Emma Jane Unsworth’s Adults is Hilarious and at Times Heartbreaking

‘I am creating a social media post about a croissant that I am pretty sure will define me as a human.’

The opening scenes of Adults are hilarious and somewhat mind boggling, but stick with it because they set the scene perfectly for an exploration of a generation that have a very intense relationship with their phone.

Adults follows the ups and downs of 35-year-old Jenny MacLaine, a highly functioning introvert, as she posts her way through life. Jenny appears to have it all. She owns her own house, works for a cutting-edge online magazine and has a very cool artist boyfriend, but all is not as it seems and it’s proving impossible to keep up appearances.

When you scratch the surface, her boyfriend Art has left, her best friend Kelly has had enough of her superficialness and lack of genuine interest and her house mates (she can’t actually afford the house) are staging a mutiny. Add to that shaky ground at work and you’ll start to understand why Jenny needs to heavily curate her online presence.

However, there are some things that can’t be polished and preened for public consumption and when her mother, a sometime psychic decides to move in with Jenny the fall out is unavoidable.

Told primarily via Jenny’s internal monologue, this is a thoroughly modern story with a format made up of emails, posts, texts, letters, tweets, psychology therapy sessions and so much more.

While Jenny can be extremely frustrating with her constant need for validation and cringeworthy instances of social media stalking, you do feel great empathy for her and she is relatable for those who have been drawn into the world of documenting everything and comparing their real life to the curated threads of those online. The price of social media is reflected on along with the loneliness that it can bring.

Jenny is struggling to find who she is and what her value is, but it seems that she’s looking in all the wrong places and the real relationships (not with her phone) are slipping through her fingers.

There are very funny moments, those where you’ll find yourself cringing and then others where you heart breaks for Jenny. I thoroughly enjoyed it and if you’re a fan of the honesty and life laid bare that is so celebrated in Fleabag or Girls then you’ll love Adults.