen Z sitcom about messy realities and harsh truths.
- Leo Reich’s razor-sharp script captures Gen Z’s humor, anxieties and cultural references.
- Strong characterization makes even the most insufferable characters feel recognizably real.
- A brilliantly cynical and often hilarious take on the horror of navigating your twenties.
- Its relentless bleakness makes for an occasionally exhausting and uncomfortable watch.
- Some outlandish storylines push the cringe comedy a little too far.
- The characters’ self-absorbed behavior can make it difficult to feel much sympathy for them.
Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
