‘Youth’ review: HBO’s coming-of-middle-age comedy is messy and moving, as only Sharon Horgan can

From Catastrophe to Bad Sisters, Sharon Horgan has proven herself adept at creating deeply human, deeply messy characters muddling through complicated lives. Her latest series,Youth on HBO, continues that trend with a tale of menopausal love and sex that’s equal parts hilarious and vulnerable.

What’s Youth about?

Horgan plays Alex, a divorced literary agent dealing with the sheer onslaught of life at 50. She’s taken on the role of caretaker twice over, looking after her ailing parents as well as her angst-ridden 18-year-old son, Ruari (Aran Murphy). As the latter heads off to university, Alex determines to put her own needs first and find the love and sex she’s denied herself while he’s been at home.

That quest proves difficult. After years of marriage, Alex is daunted by the prospect of starting her love life over at square one. As she weathers awkward courtships and gets accustomed to “new dick,” she also confronts her body image issues tied to aging. In the very first episode, she learns she’s got arthritis in her jaw. (You can imagine the off-color joke her doctor makes about her oral activities.) In a solid background running gag, she constantly buys new exercise equipment. Panic over her appearance abounds, especially when confronted with her on-again, off-again lover Patrick’s (Rupert Friend) current, much younger fling, Cara (Nadia Parkes).

And all that’s before Ruari moves back home, mere days into his university career. His return, coupled with Alex’s romantic and professional anxieties, sparks a perfect storm of awkward situations, like an Ibiza vacation where everyone is romantically paired off except for Alex and her son. Horgan brings every social misstep to life with deft frankness. Cringe comedy melds with earnest heart-to-hearts, putting us on an emotional rollercoaster that nails life’s many ups and downs.

Youth thrives, thanks to imperfect relationships.

Sharon Horgan and Aran Murphy in “Youth.”
Credit: Colin Hutton / HBO

Horgan is astounding in Youth: filthy, funny, flawed in all the right ways. So is the rest of the main ensemble, whose interactions with Alex result in a tangled web of relationships that each feel painfully real.

On the work front, Alex has the unique situation of her boss Sam (Sharlene Whyte) also being her best friend. Often times, they get along great, like when they’re venting over a best-selling client’s (Anne Reid) latest racy — and racist! — manuscript, or dishing on their relationships. When the power dynamic comes into play, though, Alex bristles and tends to buck Sam’s authority. Whyte and Horgan’s chemistry oscillates between playful and strained as needed, and the result is a solid addition to the canon of HBO’s complex female friendships.

On the love front, Alex always seems to find her way back to Patrick. Described as “institutionally single,” he’s no perfect rom-com hero. Commitment eludes him, even though he wants to start a family. Yet Patrick’s no dirtbag either. He’s kind and invested in Alex, and Friend and Horgan’s scenes together burn with such familiar intimacy you can’t help but root for the pair. Look no further than a scene where they lay in bed, discussing Alex’s estrogen patch. It’s sweet, sexy, and honest, all rolled into a 30-second sequence.

But the relationship at Youth‘s core is that between Alex and Ruari. As Ruari, Murphy gives an explosive performance, careening between impulsive recklessness and pure apathy. He’s just as likely to be making rash decisions in a club as he is to be watching video game playthroughs on his phone. Yet while Ruari begins the series by frequently lashing out at his mother, and Alex begins it in a near-constant state of frustration towards her son, the two inevitably grow closer. In fact, they become mirrors to one another, in all their self-sabotaging glory. Both are at a major turning point in their lives: Ruari stands on the precipice of adulthood, not quite ready to leap into what comes next. Alex is entering a new decade of her life, terrified at the baggage the number 50 brings, yet ready to embrace the freedom it might afford her.

With this dysfunctional mother-son duo, Horgan weaves two very different coming-of-age stories that prove that you never really stop growing up. And what a beautiful, frightening, and funny reality that is.

The first two episodes of Youth premiere Sept. 20 at 10 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.