‘Younger’ and the Power of Female Friendship
Now in its third season, Younger likes to appear light and frothy, and the show succeeds in that. The tale of 40-year-old Liza (Sutton Foster) passing as a 26-year-old to get and keep a job in a millennial-obsessed workforce, Younger is always leaning into, and pushing away from, its gimmick premise. As created by Darren Star, Younger’s primary similarity to his Sex and the City is that it’s a fantasy with a subtext of realism: women insisting on their own goals and achievements, while regularly compelled to devise ways to alter, defeat, or at least invent a workaround for a male-devised society.
Liza’s friendships with her work-pal Kelsey (Hilary Duff) and her roommate-pal Maggie (Debi Mazar) keep her grounded — among other things, they provide Liza, and us, with the permission to think of Liza’s age-masquerade as heroic rather than a sham or an acquiescence to the working world’s youth obsession. On the light-and-frothy side, Liza gets to play both ends against the middle: She’s got a young hunk who knows her secret (Nico Tortorella’s Josh) and a middle-aged hunk who’s in the dark but intrigued (Peter Hermann’s Charles).
Related: 5 Things To Know About ‘Younger’ Season 3
The new season picks up after the death of Kelsey’s fiancé, Thad — Dan Amboyer gets to have some fun playing the deceased’s nerdy twin brother, Chad. Liza’s job at Empirical Press is threatened by an economic downturn that finds a possible savior in young tech billionaire Bryce Reiger, played by Noah Robbins. Liza and Kelsey are key to persuading Bryce to give Empirical a cash infusion, on the strength of their young-person tech savvy — although I’m not sure lines like “You’re being listicled on Buzzfeed” ring with cutting-edge sharpness. Liza and Kelsey’s boss, Diana (Miriam Shor, authoritatively terrific as always), is miffed about the entire situation, shrewdly observing, “If old media is so dead, why is new media always trying to buy us?”
Bryce is an amusing character, if one that the writers have to be careful with. His rude arrogance is based not solely on his young wealth but also, well, as he puts it, “I’m a little on the spectrum — that’s why your perfume is so offensive to me.” Playing spectrum autism for laughs may prove to be Younger’s trickiest twist yet.
But Younger never stays bogged down in one theme, or with one character, for long. Foster is, as always, glowingly convincing as Liza, and the show never lets us forget that what this character — and by implication, this series — is fighting against is, as Liza phrases it in the second episode, “institutionalized ageism.” You can watch Younger for its sociological nuggets, or simply enjoy watching Liza smooch Josh, or Charles, or who knows what next guy in her life.
Younger Season 3 premieres Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 10 p.m. on TV Land.
