Younger is an American TV comedy-drama show based on the Pamela Redmond Satran novel of the same name. Darren Star serves as the television show’s creator, director and producer. The series stars Sutton Foster as the lead character,Liza Miller. The series also stars Hilary Duff as Kelsey Peters, Debi Mazar as Maggie, and Miriam Shor as Diana Trout.
The series focuses on Sutton Foster’s character, Liza, a recently divorced 40 year old mother. After her divorce, Liza begins looking for a job, but finds it difficult given her age. After receiving a compliment from a younger man, Nico Tortorella’s character Josh, Liza decides to get a makeover with the the help of her friend Maggie in order to look like she’s in her early twenties. Ultimately, Liza becomes assistant to Diana Trout at a publishing company. Her co-worker is Kelsey Peters.
Overall, Younger has received generally good reviews from both critics and audience members. On Metacritic, the show has received a score of 75 out of 100, based on a total of 19 critic reviews. Similarly, the series was rated highly on Rotten Tomatoes, receiving an overall approval rating of 96% from critics. The web sites consensus was that, “Darren Star’s witty writing and Sutton Foster’s charisma help elevate Younger above some of TV Land’s previous sitcoms.”
Younger did receive criticism for its beginning episodes, which attempted and failed on several occasions to point out just how disconnected from the world Sutton Foster’s character is, though this lack of knowledge seems implausibly farfetched. She struggles to understand how to operate a smart phone, can’t figure out how to open up a Twitter account, and most interestingly, has no idea who Lena Dunham is. While these may seem comical, they’re strangely out of place, and point at the show trying too hard to paint 40 as too old.
Initially, the premise may seem faulty, as though it shouldn’t be able to stand on its own two feet. However, the series is more than just the story of a woman trying not to be seen as her age. It’s the story of a woman learning to deal with the aftermath of divorce, financial instability and the confusion that is a mid-life crisis. Sutton Foster’s character is interesting and confused, but she’s doing her very best to continue living her life, even if it means reinventing herself from her age up.
The story plays out very much like that of experience looking back on innocence in a wistful sort of way. But Foster’s character goes on step further, embracing that innocence and claiming it as her own once more. The backdrop to her admirable performance is her newly found clique of twenty somethings who are brilliantly wistful and delightfully clueless in their lives, giving Foster a chance to teach and lead them as she was once led by those smarter and more experience than she at the time.
Younger premiered on March 31 of 2015 with a double episode premiere. To see the latest episodes of the show, tune in on Tuesdays to TV Land at 10 pm, 9 pm Central time. Find other entertainment options at http://www.s9.com/att/.