--- title: "You're the Worst" year: 2014 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/youre-the-worst" fi1m_score: 76 critics_score: 59 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-09-17T19:19:19.480317+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T19:19:20.037400+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # You're the Worst (2014) Created by Stephen Falk · 26m · MPA TV-MA · Comedy, Drama **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 59 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* Sunny Los Angeles, two hangovers, and the most romantic thing anyone does is stay for breakfast > Stephen Falk’s comedy about two people who insist they are not a couple starts as a crude, glossy sitcom and grows into something far sharper and sadder than its pilot promises. Give it past the first episode; the show does. ## Synopsis Los Angeles. Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Geere), a novelist with one book behind him, is thrown out of the wedding of his ex-girlfriend Becca Barbara (Janet Varney) to Vernon Barbara (Todd Robert Anderson) for heckling the vows. Outside he meets Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash), a music publicist leaving the same wedding with one of the presents. They go home together, agree it means nothing, and keep failing to leave. At Jimmy’s hillside house his housemate Edgar Quintero (Desmin Borges), an army veteran, cooks for people who never thank him; Gretchen’s best friend Lindsay Jillian (Kether Donohue) is bored inside her marriage to Paul Jillian (Allan McLeod). Both leads want to stay uncommitted. Each other stands in the way. ## Review Stephen Falk’s series begins at a wedding and asks a plain question: what happens when two people who have decided they are unfit for love go home together anyway? *You’re the Worst* is a romantic comedy made by people who find romantic comedy embarrassing, and for its first few episodes it hides behind filth. It gets over that. By the middle of its first run it has found the two people underneath the jokes, and across five series and 62 episodes it becomes one of the more honest things we have seen about being hard to live with. The pilot, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, is the weakest thing here. It tells us Jimmy and Gretchen are terrible a dozen times in 26 minutes, characters say the title out loud, and the sex jokes arrive with the timing of someone working through a list. We laughed at some of it and felt faintly grubby about the rest, and only the first half of that is fun. Chris Geere plays Jimmy Shive-Overly, a novelist with one book behind him, as a man whose contempt is a habit he can no longer switch off, and lets the panic show in every pause. Aya Cash gives Gretchen Cutler a laugh that comes a beat too early and a way of leaving rooms before anyone can ask her to stay. They talk fast and over each other, and the writers, Eva Anderson, Franklin Hardy and Shane Kosakowski among them, give them things a real couple might say. When they lie to each other it is funny because we can see them both deciding to be lied to. Desmin Borges is Edgar, Jimmy’s housemate, a veteran who cooks and is treated as furniture by everyone; Borges plays his good manners as something Edgar is holding on to with both hands. Kether Donohue’s Lindsay, Gretchen’s best friend, married to a man she cannot stand (Allan McLeod, patient as a wall), gets the biggest laughs and the least dignity. We laughed at something Lindsay did early on and then felt ashamed of ourselves; Donohue had let us see, half a second before the punchline, that Lindsay knew how sad it was. The show uses that half-second more as it goes on. Blake McClure and Ross Riege shoot Los Angeles in flat, bright afternoon light with no interest in making anyone look their best, so hangovers show. Claire Bennett gives Jimmy a hillside house with more books than furniture and a kitchen only Edgar has touched. Wendy Benbrook dresses Jimmy in the blazers of a man who has read about writers, and Gretchen in whatever was nearest the bed. Adam Blau’s score stays out of the way, and the editors, Adam Burr and Stacey Schroeder among them, cut the arguments so the pause before the cruel line runs a frame longer than the line. Then, in the second series, the show does something with Gretchen that we will not describe. Cash plays much of it in silence and Falk refuses to let it turn into a lesson. We came for jokes about narcissists and found ourselves sitting still with the remote in our hand, not ready to start the next episode. The comedy does not stop while this happens; Lindsay is still Lindsay in the next room. That is what the pilot’s crudeness was protecting. Most critics disagree with us. Nearly every review we read covered the first episode or two, when the show was still telling us how awful everyone was rather than showing us; some judged it alongside another new comedy it was paired with, which did it no favours. Among sitcoms about self-absorbed people it is neither the cruellest nor the funniest, but it is the one that keeps asking whether its people can change and does not cheat on the answer. Give it until the middle of the first series before deciding; if Jimmy’s voice still grates by then, it will not stop. It ran from 17 July 2014 to a fifth series in January 2019, and it knew when to finish, which its leads never do. *Fi1m score 76, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split down the middle: two warm, two lukewarm, two cold, and the score sits on the border between mixed and decent. Where praise comes, it clusters on the leads. Most critics find Chris Geere and Aya Cash well matched, with an honesty in their sparring that the writing does not always earn. Vulture is the outlier, finding a confident dark turn on the romantic comedy with a point of view of its own. The reservations gather around the humour and the premise. Several critics find the crude jokes forced and tire, inside a single pilot, of being told that these two do not do relationships. The Guardian thinks the characters too likeable to be as awful as advertised and suspects the will-they-won’t-they will wear thin. The Hollywood Reporter is harshest, calling the pilot juvenile and a waste of good actors, while allowing that episode two improves. Variety, arriving a year later, sees one more anti-sitcom about narcissists. The spread is wide. ### Reviews we read (6) - **Vulture** (90/100, inferred): The series is the most entertaining new comedy of the year, a confident dark twist on the romantic comedy genre with poise and a unique point of view. It singles out the strong chemistry and nuanced performances of leads Chris Geere and Aya Cash for praise. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2014/09/how-fxs-youre-the-worst-has-quietly-become-the-best-new-comedy-on-television.html) - **The AV Club**, Vikram Murthi (B): The pilot introduces two flawed, commitment-averse leads whose chemistry and honest dynamic stand out, though the episode leans too heavily on vulgar jokes and repetitive references to its title. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/you-re-the-worst-pilot-1798180951) - **The Guardian** (60/100, inferred): The critic finds the series quirky and breezy with good jokes and appealing leads, but views it as a fairly standard will-they-won't-they romcom that may grow tiresome quickly. They single out the pop-culture references and modern tone for praise while noting the characters are too likeable to fully commit to their supposed awfulness. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jul/16/youre-the-worst-romcom-fx-tv) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (50/100, inferred): The show is mildly likable as it follows the central couple's reluctant cohabitation and self-absorbed antics, though it joins a parade of similar anti-sitcoms about narcissists. [Read](https://variety.com/2015/tv/reviews/youre-the-worst-season-2-review-fx-fxx-series-1201579875/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (30/100, inferred): The pilot is worse than the paired show, with unlikable characters, forced crude humor, and juvenile shocks that waste good actors and fail to hook viewers despite some improvement in episode two. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/fx-comedies-trip-low-bar-719362/) - **Collider**, Allison Keene (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the pilot peppier than its companion series but still overly reliant on repeated assertions that the leads avoid relationships and on meanness for effect. The characters' struggles ultimately fail to engage viewers. [Read](https://collider.com/married-youre-the-worst-reviews/) ## Details - **Created by:** Stephen Falk - **Creator:** Stephen Falk - **Director:** Wendey Stanzler, Matt Shakman, Alex Hardcastle, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Stephen Falk, Ryan Case - **Writer:** Stephen Falk, Evan Mann, Philippe Iujvidin, Eva Anderson, Shane Kosakowski, Gareth Reynolds, April Shih, Marquita Robinson, Erica Rosbe, Sarah Carbiener, Franklin Hardy - **Cinematography:** Ross Riege, Blake McClure - **Editor:** Stacey Schroeder, Josh Schaeffer, Arge O'Neal, Adam Burr - **Music:** Adam Blau - **Production design:** Claire Bennett - **Costume design:** Wendy Benbrook - **Producer:** Melissa Wylie, Shane Kosakowski, Franklin Hardy - **Cast:** Chris Geere as Jimmy Shive-Overly; Aya Cash as Gretchen Cutler; Desmin Borges as Edgar Quintero; Kether Donohue as Lindsay Jillian; Stephen Schneider as Ty Wyland; Janet Varney as Becca Barbara; Brandon Mychal Smith as Sam Dresden; Todd Robert Anderson as Vernon Barbara - **Runtime:** 26m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 17 July 2014 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ao_jIEqRgg ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, hd - Amazon Prime Video: free - Disney+: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd - Apple TV: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BR, CA, CL, CO, DE, EC, FR, GB, MX, NZ, PA, PE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Catastrophe* (2015): Two adults who should know better, being funny and cruel about it in London - *Fleabag* (2016), Fi1m 90: Another comedy that uses its jokes as cover for something it is not ready to say — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/fleabag.md) - *BoJack Horseman* (2014), Fi1m 91: Los Angeles, self-loathing and a cartoon horse; sadder than it looks and funnier too — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/bojack-horseman.md) - *Please Like Me* (2013): Australian comedy that treats mental illness as part of ordinary life, not an episode - *Annie Hall* (1977), Fi1m 86: The romantic comedy that taught everyone here how to talk over each other — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/annie-hall.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/youre-the-worst