Time is often the not-so-secret ingredient in a TV show’s success. This is especially the case for sitcoms, which often need room to experiment with cast and character dynamics to land on a winning, durable formula. Think of the American reboot of “The Office” calibrating Steve Carell’s incompetent boss until he’s distinct from the Ricky Gervais original, or its cousin “Parks and Recreation” making Leslie Knope less clueless and more admirable in her idealism. Without much serialized plot or a premise more complicated than “people work and/or are friends with each other,” the je ne sais quoi of a long-running comedy is a chemistry that can’t be anticipated — it has to be discovered.
Such is the case with “Adults,” the FX series that kicks off its sophomore season this week. I frankly did not enjoy the show’s first batch of episodes, which strained mightily to generate zeitgeisty relevance and repeatable bits before its ensemble had fully cohered. But in Season 2, the co-creation of “Tonight Show” alumni — and real-life couple — Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw no longer has the fake-it-til-you-make-it feel of trying to make fetch happen, to use a millennial reference the Gen Z protagonists would be unlikely to understand. “Adults” finally has its own momentum, largely generated by a cast whose rapport obviates the need for any sweeping statements about their generation.
