Your Twenties Aren’t a Rom-Com: They’re a Messy Sitcom, and That’s the Point
Figuring It Out, One Episode at a Time: What Sitcoms Teach Us About Our Twenties
People love to complain that TV shows and films are wildly unrealistic. The rom coms where everyone miraculously lands a dream job as a journalist, despite spending most of their time flouncing around in chic cafes rather than actually working. They live in sprawling, light-drenched apartments that, in reality, would require a trust fund or a winning lottery ticket. It’s just one of the many tiny heartbreaks of adulthood discovering that life is less "Sex and the City" and more writing on substack until I get my big break.
I’m not here to be a downer, I will devour every rom-com and proudly declare myself a sitcom apologist. It’s pretty much the only thing I watch, and honestly, I’m better for it. Sitcoms are a gentle reminder that no one really has it all figured out by 25.
There’s a scene in the pilot episode of Sex and the City where Carrie Bradshaw, aged 32, is chain-smoking and clacking away on her laptop, trying to make sense of modern love. She’s a grown woman, living in Manhattan, talking about soulmates, one-night stands, and whether women can have sex like men. I used to watch that show as a teenager and think: surely in your 30’s you have everything figured out. Now, at 25, I realise Carrie was just figuring it out, and I haven’t even made it to season one yet.
Rachel Green was 24 when she ran into Central Perk in a wedding dress. Ted Mosby was 27 when he started narrating his years-long quest to meet the love of his life. Jess Day was 31, singing her feelings and moving into a loft with three strangers. They all felt like adults when I was younger, but now I see they were winging it, the same way we are.
We treat our twenties like they should be a perfectly curated highlight reel — a sprint to get the career, the relationship, the flat with the nice countertops. But if sitcoms teach us anything, it’s that the mess is the good part. The false starts, the bad dates, the crying in kebab shops at 2 a.m. it’s all building to something
I think about Carrie at 32, frantically narrating her own life, and I feel oddly comforted. She didn’t have it all figured out , she just wrote about the chaos. And maybe that’s the best we can do. To write, to talk, to live, and to trust that eventually, we’ll make it past the pilot.
And if we don’t? At least we’ve got a great ensemble cast.
About Twenty Five Reset
Hi, I’m Niamh, and everyone was right—25 really is a turning point. I finally know who I am, what I want, and my purpose… but it’s nothing like I expected.
I work in TV, but it doesn’t define me. This space is my reset—embracing the mess, reflecting, and creating again. You can expect:
Pop Culture and a lot of chats about 2000 - 2020 TV Shows
Links: