Adults Creators Break Down Season 2's Most Important Love Story

Published Sep 5, 2026, 1:45 PM EDT Sign in to your ScreenRant account FX is knocking the sitcom formula out of the park with Adults season 2, which is now streaming on Hulu. The quirky, New York-set series centers on a raucous yet relatable friend group made up of Anton Evans (Owen Thiele), Billie Schaeffer (Lucy Freyer), Issa Damani (Amita Rao), Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), and Samir Rahman (Malik Elassal). All five characters are — however improbably — roommates, allowing for domestic shenanigans to delight audiences every episode while honing in on the vital importance of such formative friendships. Season 1 was already a marked success, thanks in large part to the actors' strong performances and the complex character dynamics crafted by creators Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw. But while many other shows have slumped in their sophomore outing, Adults season 2 is thriving more than ever. The show clearly knows to play to its strengths, even if that ironically means mining each character's weaknesses for equal parts drama and comedy. ScreenRant's Liam Crowley interviewed Kronengold and Shaw prior to the premiere of Adults' sophomore season, and the duo shared how they learned about their renewal at the best possible time. They also discussed how the love triangle at the center of the season might remind viewers of Challengers, why that's not the love story that matters most in the show, and how Gaten Matarazzo's casting came about. The Adults Cast Chemistry Is On Fire In Season 2 FX ScreenRant: You were married not too long ago, last summer. How soon after the wedding itself did you get the season 2 renewal? Ben Kronengold: That's such a good question. We were in the writers' room already, so we took three days off from the writers' room. We were able to take truly three days off, got back to it, and then it wasn't until maybe early October that we got the call that we were officially a-go on production. Rebecca Shaw: But the good news was we had the entire cast, and Nick Kroll, and our executive producers at our wedding. So in a fun way, we were all sort of touching base with each other. And the cast, among other things, surprised us with a table read of an episode called The Group Goes to Ben and Rebecca's Wedding. It was written by one of our writers, Sean Mangel. Ben Kronengold: This is actually an exclusive. We've never talked about this. Rebecca Shaw: But to say, we were living and breathing Adults in many dimensions right around the time of our wedding. ScreenRant: It's kind of impossible not to talk shop when your colleagues are there at the happiest day of your life. I also read that their inspirations for their characters were also at the wedding. Were there any notable conversations between characters and real-life inspirations? Rebecca Shaw: There were many. I mean, the first thing is it was jarring how many of our friends came up to Lucy Freyer, who plays Billie, to proudly announce that they were the inspiration for Billie. And at a certain point, Lucy stopped asking follow-up questions and was just like, "Yes, I know. That's amazing. It's just you." Which I feel like is the most Billie thing of all to immediately want to connect with the actor playing you. Ben Kronengold: And for some of the others, there was perhaps some chemistry with our cast and their doppelgangers. So, we were keeping an eye out for that as well. ScreenRant: It's like finding out you've been flirting with a distant cousin. Ben Kronengold: I think, for some reason, that made it hotter in this case. How Challengers Inspired Adults Season 2's Love Triangle ScreenRant: Was Challengers a bit of an inspiration for the love triangle? Ben Kronengold: Yeah, totally. Should we start there? Challengers was an inspiration because we knew that we wanted to explore physical chemistry within this love triangle. Issa and Paul Baker's relationship is quite sexual, and their affection for each other is really physical. And the way that it's so hard without spoiling it, because basically there's a threesome scene that's very Challengers-esque, but I'm trying to make it substantive without being too vague. Rebecca Shaw: It ends up getting played for comedy. One of the things that we remember hearing from Luca Guadagnino about Challengers is that a love triangle has three sides, right? And they all have to touch. And when it comes to a story like this, at the end of the day, it is a love story between five friends and the ways they all show up for each other. We wanted to make sure that we were not only doing service to Anton and Paul Baker's new, surprising connection and Issa and Paul Baker's established relationship, but also to Anton and Issa's best friendship. They are two of our favorite characters to watch onscreen together, whether they are convinced they are the reason their therapist killed himself and are running to his funeral to try to intercept the widow, or even in their day-to-day banter. We wanted to make sure this was a friendship that also got serviced. And it can really throw a wrench in a friendship when there are feelings involved, so we wanted to make sure that we also told a little bit of a love story for the two of them. Adults Season 2 Is Building Larger, Series-Wide Stories ScreenRant: My favorite sitcom growing up was How I Met Your Mother, and one thing I love about it was that, within the flavor-of-the-week episodes, they're building a season-wide and series-wide storyline. Are you guys actively building a series-wide storyline for Adults, one ultimate thing you're building to? Ben Kronengold: That is such an amazing question. We've never gotten that question before. I think that the promise of our show is in the title, right? We know that these kids are going to mature, like everyone does. Everyone grows up. And I think that's the joy of this show; watching them get there and knowing, because of our perspective, whether we're that age or older, that they have a long way to go. Rebecca Shaw: One thing that FX has always really pushed us to think about is that this is a show with love stories. This is a show with really funny plot lines, whether it's accidentally saying the C-word in a work meeting or needing to scrub the embarrassing thing from your old Facebook that's going to come back and haunt you. I think at the end of the day, Ben and I have always described this show as a love letter to our friends. I think the story really is a love story of these five people, and the ways they show up for each other and let each other down and try doubly hard to make it up next time. I think that is really the story we want to keep telling. Even as the world continues to throw curveballs at them — and frankly, they sometimes accidentally throw curveballs at themselves — they have this safe place to return to, and they have these people who will try to make it better. Or who will at least tell them it wasn't as bad as they thought it was! So, I think that's the love story we want to keep building on. Ben Kronengold: We take a lot of inspiration from Big Mouth, because of our executive producer Nick Kroll, in that each season has a theme that the writers' room is running at all season long. It's mostly for us, internally, to have a North Star. The first season's theme was kind of "capital A" adulthood. It was maturity and responsibility. This theme of the second season, though, really is this friend group, the community and relationships between these characters, and also the secrets they keep. From a season-to-season basis, we're trying to explore these larger themes. I think one thing that's nice about getting more seasons is that we don't have to answer these questions for ourselves immediately. Season 1 will always be the promise of the premise, but then we get to go deeper and weirder, and we show different secret sides of these characters that you might not see on first impressions. ScreenRant: Our audience loves Gaten Matarazzo, and you've got him in season 2. What was it like to place him in an adult-centered show? No pun intended. He's been playing a kid for a decade. Rebecca Shaw: This is a side of Gaten Matarazzo you have never seen before. When we first got on a Zoom with him and told him about this role, we said, "Are you excited to do something that feels very different, sort of like a grown-up, edgy, fun comedy role?" And he could not have been more game. From the second he touched down on set, we just had so much fun with him. He was improvising. He's a deeply funny comedic actor. We would have him back anytime, and we're so excited for fans to see what he brings to the table in this role. Ben Kronengold: He really dedicated himself to the role, down to the styling and hair. Rebecca Shaw: Yes, this is true. He's playing the kid who Samir handed his old fake ID down to when Samir turned 21. Gaten showed up without a haircut and told the really wonderful hair and makeup team, "Make me look like Malik." So, there are a couple shots where it really does feel like a funhouse mirror. ScreenRant: Not Suitable For Work was just canceled at Hulu, but both casts had expressed interest in doing a crossover. Did that ever make its way to you? Rebecca Shaw: We loved Not Suitable for Work. Mindy Kaling is just an absolute genius. We love the actors involved in it. I hear that maybe they're trying to shop it around to other places, and I really hope it lands somewhere. We are such fans of this genre of television. It is what drew us to TV and to comedy in the first place, and we're of the opinion that the more shows like this, the better. If it can make one teenager in their bedroom feel a little less alone and a little more excited about what adulthood looks like, or if it can make one full grown-up look back and realize that messy time was some of the most fun they ever had, it's just so meaningful. Ben Kronengold: Our fans, and the fans of the genre, are so deep in it. They're so well-versed in the genre, calling for crossovers, calling for Halloween episodes... We see all this fanfare around, like, "Give us filler episodes." It's a writerly way of thinking about TV, and you can tell that TV is in their bones. All episodes of Adults season 2 are now streaming on Hulu. Release Date May 28, 2025 Network FX, Hulu Showrunner Ben Kronengold, Rebecca Shaw Cast Lucy Freyer Billie Schaeffer A group of twenty-somethings in New York navigate the complexities of nascent adulthood, with all the revelations and messes it entails.