One of my secrets for working well into the wee hours is that I binge watch television shows to keep me company. Or, maybe one the reasons that I have to work well into the wee hours is because I’m binge watching TV. But, anyway.

One night at 3 AM, I couldn’t stand the abused pet “give us money” commercials for another minute (they  make me cry every time), so I turned to On Demand. I spotted Younger as an option and remembered seeing their subway ad featuring a cute, tatted guy with facial hair, but not a full-blown beard, so I decided to give it a chance.

The Premise

Younger is a TV Land sitcom about a 40-year old New Jersey woman with a 17-year old daughter and soon-ending marriage. Faced with having to support herself, she has to re-enter the workforce but can’t find a job because she’s had no work experience for the past 15 years.

Although I appreciate that the show suggests that a 40-year old can look good enough to pretend to be 26, score the job and a hot guy, the part I hate is that they portray her as a complete and OLD imbecile. All because she’s 40.

FORTY is NOT that fucking old. They have made her entirely too clueless. And, from there, it just gets annoying. Here’s how:

• She has a 70s muff. This woman was BORN in the late 70s, why would she be running around with an afro covering her VJ? As a point of reference, Sex and the City came out in 1998, when we, — uh, I mean she — was in her 20s. She and her peers would not find genital hair maintenance to be a novelty. It’s not even acceptable for a 40-year old MAN to not groom and they were given a pass for the longest.
• She lives in Brooklyn but goes on a date in Paramus New Jersey. That would never happen. Two bridges. Italian food in JERSEY. This would Not. happen. Ever. NEVER.
• She didn’t know:
  • How to silence her cell phone or change the ringtone. Really? I mean REALLY. 40 is not 70. 40 year-olds know how to use their phones, even if just the most basic features.
  • What IRL means. Texting is TWENTY years old, people. She would have been in her mid-twenties when most people started using it, so how would she not know that IRL means in-real-life?
  • Whether something that is trending is a good thing. Twitter is 10 years old and not a novelty.
  • Lena Dunham. Maybe I should give her a pass on this one, but Lena is one of the most prolific writers of the past few years. Yet, a person with an interest in media/publishing hasn’t heard of her? It’s like they’re giving her early onset dementia. My best side-eye onthat one.
  • That people share Xanax. I’m older than her and still remember after-school specials about not doing that. Yet, she managed to roofie herself and sleep on the floor (IN NYC. Even drunk or high people know not to do that in NYC).
  • About the goddess menstrual cup. 40-year old women still have periods, you idiot writers.
  • That “junk” means penis. That one is not new. Just not new.
  • That the city Bombay became Mumbai. This happened in 1995 when she would have been 20 years old and at DARTMOUTH. Don’t see how that one could have slipped past her observation.
  • She doesn’t have a good excuse for this farce. She took off time to raise her child, I get that part. But in 15 years, what else was she doing? After her daughter went to school, what did she do all day? She wasn’t volunteering or starting a book club or writing a blog setting up an Etsy shop? All things I could imagine an ivy-league-educated, Jersey-dwelling woman would do.

So why am I still watching this show, you might ask? As much as it rubs me the wrong way, I realize that’s just due to my feelings about my own age. We live in a youth-driven-culture and I am still struggling with accepting the fact that I’m no longer the target demographic that anybody cares about.

Or maybe it’s because by noticing how out of touch Darren Star is, I realize he must be older than me. That’s it! SOMEONE is older than me. That’s a reason to watch.

Oh, and the hot guy. He helps, too.