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If you\u2019re late to one of the most popular rom-coms on Showmax, Younger is the story of single-mom Liza Miller (Tony winner Sutton Foster, who was nominated for a Critics Choice Award this year for the role). Divorced at 40, she reboots her career and love-life by pretending to be in her late-twenties. Soon she has her dream career in publishing, but as her personal and professional lives become irreversibly intertwined, keeping her secret becomes increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n
Things come to a head in season five, now first on Showmax, with Sutton and her co-star Peter Hermann (Charles) both warning during a recent fan Q&A that \u201call hell is about to break loose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are five reasons Younger is the romcom to keep you warm this winter.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the new Sex and the City – but better<\/strong><\/p>\n Younger has frequently been compared to Sex and The City: not just because both shows were created by Darren Star, but because they\u2019re both New York-set series about dating and female friendship, featuring designer outfits. As The Daily Beast wrote, Younger is \u201cthe Sex and the City replacement we all craved\u2026 one of the best TV shows about dating since the days of Carrie Bradshaw.\u201d<\/p>\n But Younger is more ambitious than Sex and the City, making the women\u2019s workplace much more central, while poking fun at both millennial\u2019s quirks and how ageist our society is, all while reminding audiences how lies are contagious. It\u2019s also always topical: this season features a #metoo subplot that critiques earlier episodes of the show. As San Francisco Chronicle wrote, \u201cAs funny as it is, it\u2019s actually more mature than the writing on Sex and the City.\u201d<\/p>\n It puts the romance back into romantic-comedy<\/strong><\/p>\n For much of the first four seasons, Liza\u2019s been caught in a love triangle between the much-younger tattoo-artist \u00a0Josh (The Following\u2019s Nico Tortorella) and her boss Charles (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\u2019s \u00a0Peter Hermann), trying to decide between being age-inappropriate or work-inappropriate. TV.com called Younger \u201ca breezy and sometimes surprisingly daring romantic comedy featuring one of the best – if not the best – love triangles on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n But the show\u2019s not just about Liza\u2019s love life: this season Kelsey (Hilary Duff) is caught up in a love triangle of her own. \u00a0The show\u2019s also been praised for showing love from multiple perspectives: Kelsey\u2019s best friend Lauren (Molly Bernard) is pansexual while Liza\u2019s best friend Maggie (Debi Mazar) is lesbian. The Hollywood Reporter hailed the show\u2019s portrayal of Lauren as \u201cgroundbreaking,\u201d adding \u201cThe reminder that Lauren is sexually fluid is intentionally subtle. Though Lauren is exploring her sexuality, she doesn’t struggle with it \u2014 a representation of bisexual and pansexual characters that is rarely seen on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n You\u2019ll covet the clothing<\/strong><\/p>\n Last year, Vulture hailed Younger as \u201cone of the most fashionable shows on television\u2026 Any fan of TVLand\u2019s Younger will be quick to tell you how utterly and completely fabulous the outfits are in every episode.\u201c This has been a mixed blessing for the cast. As Molly Bernard (Lauren) said during the recent fan Q&A, \u201cI had about four pairs of shoes when I started working on Younger. I now have a rack that goes over my closet door – a 24 pair rack – and it\u2019s not enough space. This show has ruined me – and my bank account.\u201d<\/p>\n You\u2019ll recognise your favourite authors in fictional form<\/strong><\/p>\n The New Yorker recently called Younger \u201ca Gossip Girl for the publishing industry – a glossy, winking take on a bounded universe of writers and editors and marketing campaigns.\u201d Book clubs will have fun matching the show\u2019s fictional authors to their real-life inspirations, from Candace Bushnell to George RR Martin to John Green. The likes of Jennifer Weiner and Erica Jong have also appeared as themselves on the show. Interestingly, The Marriage Vacation, a fictional book that has become a key plot-point, is now available to buy in real-life, having been published by Simon & Schuster under the show\u2019s fictional Millennial imprint. As The New Yorker wrote, \u201cThe lines between Younger and the actual publishing industry feel pleasurably blurry.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of the best reviewed series in the world<\/strong><\/p>\n Younger has a rare 99% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, not to mention Critic\u2019s Choice, People\u2019s Choice, Teen Choice, and Women\u2019s Image Network nominations. \u00a0It keeps getting better too: season four was the highest-rated and most watched run yet, ranking as the number one original ad-supported cable sitcom among women 18-49 and women 25-54, according to Nielsen.<\/p>\n \u201cYounger, one of my personal favourites, has been a huge hit with South African audiences, taking bingeing to all new levels season after season,\u201d says Candice Fangueiro, Showmax\u2019s head of content: Africa. \u201cIt has released at the perfect time, while hubby is hooked to the soccer so I can indulge. Like Sex and the City, which is also on Showmax, it ticks all the romantic comedy boxes for the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n The first four episodes of season five are now available, first on Showmax, followed by episodes 5-8 on 1 August 2018, with the last three episodes express from the US.<\/p>\n