This brutal, hilarious new show about life as a fiftysomething is full of all the heart and humour of human life. At points it\u2019s mesmerisingly perfect<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a moment in Sharon Horgan\u2019s new show, Youth, when \u2013 as protagonist Alex (Horgan) is seeing her son off to university \u2013 she inadvertently begins to run after the car that\u2019s taking him away. And then she catches herself, and slows. And then she starts up again. It was such a tender, vicious glimpse into the future that I found myself sobbing into the sofa and cursing her name.<\/p>\n
All of which is to say: Sharon Horgan is back and she\u2019s better than ever. Youth is the representation every woman who has ever slapped on an oestrogen patch after a divorce, looked around and thought \u201cWhat the hell now?\u201d has been waiting for. Horgan herself has described it in interviews as forming the third part of a loose trilogy that began with Pulling. Co-written with Dennis Kelly, Pulling was about three thirtysomething antitheses to Bridget Jones, whose dark chaos apparently scared the BBC so much they unexpectedly cancelled it just as it was truly getting into its stride. That was followed by Catastrophe, written by and starring Horgan, with Rob Delaney, as a couple who have a fling, find that she\u2019s pregnant and end up making a brutal, hilarious go of things.<\/p>\n
Youth is on HBO Max<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/64d89537051d89e58d9bf0076912faacac83f82d\/446_0_4039_3233\/master\/4039.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=201bf1d6671900bb84ce77ba86696701\" "\\"Youth")
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