For those of you who aren’t yet sick of watching 30-somethings try to get their lives together and grow up and also for those of you who fit that category and have a sense of humor about it, both CBS and NBC have new projects in development that may be of interest. Both networks are developing similar comedies about how the 30s are the new 20s.
First up, NBC’s following in the footsteps of ABC’s Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, and going with the censored title Grow the F**k Up. Written by Parks and Recreation’s Ali Rushfield, the project centers on a 36-year-old woman dating a 20-year-old, since he’s the only person with the same maturity level she has. It vaguely reminds me of “The One with the Ick Factor” episode of Friends, where Monica finds out the college guy she’s dating is actually in high school, except in Grow the F**k Up’s case, the guy is actually in college, and our title character apparently doesn’t mind buying him beer (Still a pretty high “ick factor” involved, I’d say). Deadline says New Girl’s Jesse Peretz is on board to direct the project.
Over at CBS, the network is skipping the profanity but keeping the immaturity with How to Grow Up. This comedy is about a 30-year-old attorney who finds a set of videotapes he made for his future self when he was 10, providing instructions on how to avoid becoming a dull adult. Thinking that maybe his self of two decades past was right, he rediscovers his inner child. Comedians Evan Susser and Van Robichaux are set to write How to Grow Up.
While the two projects have a general theme in common, they sound very different. I’m going to have to go with CBS for the more promising sounding project, mainly because--as a woman about the same age--I am having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of actually dating a 20-year-old. Then again, I have (mostly) grown up.
