Two Olds Text About Television Getting “Younger”

By Karen and Margit

Hilary Duff and Sutton Foster in Younger (Photo: TV Land)

Last week TV Land debuted Younger, a new TV series starring Sutton Foster as Liza Miller,  a 40-something woman pretending to be 26 to reenter the workforce. Naturally Karen and Margit had to have a text about this:

I struggled through the pilot. I mean, I see the connection to Sex and the City in its superficiality (sorry fans of SATC).

Awww, I loved SATC!

I just found myself in a constant state of eye roll.

SATC was so iconic in its style, thanks in part to Patricia Field’s costuming, and this does not have that (editor’s note: we learned later Field is doing Younger too!). This show feels like they are following fashion trends, not setting them. And SATC didn’t have the gimmicky storyline. Not that anyone wants an updated SATC out of this. Well, maybe Darren Star does!

I mean Younger deals in stereotypes (like SATC!) with no wink wink irony — unlike, say, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which deals in rich character development and satirical over-the-top stereotypes to the extent that it’s a commentary on those stereotypes…But I’m biased.

I’m already worried how long they can sustain Sutton Foster pretending to be 26.

I just don’t get that she can have a lesbian friend who lives in Brooklyn and not know that people these days have tattoos!

Yeah, half the moms I know at my daughter’s school have tattoos! I will say, we went to Brooklyn Bowl with friends last year to see a band, and when we left at midnight, there was a huge line out the door of people just starting their night. And THAT made me feel old.

Oh I can’t stand lines. I couldn’t in my 20s. Or maybe I could. It’s a blur.

I was telling a friend about the locker room scene where Hilary Duff is horrified by Liza’s un-waxed lady parts, and she was like, “Hello? Our generation started the whole Brazilian trend!” Although I guess the joke is that we’re now all old and married and not waxing anymore because we’re not having the sex anymore. A different kind of ouch! (P.S. Also a joke they made about Miranda in the SATC movie. What were you saying about eye rolls?)

What’s insulting is that they are trying to make Sutton’s character Liza kind of dumb and clueless because she left her career to raise a family. The whole notion that you have to forego years of work experience because you took time off is disturbing to me. But I think as Gen-Xers we’re in that weird middle — again — where we had terribly nonexistent flexible working arrangements in our 20s and now things are a wee bit easier? So she might have been able to not give it all up as a young mom?

I think a lot of our peers did choose to stay at home after having kids. I remember being surprised at how many friends made that choice. I thought we’d all keep working full time — which I did for three years. But I have to say, part of what made it somewhat easier for me to stay was that I was in publishing, and had several very good examples of working moms who made it work.

 Ah yes — well role models are everything.  Let’s just say for the record people in their 40s know what Gmail is; tattoos and certainly One Direction.

I thought it was so lame that they made her favorite band One Direction. What 26-year-old in Williamsburg would say their favorite band is One D, and that Harry is their favorite? All the real 20-somethings would be like, “NARC!!!”

Haha. Right!

Narc is probably a really 40-something thing to say.

Ha! Totes. I did like it when the guy plugged his info in to her phone without asking. There is something foreign-feeling about the way people are insta-sharing information and photos and even payments (hello Venmo).

I haven’t installed FB messenger because…bad…something I read on HuffPo.

Wait did I write sharing or shaving. My eyesight is so bad.

 You wrote sharing. Get some reading glasses, girl!

 I’m too far away from my screen and I need bifocals, er, “progressives.”

Welcome to the club!

Progressives. Everything is so softened these days. It’s not turbulence it’s rough air. Ok back to Younger

Back to Younger. All the characters feel really one-dimensional. Like the 40-something boss.

Miriam Shor! I love Miriam Shor. The original Yitzak in Hedwig (again, see Editor’s Note!). But it’s suuuch a Devil Wears Prada rip-off.

Definitely, but it’s not like those 20-somethings are working in an office of only 20-somethings as in Younger. That’s what’s so contrived about this. She interviews as a 40-something for two 20-somethings, but then pretends to be 26 and works for a 40-something boss.

Good point. We were talking about this earlier and I think it was Adrianna who said, “how would she have been the youngest person to make junior editor” and then not be able to regain some position?”

My 40-something friends who never left the workplace are at the top of their fields and kicking ass.

But once you get to your 40s you already have several lives and several jobs, in many cases.

 Well, it looks like we’ll get some hint about that in a future episode where she runs into someone who recognizes her, played by Martha Plimpton, so that’s something to look forward to! Also, if she was the youngest editor at Random House at 25, and her daughter is 20, how long could she have worked in publishing in the first place??

Lots of faulty plot lines. We have 20-something friends

 And 50-something and 60-something friends.

Exactly. The world is much more patchwork.

 I hate how Younger sets it up that the generations are at odds with each other. As if the Mommy Wars weren’t bad enough! But maybe that will change as the show progresses? Why does Sutton Foster always have to be in shows with these contrived set-ups? I had the same problem with Bunheads.

Sutton Foster is über talented —I prefer to watch her tap dance — I could watch that over and over.

I loved her in Anything Goes! I was in Anything Goes in high school.

Awww – what was your role?

I was just in the chorus. But I was Sharon in Finian’s Rainbow, and Babe in Pajama Game!

DAMN girl. I took tap dancing classes. It was like the best class of my life. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard your own feet tapping out a fascinatin’ rhythm

I can do a double time step. Those were the days. Sigh. So where were we?

Well, I think we’ve exhausted the commentary on this pilot.

But, seriously, did you really hate SATC?

Did I say hate? I didn’t hate it. I know this is a crushing blow.

You didn’t say hate.

 I liked it, the dialogue irked me. It always felt so forced. I did like the clothes and the cityscapes.

The brunch puns got pretty painful in the later years.

Exactly. I’m actually not really a sitcom person. It has to be REALLY good for me to watch. I have a whole dark period from just after college through the 90s where I didn’t watch TV for years.

GASP. NO TV FOR YEARS????

Yeah like the Seinfeld/Friends years. I was in a hole dating a guy who had no TV and mine only worked with a VCR.

No wonder you like Kimmy Schmidt! You can relate!

HAHA totally.

Dude, no Seinfeld???

I watched it eventually. Promise.

Phew. I mean, we’re going to Miami tomorrow and I can assure you at some point, we’ll be driving and I’ll turn to Michael and say “Stay on Biscayne, don’t get off Biscayne!!”

LOL. …. Ok I have no idea what that means.

The episode where Jerry and Elaine go stay with his parents because his dad is getting an award from the condo association. Take the pen, Jerry! Take the pen! It writes upside down!

Our friend Kat wanted to start a rumor that someone was developing Seinfeld the Musical. Which is like the most brilliant idea ever. She was like, “let’s just start talking about Seinfeld the Musical and see if people overhear us and think it’s a thing.

#SeinfeldTheMusical

Then I was like “But that’s a really good idea and we should develop it!” I mean isn’t it???

You need to make that happen! By the way I’m watching Sutton tap dance in the background.

Yeah the one person in the world who never really watches Seinfeld makes a musical about it. Hilarious. Maybe we should randomly create a section of TueNight called Seinfeld the Musical and then you click it and there’s nothing there. Seems apropos.

I’m going to go watch Sutton do Blow, Gabriel, Blow next.

Later days, Budddddy.

Originally Published April 7, 2015. Updated May 12, 2021.