WATCH: Leo Reich gets dommed by Andrew Scott & life itself in wild queer comedy It Gets Worse - Queerty

Remember last month when the gay internet was going wild for a clip of Andrew Scott domming comedian Leo Reich and spitting in his mouth?

Well, that wasn’t something you fantasized: it’s real, and it’s just a small part of It Gets Worse, Reich’s new British comedy series that’s coming to the U.S. on November 6 courtesy of Paramount+.

One of the most exciting young voices in comedy today, Reich broke through with his one-man show Literally Who Cares?!, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022 before traveling to London and New York City, and later made its TV debut on HBO.

And after a scene-stealing supporting turn in Lena Dunham’s Meg Stalter-starring Netflix series Too Much, now it’s his turn to run the show with It Gets Worse, the story of three best friends and flatmates in their mid-twenties who have their lives thrown into chaos when they face eviction.

Reich’s Ethan is un-self-aware and unemployed, and though he has what we’re told has been “one of the easiest lives in recorded human history,” he always finds a way to make it seem like he’s been wronged. And though he could easily move back in with his uptight mother (Club Kid‘s Vicki Pepperdine), he chooses instead to crash with an ex.

What could go wrong?!

Image Credit: ‘It Gets Worse,’ Paramount+ / Channel 4

Sam (Halo‘s Olive Gray) is a queer artist who finds herself living in a communal co-op full of pretentious filmmakers, while Abi (House of Guinness’s Emily Fairn) moves in with her boyfriend, much to the dismay of her friends who feel she’s resigning herself to a humdrum hetero life.

There are a handful of notable guest stars, too: The aforementioned Scott makes quite the impression early on as Ethan’s domineering therapist, Dunham returns the favor by appearing as Abi’s noxious girlboss at a data-mining startup, and Miss Chicken Shop Date herself, Amelia Dimoldenberg, shows up as an old acquaintance of Sam’s whose career success shakes her to the core.

Despite the impressive ensemble, It Gets Worse is first and foremost focused on its central trio, friends who met because they lived in the same hall at university and seemingly stuck together after graduating simply because it was easy. Now a number of years into their twenties, they’re starting to wonder if their co-dependent friendship is what’s held them back from facing real adulthood.

If that sounds a bit like “Girls but make it Gen-Z and queer,” well, that’s probably by design. Reich has been open about his adoration of the seminal HBO drama about millennial women in Brooklyn, so as he set out to make a lovingly scathing comedy about his own generation, the comparisons were inevitable (further aided by Dunham’s own involvement here, of course).

But It Gets Worse is has its own unique voice in the belated coming-of-age space, with a refreshingly frank view on modern queer identity and sexuality, as well as a sharp, modern sense of humor that isn’t afraid to push the envelope.

And it’s improbably all narrated by Zadie Smith—yes, the author behind modern literary classics like White Teeth and On Beauty. Her omniscient, intentionally detached voiceover gives the series the feeling that you’re watching a nature documentary, one that looks on the animalistic behavior of its Gen Z protagonists with a hushed awe and occasional terror.

While Reich might be hesitant to label himself the voice of his generation, he hopes the series might ring true for this specific point in everyone’s lives, whether you’re living it right now or are lucky enough to have it many years in the rearview:

“I’m trying to say this without being cringe,” Reich recently shared with The Guardian, “but it’s a very specific time to be looking down the barrel of the rest of your life. All of these traditional institutions like marriage and climbing the career ladder don’t really exist, or if they do exist you can’t trust them. There’s a vague sense of massive anxiety.”

And, hopefully, the act of watching it all play out on screen is less of an anxiety-inducing experience, inviting us all to laugh at the absurdity of existing in the F’d-up world of today.

After premiering on Channel 4 in the U.K., It Gets Worse will now stream stateside via Paramount+, with all six episodes dropping on November 6. Check out the U.S. trailer below: