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‘Younger’ Season Finale TV Review: Forever

"Younger" Ep. 612 (Airs 9/04/19)

The sixth season finale starts with Kelsey (Hilary Duff) cementing her resignation at Millennial with first telling Liza (Sutton Foster), who tries to intercept the letter to Charles, then taking the letter back to hand to Charles (Peter Hermann). After being the publisher’s CEO, Kelsey admits she couldn’t return to being an editor at a place where she was a boss.

Kelsey meets Zane (Charles Michael Davis) at a park and reveals to him she’s in the market to start her own publishing company. Since Zane had started Mercury with Charles, she wants his advice. But Mercury has been absorbed by Millennial, so Zane says it’s not a good idea for Kelsey to get into the book startup business. Zane actually tells Kelsey that she shouldn’t given up her job after the cleavage social media mishap.

While Kelsey’s resignation drama is going on, the crew is preparing for Diana (Miriam Shor)’s upcoming nuptial. And Diana and Liza are unsure about their first book pitch at Millennial without Kelsey.

Kelsey pitches her business, KLP Print, to Quinn (Laura Benanti), the horrid ex-investor for Millennial. Later, Quinn drops the bomb of she and Kelsey collaborating to Charles and Liza at a restaurant. Liza meets Kelsey at another restaurant that night, and Kelsey says she trusts Quinn enough since she made Kelsey CEO.

At Diana’s wedding, the sentiment sets in. Charles begs Kelsey to come back to her job since she’s “family.” Kelsey lets her walls down with Zane, and they hold hands in the pew. Then at the reception, Charles proposes to Liza! But, of course, a ringaround dance with too many guests to count separates them. No answer until next season.

The entire season showed an evolution with the company not only falling into Kelsey’s hands but also it falling out. Once she had the power, it was always threatened by investors and authors alike skeptical about her leadership skills because she was “younger.” And she’s a woman. Though the show revolves around Liza lying about her age, it flipped to focus on Kelsey and how being a millennial can be a handicap, too. Showing how women have to be careful about every step and constantly prove themselves in the boardroom was brillinatly executed at this fictional publisher trying to stay afloat amid financial hardship.

The season finale hit a high with 1.2 million viewers on TV Land, making the series the top original ad-supported cable sitcom for women in the age demographics between 18-49 and 25-54, according to the network. The seventh season premiere date has yet to be announced. The first five seasons can be found on Hulu with subscription.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: It’s All About The Money, Honey

"Younger" Ep. 609 (Airs 8/14/19)

The publishing imprint Millennial is on its last legs, and Liza (Sutton Foster), the newly revealed 40-something who had been lying about being millennial in the industry, and her boss Kelsey (Hilary Duff), the millennial boss, are trying to find ways to keep the imprint alive.

Liza is glamorously walking in New York City when she notices the Infinitely 21 ad campaign she modeled for in last week’s episode on behalf of Millennial. But the rooftop photoshoot had been altered. The campaign is everywhere of Liza getting a smooch on the cheek by her ex Josh (Nico Tortorella), a natural scene from the bar they met at with company staff.

While Liza freaks out about the ad, Kelsey and Charles (Peter Hermann) head to Chicago to meet with investors. They nail the pitch session and celebrate later that night where Liza surprises them at the hotel lounge. During the meeting, Kelsey had told the investors how essential social media is to the new Millennial. And this foreshadows what comes next when Kelsey drunkenly flashes way too much cleavage for a photo, yelling “It’s All About The Money, Honey,” meant for her on-and-off boo/colleague Zane (Charles Michael Davis) but instead becomes an Instagram story that unfortunately trends all night.

The social media slip-up is brought up at the morning meeting with the investors. Kelsey argues it was bad judgment, but Charles presents Kelsey’s social media presence as helpful to the publisher’s brand. But the investors are not convinced and want Kelsey out as CEO. Kelsey agrees to step aside to let Charles be in charge again.

In stereotypical millennial fashion, Kelsey is ousted from her CEO post because she over-shared on social media after a night of over-drinking. She spent the entire season trying to prove herself as a CEO of the troubled Millennial imprint that was a part of the failing Empirical publishing house owned by Charles’ family, and now she forfeits her hard work to save it.

And Charles has been sneaky all season, though he’s portrayed as that older man heartthrob innocently in love with Liza. But he may have been worming his way back to the publisher’s reins with saying he doesn’t want to take charge. He started the rival Mercury publisher secretly with Zane, then he went along with a merger. His actions seem more sinister now that he’s back in charge, especially when he set up the investor meeting.

Kelsey’s selfie debacle can also show Zane’s intentions since he could be upset about the turn of events or happy that his Mercury partner Charles is in charge. The last few episodes of the season look like they will show everyone’s true colors when it comes to keeping Millennial alive.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: The Unusual Suspect

"Younger" Ep. 603 (Airs 6/26/19)

The overarching theme of the season is Kelsey (Hilary Duff) taking over the publishing house as a millennial woman and picking up the pieces of the financially strapped company.

The episode starts with Liza (Sutton Foster) and Charles (Peter Hermann) acting in a true crime fantasy at an art museum according to the story on the popular Exonerated podcast.

From last week’s episode, investor Quinn (Laura Benanti) has been experiencing best-seller list bliss for the past three weeks to Kelsey’s dismay after the Lean In-like book, Claw, failed to reach audiences during a pre-sale experiment. Quinn notifies Kelsey about the book trending on Twitter and her plans to be interviewed for The Cut. She then requests Kelsey to interview her.

“How does the book everyone hated made it debut at No. 10 on the best-seller list and continues to rise?” Kelsey poses the question to Liza and Diana (Miriam Shor) after Quinn leaves her office. An smh moment.

They go into a meeting with Audrey Colbert (Willa Fitzgerald), the alleged murderess in the Exonerated podcast. Diana skips the meeting out of fear. “Do you think I did it?” Audrey asks an anxious Kelsey and Liza. She emphasizes she needs a publisher who trusts her and doesn’t think she committed the murders since she’s now an international supervillain. The book can clear her name. After the awkward meeting, Kelsey and Liza learn later that they weren’t the only ones being pitched Audrey’s book, but so was half the major publishers.

Audrey’s agent, the nosy Redmond (Michael Urie), later tells Kelsey that Claw has suspicious sales with bulk purchases and Chinese bots inserting the title all over social media. He lets them know that’s the real gossip on the street.

Kelsey and Liza approach Quinn at the fancy Ardmore Club, disbeliving she’s being blamed for phony sales. When they tell her they have evidence from their peers, Quinn admits she faked the best-selling novel for her senatorial campaign since that shiny New York Times best-selling sticker will be on every cover of her book. Kelsey says this will ruin the business while Quinn argues the book will pump millions into the company. Quinn then threatens Kelsey about showing up at The Cut event for the book.

“No one will work with us if we throw an author under the bus,” Liza says.

When Liza gets home, she finds papers on the dining room table listing prices for the home. She asks Charles why he’s moving money around, and he says he just needs to with his unemployment. Like in the previous two episodes, it seems like Charles and Kelsey’s sometimes beau Zane (Charles Michael Davis) are in cahoots as if they’ll create their own rival publishing house.

At The Cut event, everything seems to be going smoothly until the Q&A part of the fireside chat. One woman tells Kelsey and Quinn about the dagger next to Quinn’s best-selling status, and the dagger means suspicious bulk sales. Quinn laughingly says it’s due to colleges and universities requesting the book to use for syllabi, then she moves the spotlight to Kelsey.

Kelsey maintains her composure. She admits to the bulk sales, but they’re also due to forthcoming events as Quinn plans to throw her hat in the California Senate race. It sparks applause, when Quinn and Kelsey faux hug where Quinn threatens Kelsey about what she’s done since that type of announcement is reserved on a stage of higher magnitude. Kelsey just tells her to enjoy the applause.

The next day, Kelsey, Liza, and Diana learn Mercury nabbed the Audrey Colbert deal. They never heard of this competitor until Redmond lets them know Zane is the publisher of Mercury and the deal stands at $800,000. Their men were in cahoots building their own company! Then the episode ends with Liza’s eyes popping open because she knows Charles had something to do with it. Her boyfriend whom she got hooked onto Exonerated.

Yes, Kelsey’s and Liza’s love lives got more complicated with the clandestine creation of competitor Mercury by their men. An extra episode highlight is Nicole Ari Parker guest starring as a post-childbirth vagina support group leader who Maggie (Debi Mazar) meets after being traumatized by Josh’s (Nico Tortorella) green card wife having a baby in their Uber.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: Flush with Love

"Younger" Ep. 602 (Airs 6/19/19)

How much should an investor on a publisher’s board get involved in the business when she wants her book to be published? That’s the question highlighting the season’s second episode.

Quinn (guest star Laura Benanti), the chief financial officer-type from last week’s episode, turns out to be an investor on the board. She wants her book to be the first release of the revamped publisher. In the beginning of the episode, Diana (Miriam Shor) asks why is the company now looking at focus groups for their books. It turns out Kelsey (Hilary Duff) wants to ensure the success of her first book release as CEO.

The focus group loathes the book with a passion. One woman asks why is the author being given a voice while another is crying about how she wants to un-read it. Liza (Sutton Foster) says her edits weren’t taken seriously therefore didn’t happen, so the book may stay rough and unlikable.

At lunch, Kelsey and Liza invite Quinn to a fancy restaurant where Quinn gifts them with gold-plated business card holders. Then Kelsey suggests holding Quinn’s self-help empowerment book Claw for the spring since it needs more edits when at the moment it’s coming off as “anti-woman.”

Quinn brushes it off and emphasizes how her vote brought Kelsey to her CEO role.

“If a writer doesn’t want to take notes, they might as well self-publish,” Liza hints aloud.

Yet Quinn, determined, remains steadfast that her book is fine. She then starts slamming the table with a cheer: “Guess who wrote a masterpiece? It will be our first release!” The rumble gets louder with diners looking their way at the commotion. Kelsey is confused while Quinn says the cheer rhythm is from her 1998 cheer competition, which Liza brings up the incessant mentions of high school in the book. Quinn keeps going with the cheer until Kelsey and Liza join her to stop it. After lunch, Kelsey asks what happened. Liza interjects it from Chapter 3 of Claw called “Charm and Disarm.”

Now working to save the company from not publishing Quinn’s book first during her new stint as CEO, Kelsey has been in talks with Reese Witherspoon about a screenplay she calls “sexy, millennial and set in the fashion world.” The screenwriter can produce a novel in a month after submitting a test chapter. Liza is uncertain about the quick change of events, but Kelsey is convinced that the simple mention of Reese Witherspoon will force Quinn out of the way.

Later on, Liza drops that she told her current boo/former publisher Charles about the work drama with Quinn. Kelsey doesn’t like the sound of this. She takes it as her actions being scrutinized for her not being prepared to be a CEO since she’s 28. She tells Liza to schedule a dinner with her and Quinn alone.

At the dinner, Quinn reveals she can’t have her book pushed to the spring because she plans to jump-start her senatorial campaign in California. Her book will help her become the “strong, independent voice.” But Kelsey resists.

“Every book that comes out of Millennial has to be the best it can be,” Kelsey pushes. Then she adds, “Board members don’t tell publishers what to do.”

Quinn dares Kelsey to publish Claw or she’ll never hear from her again. Kelsey puts a ballpoint pen in front of Quinn because she wants that in writing.

Other storylines include Josh (Nico Tortorella) becoming a father after a balloon mishap at the gender reveal party and Diana writing a magazine article about how much she loves her plumber boyfriend who usually gets the independent woman burn from her.

The last season, similar to the turn of events in last week’s premiere, show the series emphasizing the book pitches coming to the the publishing house will somehow relate to businesswomen empowerment with Kelsey as a millennial CEO. The series, again with its title, surrounds Liza lying about her age to compete in the publishing industry but also shows how younger people like Kelsey and her competitive boo Zane (Charles Michael Davis) are taking the helm with their pure diligence and ambition. Zane and Charles also seem to be secretly building their own publishing company, so hopefully that storyline turns out to be true in a future episode and cause even more havoc in their career goals and romantic lives.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: Big Day

"Younger" Ep. 601 (Airs 6/12/19)

The sixth and final season of Younger started with Millennial Imprint boss Kelsey taking the helm as the youngest publisher in New York City from longtime editor Charles, who gave his career up for his perpetually age-lying girlfriend Liza. The episode returns to Kelsey taking over as CEO and how her struggle may be reflected in the books the company will publish.

Younger centers around 42-year-old Liza (Sutton Foster) lying about her age with subtracting almost 25 years off to make it in the publishing world when she had taken time off to raise her now-college-aged daughter. She works with Kelsey (Hilary Duff), an actual 28-year-old taking the publishing world by storm, especially in this season with taking over their storied publishing house.

After Liza gets emotional seeing a facility worker unscrewing Charles’ (Peter Hermann) name plaque from his office and placing one with Kelsey’s name, she and Kelsey learn from their chief financial officer that Page Six plans to expose why Charles abandoned the company. It says he left for a 28-year-old whom he was having an affair with (he’s in his 40s with an estranged wife), which they all knew could be interpreted as Kelsey, diminishing her meteoric rise to CEO. Liza yells to the entire office that she’s the one Charles is dating. This rubs her former boss Diana (Miriam Shor) the wrong way, as she doesn’t know Liza’s secret of her real age and sees her as an opportunity-stealing millennial. And with Kelsey now being the boss also doesn’t sit well with Diana.

Later in the day, Kelsey learns the company’s finances are in trouble with revenue slipping away every day. After that meeting, she meets with a potential author, surprisingly a black woman since the diversity in the cast reflects the real publishing industry, who pitches her book, The Glass Cliff. It focuses on boss women and how they’re set up not to win. She gives the example of women usually inheriting the CEO role of distressed companies. Kelsey gulps at the mention of this, knowing she’s living that life.

Other plots pop up in the episode with Diana threatening to quit but being lured out of the decision with a Dolly Parton 9 to 5 karaoke stint, Charles buying a bed for Liza and him now that they’re more official, and Josh (Nico Tortorella) finding out he’s going to be a father to the Irish woman he had green card marriage with. But the overarching theme focused on Kelsey and how rising to the top is not what it’s cracked up to be. This will even extend in their book decisions like with The Glass Cliff and next week’s episode preview showing Kelsey trying to explain to her CFO that her book pitch sucks.

Like other shows, Younger produced a novel, Marriage Vacation, and the book review is available.