FX's Adults Returns for Season 2: Sharper, Funnier, and Finding Its Footing
FX's ensemble comedy Adults returns for its second season on 27 August 2026, and according to Variety's review published the same day, the show "starts to figure it out" — a notable shift from the same reviewer's lukewarm take on Season 1 just over a year ago.
All eight episodes drop at once on FXX and Hulu on-demand, with the premiere airing at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on FXX (Deadline, Yahoo Entertainment). The season was preceded by a standalone prequel episode that debuted on Hulu in July, giving fans an early look at the breakout character Paul Baker's origin story (Variety).
Adults comes from co-creators Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, a real-life couple who met writing for The Tonight Show. The series follows a group of twenty-somethings in New York navigating love, work, friendship and family — territory that puts it in conversation with shows like Broad City and Girls, both of which echo through Season 2 in ways both deliberate and affectionate (Variety).
Variety's Season 1 review, published in May 2025, was titled "Adults Review: FX Coming-of-Age Comedy Needs to Mature" and dinged the show for gimmicky bits that felt reverse-engineered to go viral rather than earned by story. The Season 2 review, by contrast, says the show is more mature and has found its own momentum (Variety, Variety).
The character getting the most attention is Paul Baker, played by Jack Innanen — a bisexual softboy whose girlfriend Issa (Amita Rao) recalls borrowing his crop top for a Muna concert. In the Season 2 premiere, Paul is discovered to have a secret group of "shame friends" from his early days in New York. The prequel episode, released earlier in August, gave him a standalone origin story (Variety).
Issa gets her own arc this season, too. In one episode she impulsively decides to freeze her eggs and recruits roommate Samir (Malik Elassal) to help administer the hormone shots, which plays out in slapstick chase scenes around the house. Variety notes that Rao's performance is deeply indebted to Ilana Glazer's work in Broad City — a comparison that lands as a compliment in this genre (Variety).
Season 2 also brings in familiar faces. Gaten Matarazzo of Stranger Things and Zosia Mamet of Girls guest-star. Mamet's appearance is a full-circle moment: Adults Season 1 referenced the famous "voice of a generation" line associated with Girls, and now one of that show's stars is in the building (Variety).
In another episode, the gang turns their living room into an election war room as Paul Baker campaigns for president of the local homeowners' association — a subplot that signals the show's knack for finding absurdity in the mundane (Variety).
The series is shot in Toronto, rarely leaving the soundstage that doubles as Samir's absentee parents' house in deep Queens. It is an ensemble piece in the tradition of New York apartment comedies, built around a core cast that also includes Lucy Freyer and Owen Thiele. Episodes stream on Hulu and, for Disney+ Bundle subscribers, on Disney+ (FX Networks, Variety).
For a show that was told it needed to grow up, Season 2 arrives with the reviewer who said it now conceding that it has.
