TV Review: YOUNGER: Season 6, Episode 1 [TV Land, Tribeca 2019]

Younger Season 6 Episode 1 Review

TV Land‘s Younger: Season 1, Episode 6 from the 18th Annual Tribeca Film Festival embodies a rom-com with its light, speedy tone, bright aesthetic, transitional shots of New York City, and a storyline that keeps work stuff general in order to mainly focus on relationships. Unfortunately, though, Younger doesn’t offer the joy and heart expected of this genre. Season 6, episode 1 fails to establish meaningful conflicts, keeps most characters highly two-dimensional, and takes a far too heavy-handed approach to dialog and music, leaving less than nothing to the viewer’s interpretation.

For those unfamiliar with this show, it involves a variety of characters, with two at the forefront, Kelsey (Hilary Duff) and Liza (Sutton Foster). These two women work together at a publishing company that’s tanking fast and Kelsey, 28, has just been promoted to lead the company through this tough spot. We see the characters both in and out of the office, meeting each of their love interests as well as a smattering of other friends and ex-lovers.

Younger makes it clear that it’s attempting to do work in service of feminism, at least in some ways; the characters discuss their passion for building a company entirely run by women. However, this pro-feminism work came across at times as didactic and clunky. In one scene between Kelsey, Liza, and another employee, the writer’s purpose is clearly to teach the reader the term “glass cliff.” This educational goal is ill-hidden through the dialog, which sounds unnatural and canned, almost like an infomercial.

Learning about the glass cliff, along with a poorly written scene in which her love interest informs her that Diana, the office nemesis, is considering leaving the company, puts Kelsey in fear. Because Diana has stopped coming to work while she decides whether or not to leave the company, Kelsey and Liza make the narratively unnatural decision to go looking for her. They find her at a musical theater piano bar (Marie’s Crisis, an authentic NYC haunt). In a scene that is amazingly forced, unnecessary, and frankly ridiculous, Liza has the piano player play Diana’s favorite song (Dolly Parton’s 9-5, another feminist nod) and she and Kelsey begin to sing, as a last-ditch effort to bring Diana back. To no one’s surprise in this beyond corny moment, Diana begrudgingly joins in halfway through and the three finish singing together. Diana is back almost as quickly as she left, despite one remark- the only one that showed any depth to her character- about a fear that her age would render her irrelevant in the digital marketplace. This scene is so shallow and ignorant of human motivation that it’s almost angering.

I’m left with the question: what is the point of Younger? Clearly its creators are hoping to make something feminist, funny, and intriguing. But the feminism of an all-female company or fancy terms don’t matter if the characters are so two-dimensional that they portray women in unrealistic and ultimately detrimental ways. Beyond that, a great season opener should leave viewers caring about a compelling conflict. While I would be curious to know what happens next with the company, the other half-dozen conflicts introduced were, frankly, uninteresting and pointless. Ultimately, Younger seems to have some ingredients of an intriguing female-led dramedy, but it won’t go beyond mediocrity if its plots and its writing don’t gain a little more resonance and depth.