Adults Recap: Man on the Street

Adults
C Alert
Season 2 Episode 7
Editor’s Rating ★★★★
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I’ve mentioned in these recaps that my favorite Adults story lines typically have a thoughtfulness to them, a relatable human element beneath all the chaos and raunch. What originally appeared to be an episodelong incest joke, for example, ended up exploring the struggle to be understood as a three-dimensional person by family; a story about a raccoon infiltrating an acid trip became a Trojan horse for a long-delayed breakup conversation between two people whose relationship clearly wasn’t functioning like it used to.

“C Alert” also fits into this category. The basic wacky premise is this: Anton accidentally drops the C-word in a corporate setting. It plays out at the end of a pretty great opening montage that shows how a brain glitch like this could happen. Anton is typically very good at compartmentalizing, keeping Work Anton separate from Home Anton. But he does text his roommates throughout the day while at work, and one day he mixes up those two modes. Once again, Adults is returning to the idea of different selves, and the challenge of showing the appropriate selves to the right people.

So yeah, Anton praises a co-worker with the phrase “c- - - alert,” which alarms everyone. There’s already an HR meeting on the books for Friday, which gives the episode some nice structure. Anton has five days to save his job, and there’s only one obvious solution in the world of this show: He’s going to need to normalize the C-word in the workplace. Duh! 

Issa becomes Anton’s main scene partner for this mission, and it’s nice to see them share a story line again, even if I’m feeling a little antsy about the lack of movement in the love triangle. With only one episode left in the season, I assume the show is planning to return to Paul Baker and Anton, and I’m worried about how it will land. But that’s an effect of these short eight-episode seasons. Until Adults gets a full 22-episode order like the good old days of hangout sitcoms, a true slow burn will never be fully possible.

But no matter. This is still a satisfying episode. I always appreciate when this show spotlights Anton’s boring office job, because, ironically, it actually makes him stand out in the cast. And it’s very easy to feel for him throughout this week from hell. For one, Issa is supposed to be his savior, sent in as the new temp and tasked with using the C-word in order to prove to the scandalized boomers that language evolves. Very quickly, though, she starts enjoying the job and craving the approval of their co-workers. She took Anton’s advice and went against all her instincts to behave professionally, and now she’s reaping the rewards. But actively avoiding Anton because he makes her look bad? Not cool. She even goes so far as to slap and castigate Samir, brought in for backup as a deliveryman who refers to someone’s salad as the C-word.

Issa is ultimately a very warm and caring friend, of course, and she wouldn’t behave this way if she realized how much Anton genuinely likes his job. But his feelings come out during a big explosion in Issa’s new office (which should’ve gone to him). Both characters discuss the strange peace that this corporate environment brings them: Issa calls it a “fugue state.” And Anton sincerely expresses how much he cares about all those boomers, even if they can’t wrap their heads around reclaiming a word like c- - -.

Again, this is the type of thoughtful character- and culture-specific storytelling that serves Adults best. Anton genuinely loving digital ad sales is so much more interesting than if he hated his job; sure, in a way this could be any office for any company, but what matters is that to Anton, this is his world. It’s where he slips into another identity for 40 hours a week, accomplishing something and earning praise for it. Yes, maybe a life like this requires some dissociation, but he likes focusing on something outside himself. And it matters to Anton to be respected and valued, just like with his sister.

I like that the show gets to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to Anton winning his job back. He owns up to what he did and sincerely apologizes to HR, a real growth moment. But Issa gets her own moment to save the day, at least in her mind. She bursts in and loudly calls him a “faggot,” heroically sacrificing her job even when she didn’t need to. (Anton sweetly elects not to tell her that, though.) I can’t get Amita Rao’s face in that moment out of my head. 

The rest of “C Alert” is split between two lighter-weight comedic subplots. On the one hand, there’s the fun little runner of Paul Baker getting approached for various man-on-the-street interviews whenever he’s in Manhattan. All of these are amusing, from the “rank every female family member” challenge (presented in voice-over by executive producer Nick Kroll) to the unassuming old woman who reveals herself to be the host of a show called Gay Granny’s Trivia Crashout. The story doesn’t really escalate, but it doesn’t need to, and tying in the “normalize the C-word” theme at the end works nicely enough. The credits scene also brings in a number of cameos from real-life New York–based street interviewers on shows like Gaydar, Street Hearts, Track Star, and Recess Therapy, plus Caleb Simpson’s apartment tours. Good stuff, and one of the few stories where you remember Adults is set in New York.

Then we’ve got Samir playing Cupid, desperate to make it work between Billie and his co-worker and apparent protégé, Greg (Dylan Arnold). This is classic overenthusiastic and well-meaning Samir, unable to accept that a pair doesn’t actually work together like he wants them to. And Billie and Greg’s ongoing ruse is classic sitcom fodder, even if there’s not much to it besides wanting to keep Samir happy. In the end, predictably, the two do have sex, turned on by the fact that Greg quit his job and now they never have to see each other again. (The pouring rain during his speech is a nice touch.)

I might’ve liked a final button to this besides Billie refusing to let Samir set her up with someone else, but it’s a successful enough side story to keep everyone else busy. I mostly just appreciate this episode for its Anton spotlight. He has really become one of the show’s most vivid and specific characters, not to mention one of its stealth romantic leads. We’ll see if the finale provides him the same showcase. 

Grown-up Jokes

• “I can’t convince an entire generation that their most offensive word is now a way to describe knee-high boots.” 

• Billie still needs a job, by the way.