Alex, the protagonist of the HBO half-hour series “Youth,” is in many ways a typical rom-com heroine. She has a glamorous job (book agent) in a glamorous city (London), with an enviable apartment to match. She has a messy love life; attracting suitors isn’t a problem, but choosing wisely between them is. She’s prone to the kind of miscommunication and messy decisionmaking that make you shout things like “JUST TALK TO HIM!” at your television, even as they generate the story required to fill out an eight-episode season.
\n\nThe difference is that Alex, the latest creation of actor and writer Sharon Horgan, is freshly 50 — decidedly not the age of your average rom-com lead. This makes the title of “Youth” somewhat ironic, like the inverse of FX’s “Adults”: those kids are nowhere near maturity, while Alex’s prefrontal cortex is long since developed. But it’s also a nod to the second adolescence Alex finds herself experiencing. She’s many years divorced, and now her teenage son Rauri (Aran Murphy, babyfaced son of Cillian) is set to leave the house. The traditional guardrails of nuclear family life are off, leaving Alex with a canvas that’s thrillingly, terrifyingly blank. And thanks to perimenopause…
Original source: https://variety.com/v/tv/