In a montage of iconic women from Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Jane Goodall, to Arundhati Roy, a video clip of Margaret Atwood emerges. She looks towards the interviewer and says: “When you’re a teenager, you’re acutely worried of what people think of you, but I think now you can just have more fun.”
In this clever way, Sharon Horgan lands viewers straight into her new show Youth (streaming on HBO Max and Now TV) and protagonist Alex’s “no fucks era”. The series connects Alex’s post-divorce story with her son Ruarí’s (Aran Murphy) journey into adulthood.
We meet literary agent, Alex (Horgan) doom-scrolling on the sofa. She’s late to a meeting with a new writer and anticipating her son’s graduation from secondary school. The stress of multiple life moments culminates in lockjaw, the title of the first episode.
Alex’s GP patronisingly explains that it’s “an age thing” and means eating less kebabs, which she mishears as not being able to give as many blowjobs. This is not simply a narrative about a peri or post-menopausal woman – this is the story of life and all its messiness with Horgan’s impeccable sense of humour.
Horgan’s other work, particularly Pulling (2006-2009) and Catastrophe (2015-2019), have reflected the stage of life Horgan is in, and this series could be seen as a third chapter. But it also complements her work in Divorce (2016-2019) and Motherland (2016-2022).
While there is a romance sub-plot, between Alex and Patrick (Rupert Friend), there are also very compelling themes around female friendship, mid-to late career ambitions, single parenting, masculinity and what it means to find happiness and joy in the “sixth decade”.
The last few themes are tangled around the relationship between Alex and Ruarí (Aran Murphy, son of Cillian Murphy), who has left university under a cloud of suspicion. Horgan does a masterful job of constructing the intimacy that often happens while single parenting teenagers. There can be a special bond forged between parent and child that affords a sense of knowing, of self and other, that benefits both in unique ways.
Horgan beautifully depicts this in a scene where Alex and Ruarí beat a room full of couples in a guessing game because they know more than anyone else about their domestic preferences. Ruarí not only learns from Horgan about how to negotiate life’s up and downs, but she takes his advice to find happiness in her own company which sets her free from worrying too much about being the only uncoupled person.
Single in the city
Youth follows other HBO narratives about single women in the city, such as Sex and the City (1998-2004), Girls (2012-2017), Insecure (2016-2021) and Enlightened (2011-2013), that have not only garnered adoring audiences but have also played a key role in the scholarship on feminist television criticism.
What Youth offers in particular is a better understanding of the interplay between our understandings of masculinity and feminism.
Horgan brings humour and tenderness to the struggles young men face in contemporary western society alongside the ones older women experience. This constructs a productive space to interrogate gender and sexuality in new ways.
Horgan delicately explores the overlapping fears, frustrations and humour between Ruarí who is just setting out in life and Alex, who must learn how to love herself.
Unlike other popular contemporary narratives about singledom, this story is about a woman who discovers what it means to enjoy your own company, as well as the company of others.
Kristyn Gorton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
