It Gets Worse, the new Channel 4 comedy created by and starring Leo Reich, has launched in the UK, bringing a dysfunctional London flatshare and an unusually starry supporting cast to television.
The six-part series began on Thursday 22 October and is now available to stream on Channel 4. Reich leads the show alongside Emily Fairn and Olive Gray, with Andrew Scott, Lena Dunham and novelist Zadie Smith among the names involved.
The starting point is simple: three university friends have finally made it to London, only to discover that sharing a postcode does not mean they have worked out how to live. When their landlord decides to sell, the arrangement keeping them together falls apart.
What is It Gets Worse about?
Channel 4’s official introduction describes Ethan, Abi and Sam as friends facing eviction, a year after their move to the capital. Their jobs, relationships and sense of direction have not developed quite as they hoped.
The housing problem forces them out of a familiar routine. Friendship becomes harder to maintain when the people involved are scattered across the city and dealing with different pressures.
That gives the series a recognisable British setting without making the flat itself the only source of comedy. Leaving university can end the structure that made friendship feel effortless; finding a home together does not necessarily replace it.
The premise also leaves room for the awkward gap between how someone describes their life and what they are actually doing. These characters have opinions and ambitions, but practical adulthood keeps interrupting the picture they would prefer to present.
Leo Reich, Emily Fairn and Olive Gray lead the cast
Reich plays Ethan, with Fairn as Abi and Gray as Sam. The three characters remain the centre of the series even as its guest performers create some of the most attention-grabbing moments.
Radio Times describes Ethan as a self-absorbed twentysomething, Abi as someone chasing a more polished life, and Sam as an aspiring writer whose principles are tested by everyday work.
The same review identifies Blake Harrison among the supporting performers, while Andrew Scott appears in the opening episode as a therapist encountered outside the conventional consulting-room situation.
The comedy includes frank sexual material and difficult romantic encounters. The title should give some indication that this is an adult sitcom about flawed people, rather than a comforting guide to getting life organised.
Zadie Smith provides the narration
One of the show’s more distinctive casting choices is Smith as narrator. Her voice places a different perspective around the characters’ urgent concerns, creating distance between how they experience a crisis and how it looks from outside.
The Financial Times highlights the narration in its account of the series, which follows the friends through a temporary separation and competing ideas about adulthood.
Its review also notes the unequal financial circumstances within the group. Ethan can fall back on parental support, while his friends have to earn their rent, giving their shared problems very different practical consequences.
That imbalance supplies useful tension for a friendship comedy. Being emotionally close does not mean everyone has the same safety net, or understands what another person’s working day costs them.
What have the first reviews said?
The launch has brought an enthusiastic response from some critics. Radio Times awarded the series four stars, drawing comparisons with Big Mood and Girls while emphasising the strength of its central trio.
The Times gave It Gets Worse five stars, praising its combination of sharp satire and sympathy for people who repeatedly make their own situations harder.
Those are critics’ assessments of the finished programme. They suggest the series has found an audience for a deliberately uncomfortable version of young adulthood, where recognition can be as much a source of laughter as the punchlines.
Where to watch It Gets Worse
UK viewers can stream It Gets Worse on Channel 4 following its 22 October launch. The series is produced by A24, which also worked with Reich on the television version of his stand-up show Literally Who Cares?!.
Reich now has a wider fictional world in which to develop that comic voice. At its heart are three friends trying to stay close when their shared life stops being convenient, with plenty of room for embarrassment along the way.
