Younger: When Lies Lead to More Lies

THE CON: Recently divorced single mom Liza Miller (Sutton Foster) has to start over at the age of 40, but finds it’s nearly impossible to get a job in publishing at her age. When a cute guy at a bar mistakes Liza for someone almost 20 years younger, she decides to reinvent herself as a 26-year-old publishing assistant.

THE MARKS: Everyone at work, especially Liza’s boss Diana Trout (Miriam Shor) and co-worker Kelsey Peters (Hillary Duff).

THE INVESTIGATORS: No one is actively looking into it, but the sweet spot of the show is all the near misses.

THE STAKES: Unemployment, shame, being blacklisted in the publishing biz, public and private humiliation. Liza also dreads being a bad role model to her college-aged daughter Caitlin Miller (Tessa Albertson). When the series begins,

Caitlin is studying in India, unaware of her mother’s ruse. Tragically, at the end of

Season 2, best friend and co-worker Kelsey’s fiancé Thad (Dan Amboyer) is killed

!1 in an accident right after he discovers her lie, and Liza’s love life is in disarray as she tries to choose between on-again/off-again boyfriend Josh (Nico Tortorella) and her boss Charles (Peter Hermann).

OPEN or CLOSED CON: Open. Liza functions as a 26-year-old at work, and is only herself in private.

THE BLOW OFF: On Younger’s Season 3 finale, Liza finally reveals her real age to Kelsey. The truth gets out. And the next season deals with the fallout.

Series creator/showrunner Darren Star comments on the slow-burn storytelling strategy: “The longer the lie continues, the harder it becomes to resolve. Not coming clean becomes easier. Just look at Bernie Madoff! … But her intention, of course, was never to hurt anyone. It really comes back to the fact that she wanted to work and to be relevant.”1

Star has focused on youth and beauty in his past sexy TV series, from Sex in the

City to the soapier Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. But in Younger, based on the novel of the same name by Pamela Redmond Satran, Star now places the emphasis on the themes of ageism in our youth-obsessed culture, sexism in a

!2 patriarchal workplace, motherhood and starting over. Rarely do we tune into

Younger to see whether or not Liza gets found out. Rather, the inherent tension is seeing her succeed at her masquerade, accompanied by the subtext of irony and borderline humiliation; it is, after all, a single-camera dramedy. Liza’s charade helps her advance outwardly, but also causes her to feel like a fraud and more insecure on the inside. That’s what happens when you try to defy nature and gravity. If “youth is wasted on the young,” indeed Younger is a show about postponing the inevitable to comedic effect. I wrote about the reverse dynamic in my feature debut, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, in which 17-year-old

Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) pretends to be a single mom in her late

20s; she is in constant danger of being caught. In a slow-burn TV series, such jeopardy could result in monotony and repetition, but Younger successfully avoids this by going deeper over time into emotions and the bigger picture.

Over the first seasons, Liza is seldom on the brink of being found out. Instead, the “con” brings us into a compelling world and allows viewers to watch as someone is given a second chance. Much like Mad Men’s Don Draper, whose false identity is merely a vessel for him to become the successful, suave person he was destined to be, Liza’s secret identity is a way for the character to shed her past and pursue a better life for herself and her daughter.

!3 Note

1 Andy Swift, “Younger: Darren Star Breaks Down Biggest Finale Twists, Teases ‘Major Ramifications for Liza in Season 4’,” TVLine.com, December 14, 2016, tvline.com/2016/12/14/ younger-finale-recap-liza-tells-kelsey-josh-proposal-season-4-spoilers.