Spoilers ahead.
Most TV romances come with a big moment: a confession, a revelation, or a speech that tells us exactly what a character’s feelings mean. Adults gives its characters plenty of romantic chaos, but it rarely treats the gender of the person they’re falling for as the twist. They like someone, things get complicated, and life goes on.
That might sound like a small choice, but it’s one of the things I appreciate most about the show. Its characters are trying to figure out jobs, friendships, and relationships while living in a house where everybody knows everybody else’s business. When romantic feelings enter the picture, the question is usually what those feelings will do to the group. Nobody has to pause the story to explain why they’re attracted to someone of a particular gender.
Paul Baker and Anton’s relationship is a good example. Their kiss at the end of season one sets up a question that runs through season two: what happens when Anton develops feelings for his best friend Issa’s boyfriend? Paul Baker and Issa’s relationship matters, as does Anton and Issa’s friendship. The tension comes from their history with each other, rather than from Paul Baker needing a dramatic “gay awakening.” By the season two finale, Paul Baker and Anton finally act on their feelings.
What makes their story so compelling is that there’s no simple person to root against. It’s exciting to see Paul Baker and Anton grow closer, but Issa isn’t just an obstacle standing between them. She has a relationship with Paul Baker and a friendship with Anton, and both deserve to be taken seriously. I found myself wanting Paul Baker and Anton to be honest about their feelings while also wanting Issa to be OK. That’s a familiar kind of relationship dilemma, even if most of us haven’t found ourselves in this exact situation.
I like that the show allows those feelings to be messy without presenting queer attraction itself as the problem. Anton doesn’t need to explain why he wants Paul Baker. Paul Baker doesn’t need to make an announcement before the audience can take his feelings seriously. What they need to figure out is whether they can be together without hurting someone they both care about. That’s a relationship story, and Adults trusts it to be enough.
There’s a difference between a character having questions about a relationship and a show treating their sexuality as a question the audience needs answered. Paul Baker can be uncertain about what to do with his feelings for Anton, and Anton can worry about Issa. They can make awkward choices and take too long to say what they mean. None of that requires a scene where everyone stops to label Paul Baker’s attraction before the story can move forward.
Issa’s story makes that approach even more interesting. After she and Paul Baker break up, the finale introduces the possibility of a connection between Issa and a woman. The show doesn’t frame the encounter as an answer to every question about Issa’s identity or suggest that her relationship with Paul Baker meant less because of it. She was into Paul Baker, now she might be into someone else. The show leaves room for her to explore that connection without turning it into a lesson for everyone around her.
I especially appreciate that Issa gets a possibility of her own after the breakup. It would’ve been easy for her story to end with her simply accepting Paul Baker and Anton’s relationship. Instead, the show reminds us that her romantic life continues beyond Paul Baker. We don’t need to know exactly where this new connection is going to understand why it matters. It gives Issa room to want something for herself.
That doesn’t mean these relationships are effortless. Anton has to consider his friendship with Issa. Issa has to work through a breakup with someone who remains part of her close circle. Paul Baker has to be honest about what he wants. The characters’ feelings may be accepted, but their decisions still affect other people.
Adults gives its characters the awkward conversations and questionable timing that come with dating your friends and your friends’ exes. Their relationships are worth paying attention to because of the people involved, not because the show needs to prove that queer relationships are unusual. The drama feels specific to this friend group: they live together, rely on each other, and can’t easily avoid one another when things get uncomfortable. Of course a crush can become everyone’s problem in that house.
Coming-out stories can be meaningful, and some people will recognize themselves in a character who needs time to find the words for their identity. But it’s also lovely to watch a show where those words don’t have to precede every relationship. Adults lets attraction be something its characters experience while they’re busy making all the other mistakes of their twenties.
There’s something quietly reassuring about that. Paul Baker, Anton, and Issa don’t have to stop the story to justify who they want to date. They get to have crushes, make things weird, hurt each other’s feelings, and try again — just like everyone else in the house.