"Adults" and the importance of being a sitcom today In its second season, the series created by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw is even more irresistible

Adults is back with its second season, and we can't get enough of it. We can't, but we have to, because the comedy series created by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, just like its debut in 2025, consists of only eight episodes (nine, if we count a special episode). 

The original FX series, streaming in the US on Hulu and in Italy on Disney+, has fully earned the title of sitcom — a label that series have struggled to claim for years. It's not just a matter of length: going back in time, sitcoms were always those shows that ran for about thirty minutes, but the real point is that they knew how to make us laugh while being as easy to watch as comfort food — whether that's ice cream, french fries, or a slice of pizza. 

A Démodé Label 

Over the years, other projects have come close to earning the sitcom label, respecting unity of time and space (sitcoms always use the same settings), but something has always held back both audiences and productions alike — perhaps because the label seemed at once reductive and démodé. Only Abbott Elementary has managed to claim it, despite the temptation to call itself a comedy, as has What We Do in the Shadows. It's no coincidence that both follow the mockumentary style, one of the most beloved formats for comedic content.

From 2010–2015 onward, sitcoms have consistently been rebranded as comedies. The award-winning Hacks is a comedy; Shrinking, among AppleTV+'s offerings, is a comedy — or rather a dramedy — as is its companion Ted Lasso. Rooster, which arrived in 2026 on HBO Max, is a comedy. Only Scrubs, with its return this year via its tenth season, can still be considered a sitcom in every sense of the word (despite its tragic undertones, which were present in the original series too) — a title it can claim precisely because it remains faithful to its original spirit, still rooted in the era when it first aired in 2001. 

Adults didn't care, and carved out its own path even when making sitcoms no longer seemed like the thing to do. It looked back to the legacy of Seinfeld, openly drew inspiration from the cult classic Friends, made the short-episode format its greatest strength, and blended sharp, irrepressible humor with contemporary society and current customs — making it perfectly suited to speak to Gen Z, the very generation that never had a sitcom of its own. The result is irresistible.

Will There Be a Third Season? 

Five people sharing an apartment in Queens, New York (the quintessential sitcom city) — the protagonists of Adults are twenty-somethings in the middle of a life where they're still young but can see thirty creeping closer. Characters who must contend with all the same challenges their predecessors faced, from struggling to find work to trying to keep a relationship alive, to reconciling real life with their own expectations. 

In Adults we find everything Monica, Ross, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Rachel had to navigate — except now a roommate might be gender fluid and the coffee order at the bar is a matcha latte instead of a cappuccino. Adults is the answer to the fears, anxieties, struggles, and difficulties of a generation with its own vocabulary, new cultural touchstones, and a world that can now see itself reflected on the small screen as never before. With characters who talk like young people, share the same references as young people, who aren't a caricature of them — even in their excesses. Characters who can also win over a broad audience through their well-drawn personalities, the performances of the cast, and writing that time and again manages to be not just funny, but hilarious; writing that in the second season raises the bar even higher, settling comfortably into its own shoes and fully embracing its wonderful sitcom soul.

Unlike its cousin Friends and all the other sitcoms of its kind, however, Adults has far fewer episodes. If the series reflects today's world, it does so in terms of production methods and timelines as well — which, unlike the television industry of the past that kept us entertained with twenty or more episodes (the final season of Friends had the fewest episodes and still reached eighteen), have adapted to the rules of binge-watching, which often means a more compact release. Only the already-mentioned Abbott Elementary has reached twenty-plus episodes per season, though it doesn't have to follow the conventions of streaming series, since it airs first on the American broadcast network ABC. 

So all we can do is watch the second season of Adults, rewatch the first, hope it keeps growing in popularity, and that for a third season — if and when it gets renewed — it becomes a sitcom in every respect: not just eight, but ten, fifteen, twenty or more episodes.