Youth review — Sharon Horgan returns with a sharp, tender take on life at fifty

What the show is about

Youth centres on Alex, played by Sharon Horgan, a fiftysomething literary agent coming out of a divorce. Her son Ruari is leaving for university in 10-week terms, which gives Alex new space but also intensifies the question of what comes next. She balances an ageing, frail family to one side and a difficult child and ineffective ex-husband to the other. Work offers both relief and extra complications.

Tone and approach

The Guardian review describes the show as both "brutal" and "hilarious," mixing sharply observed satire—especially of the publishing world—with quietly devastating personal moments. The voice is often comic and grotesque, but it consistently rests in emotional truth. Scenes that might read as outrageous on paper play as recognisable human failures and small mercies on screen.

Key characters and dynamics

• Alex: a woman in midlife who is open about her limits—"I've got 10 years left as a sexual person, tops"—and impatient to reclaim parts of her life.
• Patrick (Rupert Friend): a charming, borderline cad whose on-again, off-again relationship with Alex complicates her attempt to move on.

• Sam (Sharlene Whyte): Alex's friend and boss, whose role shifts in influence and creates workplace tensions.

• Supporting figures include a disgruntled former client whose book unexpectedly goes viral, and an elderly bestselling author whose output becomes problematic for her editors.

Standout scenes

The review highlights several moments that combine comedy with sharp feeling: Alex running after her son's departing car and catching herself, a sex scene that the critic places among memorable cinematic moments, and the awkward, specific negotiations of middle-age sex and intimacy. These scenes aim for both laugh-out-loud absurdity and real heartbreak.

Style and lineage

Horgan positions Youth as part of a loose trilogy that began with Pulling and continued with Catastrophe. Where Pulling explored chaotic thirtysomethings and Catastrophe mapped an unexpected partnership, Youth turns to life's third act—dating, caregiving, career maintenance and loss—delivered with Horgan's established blend of sharp satire and emotional honesty.

What the reviewer emphasizes

Lucy Mangan praises Horgan's ability to write fully formed characters who are funny, ridiculous and recognisably human. The satire aimed at publishing professionals lands precisely, but it never overwhelms the human core. The balance of grotesque comedy and lived-in pain is presented as Horgan's strength: she inhabits discomfort and vulnerability without sentimentality.

Who might like this show

Viewers who appreciated Pulling and Catastrophe will find thematic continuity. Audiences interested in character-driven comedy that addresses middle-age, caregiving, and the messy realities of modern dating are likely to respond. The show is also for those who enjoy satire of cultural industries paired with intimate family drama.

Bottom line

Youth is offered as a further step in Sharon Horgan's exploration of adult life: sharper, darker and still full of warmth. It treats middle-age as a complicated, often comic terrain, and aims to be both unflinching and humane in its portrait of a woman reshaping her life at fifty.