The main cast of Friends at Monica's living room in a promo photo for Friends
By
Adrienne Tyler
Published 48 minutes ago
Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once.
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The success of Friends led to many other sitcoms that have tried to take its place, with the one closest to it being How I Met Your Mother – but you're missing out on the best one since then. Friends has a simple but effective concept: six close friends navigating adulthood the best way they can.
Throughout 10 seasons, Friends follows its main characters through many ups and downs in their social, personal, and professional lives, with a lot of comedy. Now, 20 years after the premiere of Friends’ best replacement to date, you are missing out on one of the best modern replacements of the show.
Adults Is The Best Modern Friends Replacement
Cast of Adults
Hulu is currently home to the best Friends replacement in the last 20 years: Adults, created by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw. Like Friends and most of its replacement shows, Adults has a simple premise: five friends in their 20s living together in the childhood home of the parents of one of them, who are on a very long trip.
Together, they navigate the challenges of young adulthood along with career struggles, modern dating, social dynamics, healthcare, and other challenges and fun situations. Adults was released on FX in May 2025, with all episodes streaming on Hulu, and it received positive reviews, praising its comedy, relatable problems and situations, and the performances of its main cast.
Adults is a modern version of Friends, with the characters fitting with their Gen-Z target audience and going through the same problems as they do, though with some slight exaggerations to enhance the show’s comedy. Despite not reaching a wide audience (yet), Adults was so well-received that it was renewed for a second season in October 2025.
Adults Does Many Things Better Than Friends
Courtesy of FX Networks
The biggest mistake of the shows that tried to be the new Friends is, precisely, trying to be exactly like Friends. This is where the success of How I Met Your Mother lies, as even though it was obviously inspired by Friends, and the premise is essentially the same, the show had its own storyline, comedy style, and the characters had their own quirks.
Despite having the same basic premise, Adults does some things better than Friends, especially for younger viewers who couldn’t quite connect with Friends. Surely, Friends continues to be relevant in many ways, but it can’t be denied that it hasn’t aged well in many other ways, and the situations the characters are involved in aren’t relatable to modern viewers.
Adults is fresh and covers themes, challenges, and issues that young adults nowadays also go through, but that older viewers can also relate to. Adults also does comedy better than Friends, as it doesn’t rely on a laugh track and the comedic performances of the cast are a lot more natural, with impeccable comedic timing and delivery, thus making it funnier.
Hopefully, the second season of Adults will bring a wider audience to it and it will get the praise it deserves, and let’s also hope that it won’t lose its unique spark.
7.8/10
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Adults
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Comedy Release Date May 28, 2025 Network FXCast
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Adults
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