Netflix may be the top streamer for original programing, but it’s also a digital afterlife for shows that aired on broadcast networks, cable channels, or even other streaming services like the recently resurgent Evil. This month, our pick for the one Netflix show you need to watch in January 2025 is Younger, a drama/comedy that premiered on TV Land in 2015.
Prior to the debut of Younger, series creator Darren Star had a proven track record in television including Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, and Sex and the City. Younger lived up that pedigree by having a six-season run on TV Land before it moved to Paramount+ for its seventh and final season. This show already has a following, but Netflix has a way of helping old programing to reach new heights. Ahead of Younger‘s Netflix premiere on January 7, we’re sharing the reasons why you should stream this show.
The premise is still timely in 2024
Broadway actress Sutton Foster stars in the series as Liza Miller, a recently divorced woman who is in desperate need of a fresh start. She also needs a new job, but since Liza is 40 years old, no prospective employer in the publishing field is willing to hire her. To get around this ageism, Liza decides to pass herself off as a 26-year-old who is new to the industry. Liza’s deception works, but it also means that she has to continue it 24/7 with the people she knows from work.
Maintaining that secret is a constant source of stress and drama for Liza in the show, especially when other people are more likely to blackmail her than to understand why she did it in the first place. Liza has to walk a delicate path at all times, and if she slips up then she could lose everything she worked for.
The core cast members are terrific
Entourage‘s Debi Mazar co-stars as Maggie Amato, Liza’s best friend who proves to be instrumental in helping her pass as a much younger woman. Hillary Duff (How I Met Your Father) plays Liza’s other best friend, Kelsey Peters, a book editor who really is 26 years old. All three of these actresses play off each other well, but the pairing of Foster and Duff is especially intriguing because Liza constantly has to act against her nature around Kelsey. In other words, she can’t really mentor or mother Kelsey, so she has to be her contemporary.
The rest of the performers, including Nico Tortorella, Miriam Shor, Molly Bernard, Peter Hermann, and Charles Michael Davis, are also well-cast and very entertaining. Tortorella and Hermann’s characters also play into the larger arc of the series through their mutual interest in Liza.
There’s a love triangle at the heart of the series
One of the main reasons why Liza took up her deception in the first place is that a young tattoo artist named Josh (Tortorella) mistook her for a woman his age. That convinced her that she could pull it off long term. What she didn’t calculate is the toll it would take on her to maintain that secret in her professional life and during her romance with Josh.
At work, Liza’s boss, Charles Brooks (Hermann), also takes a strong romantic interest in her. And like Josh, he’s unaware of her true age. Throughout the series, Liza’s heart is torn between both men even as she fears the fallout if one or both of them learn what she’s been hiding from them. Would they still want Liza if they knew she was 40? Or is age just a number? You’ll have to watch all 84 episodes to find out how this love triangle resolves itself. But that should keep you busy well into February, and possibly beyond.
Watch Younger on Netflix on January 7.