A24’s ‘It Gets Worse’ Updates ‘Girls’ for British Gen Z: TV Review

A24’s *It Gets Worse* follows three college friends in London as their housing plans unravel, using their mishaps to satirise the anxieties and self-deceptions of young adults. Its resemblance to *Girls* is deliberate: Lena Dunham appears as a boss delivering career disappointment, a moment the review frames as a generational handover from millennials to Gen Z.

Leo Reich created and stars as Ethan, alongside Emily Fairn as Abi and Olive Gray as Sam. The six-episode series was made for Channel 4, premiered in the UK last month and is due to air on Paramount+ in the US. Zadie Smith narrates, while Andrew Scott also guest stars; the story takes in London rent pressures, precarious work and relationships, blending its bleak outlook with gallows humour.