Rebecca Barry Hill: Millennial makeover

The new TV Land comedy Younger, made by Sex and the City creator Darren Star. Photo / Supplied

"Why is it the older and more experienced you are, the less desirable you get?" ponders Liza in Younger (Neon), the breezy comedy from Sex and the City creator Darren Star. Her friend wonders if she's talking about her husband, who has just left her for a younger woman. She means finding a job. Liza, like Sutton Foster, the Broadway star who plays her, is 40, going on 26.

That's the ridiculous-sounding premise behind this light but surprisingly likeable New York-set show, based on the novel by Pamela Redmond Satran. Foster could probably get away with playing a teenager and she gives Younger its quirky allure, even if the show is full of stereotypes. Her character is struggling financially, (because women always rely on their husbands), so Liza needs to find a job.

Having been out of the workforce for years raising her now-teenaged daughter (a boho type who wants to save the world), no one wants to hire her, choosing perky young graduates instead. This may not exactly match the experience many Millennials face in getting a job straight out of uni. But it's on board with the idea that women often feel invisible as they get older.

When Liza's hit on by a 26-year-old thinking she must be about his age, she decides to pretend it's true, 24/7. "I'm from ... over the bridge," she says, explaining why their paths haven't crossed.

With her new makeover sussed, and her Gen Y crushes rehearsed - Katniss Everdeen and Harry from 1D - she winds up with a gig at a publishing house, working for Diana Trout, a sort of OTT Devil Wears Prada character, and an irritatingly put-together 20-something named Kelsey (a suitably smarmy Hilary Duff).

She's so, like, mature, she tells Liza she shrugged off her boyfriend so she could lie in bed finishing reading the new "it" novel.

Actually the line includes the word "masturbated", as though the show is hoping for the shock reaction Sex and the City's Samantha once produced in Charlotte. The rude humour extends to generation-clash gags about young people's supposed love for shaving off their pubic hair and indulging in trending social media topics like "Topless Tuesday". But there's also lots to like.

Thrust into a world in which certain characters live their lives in thrall to their online followers, Liza, on the other hand, has to google how to set up a Twitter account. Her young, heavily inked man friend has, apparently, "tattooed inside Lena Dunham's ass cheeks". Not that Liza knows who Lena Dunham is. It's a little meta joke, given Dunham's Girls is a modern update of you-know-what.

In other words, Younger has a knowing sense of humour but doesn't always ring true. Some of the most clued-up social media users I know are in their 40s.

It's no S&TC either, even though that show's costume designer Patricia Field acts as a consultant here. But given the ever-widening cultural gap between Gen Y and their older counterparts, not to mention the disdain frequently expressed between the two - another selfie? - it appears Darren Star is on to something, again.

This isn't just about one woman trying to keep up appearances. It taps into the depressing truth that the world idolises the young, and feeds off the fantasy just about all of us have or will have at some point: what if we could stay young? And what if all it took was hair extensions, a penchant for hashtags and a little put-on naivety?