Review of Leo Reich's new Channel 4 comedy

With Break Clause, Big Mood and now It Gets Worse, Channel 4 is becoming the home of comedies about directionless Gen Zs in London.

Leo Reich’s contribution to the genre acknowledges that his character Ethan and his friends are living, by most measures, a life that is ‘the easiest in recorded human history’ – but it certainly doesn’t feel like it to them.

Compared to forebears fighting wars, embarking on gruelling industrial careers and starting families by their mid-twenties, they have few responsibilities. But that comes with its own issues.  

Unaffordable property, a gig economy that makes every position disposable and an app-led dating scene dominated by meaningless hookups all contribute to a feeling of impermanence – a precariousness that leads to a lack of ambition beyond curating an appealing Instagram feed. 

Sustaining social media face is why Ethan and his uni pals Abi (Emily Fairn) and Sam (Olive Gray) head to the coolest nightspots in town, even though it is an empirically unpleasant experience (and not as hip as the hype would have them believe).

Their relationship is facing a reckoning as they are being kicked out of the flat they share. Abi is the most settled by having an internship in HR and a boyfriend – albeit one with zero libido and zero charisma. She moves in with him, dreaming of some future middle-class idyll. Meanwhile, Sam, an aspiring writer, heads to some hippyish commune, while Ethan surfs between awkward one-night-stands and staying with mum (the always good value Vicki Pepperdine).

Will their friendship survive? That is the question, given that it is the one thing they do have. The chemistry between all three leads is very strong and they make for a convincingly tight-knit unit.

Reich brings a toned-down version of the uber-narcissist that defined his breakthrough stand-up performance to his role here, while a voiceover, provided by novelist Zadie Smith, emphasises Ethan’s shallowness. 

The comic’s acute awareness of the absurdity of his generation underpins the well-observed, archly wry comedy of the whole series, with nihilistic philosophical asides casually tossed out. ‘It just feels like everything’s already over,’ Ethan whines early on.

It Gets Worse owes something of a debt to the voice-of-a-generation comedy of Girls, whose creator Lena Dunham cameos as Abi’s boss – all about female empowerment, but not actually paying the women who work for her what they are worth.

The show feels hip yet realistic. It’s made by A24, the US production house that’s a byword for indie cool, and features a playlist a Hoxton coffee shop would be proud of. There are plenty of sex scenes, too, unfiltered and unglossy, showing the grimly funny side of their encounters.

It Gets Worse takes the first episode to settle in, but once you get to know these characters in all their facile preoccupations, you’ll want to stick with their story as it unfolds over the six episodes.

• It Gets Worse is on Channel 4 at 10.05pm tonight and available to stream now.

Review date: 22 Oct 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett