Thanks to FX’s Adults, a new comedy series that follows five twenty-something roommates as they struggle to navigate adulthood, I now see life in two phases: the roast chicken phase and the raw chicken phase.
While I love a good coming-of-age story that seeks to replicate Friends/Girls/New Girl vibes, the fresh but familiar series from Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw admittedly took a while to grow on me. In early episodes, the writing and deliveries of certain jokes felt-try hard to a distracting degree. As the series progressed, characters and personalities started to feel much more lived-in. And in Season 1, Episode 6, “Roast Chicken,” everything clicked.
Hilarious spoilers for Adults Episode 6 ahead.
The standout installment — written by Sanaz Toossi and directed by Jason Woliner — showed Billie (Lucy Freyer), Samir (Malik Elassal),Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), Issa (Amita Rao), and Anton (Owen Thiele) throwing their very first dinner party for special guest, Mr. Teacher (Charlie Cox), the 42-year-old high school educator Billie’s been dating. On the menu? Roast chicken and a heaping side of pressure, because Billie needed the night to go perfectly so she could impress her new man and prove the roommates have their shit together.
“We are more than capable of throwing a dinner party, despite what people say about people our age — that we’re neurotic, irresponsible, directionless, or that we lie about using menstrual cups,” Billie told her pals in a pre-dinner party pep talk. “Tonight we’re gonna prove them wrong. We are in the roast chicken phase of life. We can be mature. And we can be normal. And we can cook a roast fucking chicken like the goddamn grown ups we are.”
Minutes before Mr. Teacher rang the doorbell, Billie was thriving. She changed into a stunning black dress, did her hair and makeup, put an apron on, and popped her chicken in the oven. The vibe she was curating? A sophisticated evening full of delicious food, good banter, and thoughtful discourse over The Atlantic articles. Did Samir’s dad’s suit that made him look like he “runs Gotham City” fit in with her dream dinner decor? No. Did Anton’s short velvet suit jacket and ass-less leather chaps, aka his bartending uniform, clash with the event? Yes. But like Issa said, “There’s napkins on tables. There’s nuts in bowls. This is basically a gala!”
Despite the early red flags, Billie tried her best to relax and convince herself perfection was within reach. When the doorbell rang in unison with the fire alarm, however, it should have been a clear sign that the night would be all downhill (complimentary) from there. Though Mr. Teacher made an A+ first impression, minutes after Samir took his coat, he revealed he was on a large, introductory does of ketamine and asked Samir to keep the secret between them. For literal seconds, Samir obeyed his former educator. Even after telling Anton “he’s tripping his balls off,” Samir couldn’t stop overthinking the problem and longed to loop in Billie.
With Disaster #1 in motion, Adults took a detour to introduce Disaster #2: Paul Baker’s mystery dinner guest, Jules. Issa, confident in herself and her relationship with Paul, was excited to meet his good friend, “Foxy J.” But when actress and model Julia Fox answered the door looking glam AF with an edgy black and white fit, bleach blonde hair and eyebrows, and a famous glow to her, Issa full-on spiraled with insecurity.
While “the A++ version” of Issa was “being interesting all over the sofa,” Billie remained in the kitchen determined to conquer the roast chicken, and Samir followed a wandering Mr. Teacher into a bedroom, where he found one of Billie’s old yearbooks and had a ketamine-induced epiphany. “I have to end it with her! Oh fuck! What the fuck am I doing? This girl was a child! I’m dating a child,” Cox’s sky-high character said before performing a random somersault and fleeing the room.
Meanwhile, Julia Fox ate all the crab dip! And Issa went into her closet and changed into her best Julia Fox fit! Sadly, she couldn’t compete with Jules’ stories about hanging in Lorne’s office at Saturday Night Live, her poetic toast, or Mr. Teacher’s chaotic dancing to Boney M’s “Sunny.” But despite everyone’s best efforts, the real star of the show was Billie’s roast chicken, which genuinely looked great until Mr. Teacher carved into it and blood splattered across the table.
“Did she forget to thaw that out?” Julia Fox, also a culinary genius, asked the group. Yes. Yes, she did. But Mr. Teacher was so high that he didn’t notice he was serving everyone raw chicken drizzled with raw chicken juices. As everyone looks on in disgust and bewilderment, Cox’s character chowed down on the uncooked bird in a gag-inducing, laugh-out-loud-worthy culmination of the episode’s mounting chaos. Samir took the moment to free himself from the shackles of his secret and told Billie her Teach was on drugs. And rather than collapsing on his plate for the night, Cox jolted upward and kept his scene stealing streak going, dialing up his unhinged performance by shouting at the group for not saying grace, then hiding out in the bathroom, where he broke up with Billie.
In a genuine show of maturity and capable problem-solving, a crushed Billie called her 42-year-old ex’s ex wife to come pick him up, and after Foxy J got a car home, the friends said “Fuck Mr Teacher!” before Billie let out one final scream into the oven in a delicious dinner party conclusion.
While the chicken wasn’t cooked, the episode absolutely ate. Adults delivered a wild, hilarious 24-minute ride that featured seamless writing, delightful performances, and smart callbacks that made viewers feel like they were part of the friend group — from Issa’s Jane Fonda story and Paul Baker’s “weird milk,” to the boys not knowing how to waft. Cox fully embraced the chaos, delivering an amusing performance ripe with physical comedy. And Fox was perfectly cast as someone with just the right amount of fame, fashion, and influence to impress viewers while rattling Issa. As Samir said, “she knows Sandler,” but she’s not SO famous that she wouldn’t believably befriend Paul Baker at Meals on Wheels.
The episode unequivocally proved that Adults‘ core characters (and crucially, Mr. Andrew Teacher) are still in their raw chicken phase of life. But at least they’re trying! They’re making solid efforts to figure themselves, their careers, their relationships, and their futures out. And who among us can’t relate to that journey? At the end of the day, we’re all just adults hoping to successfully reach our roast chicken phases. (Unless you’re vegan like Jules!) And when Adults serves up raw, relatable (occasionally heightened) moments of fear, humor, love, heartbreak, humiliation, and chaos, the show has the power to shine.
Adults Season 1 is now streaming on Hulu with new episodes airing Wednesdays on FX.