{"id":898432,"date":"2026-09-20T02:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T02:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898432\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T02:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T02:40:14","slug":"youth-review-sharon-horgans-new-comedy-drama-exploring-middle-aged-womanhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898432\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth review: Sharon Horgan\u2019s new comedy-drama exploring middle-aged womanhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kylie<\/p>\n

September 20, 2026 \u2014 9:17am<\/p>\n

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Youth \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a fan of Sharon Horgan<\/a> (who isn\u2019t?), as both writer and actor, you\u2019ll almost certainly love her new comedy-drama. Something of a spiritual successor to her 2006 series Pulling, which followed the dating lives of women in their 30s, and the brilliant Catastrophe, about a marriage kick-started by an accidental pregnancy after a wild week-long fling, Youth sees Horgan exploring the specifics of middle-aged womanhood. But if that sounds too earnest, be assured that it\u2019s very, often darkly, funny.<\/p>\n

\"SharonSharon Horgan as Alex in the comedy-drama Youth.<\/p>\n

Horgan is Alex, a recently divorced 50-year-old who is the embodiment of the \u201csandwich generation\u201d<\/a>, the term for those (almost always women) juggling caring for ageing parents, teenaged or young adult kids<\/a>, holding down a career and the onset of invisibility and waning sex appeal.<\/p>\n

The series is deeply informed by her own life: Horgan, recently divorced herself, describes it as \u201cauto-fictiony\u201d. She recently told Vanity Fair that she wanted to look \u201cthrough the lens of a divorced woman who has a very specific amount of time left to find happiness,\u201d while feeling like there\u2019s a \u201cbig alarm bell going off\u201d.<\/p>\n

The first episode opens as a solemn voiceover over a montage of influential older women \u2013 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gloria Steinem, Margaret Atwood \u2013 intones about ageing, telling us that \u201cno decade moves faster than 50-60. You need to make every single second of your time count\u201d, before cutting to Alex laughing at a TikTok video of a parrot having a haircut and blow-dry. Phew.<\/p>\n

\"HorganHorgan as Alex and Aran Murphy as her rebellious teenage son Ruari.HBO Max<\/p>\n

Her scrolling is interrupted by a text from her boss\/best friend Sam (Sharlene Whyte) asking where she is. Alex is a literary agent, and working for her friend is just one of many frustrations.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s excited though, that her rebellious teenage son Ruari (Aran Murphy, son of Cillian), is about to head off to university, even if he has started dabbling in videos from manosphere influencers. Ruari\u2019s self-absorbed dad Lorcan (Owen McDonnell), isn\u2019t exactly the greatest role model \u2013 he\u2019s a jobbing actor about to move to Canada with his younger girlfriend for a role in a B-grade sci-fi series, leaving Alex to deal with Ruari as he grapples with young manhood.<\/p>\n

Then there are her parents: her mum has diabetes and her dad is showing signs of dementia (\u201cmild-ish Alzheimer\u2019s, like Joe Biden second term-level\u201d). These are problems she\u2019s trying to share with her younger sister, who is busy with a newborn baby.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

At once thrilled and terrified at her newly emptied nest, Alex is also anxious about her age, studying older women on the bus, constantly buying new fitness equipment, worried she\u2019ll never have a relationship again. She has an ongoing casual hook-up with Patrick (Rupert Friend), but he is definitely not the settling-down type, although Alex keeps going back there.<\/p>\n

Sam insists he\u2019s entirely wrong for her, and sets her up on a blind date. But when the date, Michael (Tim McInnerny), reveals he\u2019s 67, he might as well have said 97 by the look on Alex\u2019s face. When Sam texts her to ask how it\u2019s going, Alex\u2019s response is, \u201che\u2019s old as f— is how it\u2019s going. I told you how I feel about a new penis, let alone an old penis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alex feels like an older version of Catastrophe\u2019s Sharon \u2013 perhaps inevitable given both series draw from Horgan\u2019s actual life \u2013 and this is a glorious thing.<\/p>\n

\"RupertRupert Friend co-stars as the roguish Patrick, a former boyfriend of Alex\u2019s.HBO Max<\/p>\n

Like Catastrophe, Horgan has crafted another comedy in which even the most cringe-inducing or outrageous moments don\u2019t feel entirely implausible or farcical (even an awkward scene involving arthritis of the jaw and a certain sexual activity). Horgan has said in interviews that she\u2019s \u201callergic to sentimentality\u201d, but in Youth, she blends wicked humour with genuine pathos – about ageing, the state of modern manhood, parenting, loneliness and more \u2013 in a wry, awkward, poignant and resonant way.<\/p>\n

Youth is streaming on HBO Max from September 21. <\/p>\n

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