‘Not Suitable for Work’ Review: Mindy Kaling’s Charming Hulu Comedy Makes an Old Formula Feel New Again

Mindy Kaling’s latest ensemble comedy may borrow from the sitcom playbook of the past, but its lovable cast and effortless chemistry make it one of Hulu’s most enjoyable new binges.

Not Suitable for Work arrives carrying the weight of a familiar premise. Five twenty-somethings share an apartment building in Manhattan, spend their days trying to survive demanding jobs, and spend their nights making increasingly complicated decisions about love, friendship, and adulthood. On paper, it sounds like a premise television has revisited dozens of times before. In practice, Mindy Kaling’s latest Hulu comedy succeeds because it understands that the appeal of these stories has never been originality. It’s about finding characters audiences genuinely enjoy spending time with, then trusting that chemistry to carry the journey.

The show’s biggest challenge is also its most interesting quality. Although it’s positioned as a comedy about Gen Z, much of its worldview feels inherited from an earlier era of television. This is not the hyper-online New York of endless content creators, side hustles, algorithm anxiety, and economic doomscrolling. Instead, Not Suitable for Work exists in a version of the city that feels closer to the sitcom fantasies many viewers grew up watching. The apartments are improbably spacious, the friendships are constantly accessible, and people’s lives still revolve around actual conversations rather than text messages. Depending on your perspective, that either makes the show out of touch or strangely refreshing.

Personally, I found myself leaning toward the latter.

Television has become increasingly obsessed with documenting generational trauma, economic instability, and social dysfunction. Those stories have value, but there’s also something appealing about a series that isn’t constantly trying to explain why modern life is broken. Not Suitable for Work acknowledges that its characters face challenges, but it approaches those challenges with a fundamentally optimistic spirit. The result feels less like a sociological study and more like a comfort watch in the best possible sense.

The ensemble is what ultimately sells the premise. Ella Hunt anchors the series as AJ, bringing a mix of ambition, vulnerability, and self-awareness that makes her immediately compelling. Hunt has always had a natural ease on screen, but this role allows her to explore both the comedic and dramatic sides of the character without ever feeling forced. Around her, Avantika continues proving she’s one of the most effortlessly charismatic young performers working today. Her Abby could easily have been reduced to a collection of sitcom quirks, but Avantika gives her enough personality and warmth to feel fully realized.

Nicholas Duvernay emerges as another standout. Kel’s combination of confidence and uncertainty makes him one of the more relatable figures in the group, particularly as he navigates career ambitions that don’t always align with reality. Jack Martin and Will Angus round out the central ensemble effectively, each finding ways to make their characters feel distinct even when the scripts occasionally lean into familiar sitcom territory.

What impressed me most wasn’t any single storyline or romantic subplot. It was how quickly the cast began feeling like a genuine friend group. Too many ensemble comedies spend entire seasons trying to manufacture chemistry. Here, it arrives surprisingly early. Conversations overlap naturally, jokes feel shared rather than scripted, and the relationships develop with enough authenticity that the show becomes enjoyable even when individual storylines aren’t firing on all cylinders.

That chemistry becomes especially important because the series isn’t particularly interested in reinventing the genre. Most viewers will recognize where certain romantic storylines are heading long before the characters do. Crushes develop, misunderstandings occur, timing becomes inconvenient, and emotional complications multiply. None of that is especially groundbreaking. What matters is that the characters remain engaging enough for audiences to care about the outcome.

The friendship dynamics often prove stronger than the romantic ones. The relationship between the three male leads, in particular, provides some of the show’s funniest and most unexpectedly heartfelt moments. Their recurring “Steak and Tears” tradition is exactly the kind of oddly specific detail that helps define a television friendship. It’s ridiculous, slightly immature, and completely believable. More importantly, it allows the series to explore male friendship without cynicism or irony, something television doesn’t always do particularly well.

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Where Not Suitable for Work occasionally falls short is in its reluctance to fully engage with the more contemporary ideas it introduces. Storylines involving artificial intelligence, modern media culture, and career instability appear throughout the season, but they rarely evolve beyond surface-level observations. The show hints at bigger conversations without ever committing to them. At times, it feels as if Kaling and her writers are more interested in preserving the fantasy of young adulthood than interrogating the realities of it.

Yet even that becomes part of the show’s identity.

This isn’t Industry. It isn’t Girls. It isn’t trying to be the definitive statement on what it means to be young in 2026. The series is much more interested in the timeless parts of being young: the uncertainty, the ambition, the bad decisions, the friendships that feel permanent, and the relationships that seem life-changing until they aren’t. Those experiences resonate regardless of generation, which is why the show’s throwback qualities end up working more often than they don’t.

By the end of its first season, Not Suitable for Work feels less like a modern Gen Z comedy and more like a love letter to the ensemble sitcoms that dominated television for decades. That’s not necessarily a criticism. In an era where every new series seems determined to deconstruct a genre, there’s something oddly satisfying about a show that simply wants to execute one well.

Not every comedy needs to redefine television. Sometimes it’s enough to create characters worth rooting for, give them sharp dialogue, believable friendships, and just enough romantic chaos to keep things interesting. Not Suitable for Workmay not be revolutionary, but it’s funny, charming, and consistently enjoyable. By the final episode, the greatest compliment I can give it is that I wasn’t ready to leave these characters behind.

Rating: ★★★★½

CREDITS

Release Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2026 (3 Episode Premiere)

Cast: Ella Hunt, Avantika, Will Angus, Jack Martin, Nicholas Duvernay, Jay Ellis

Creator: Sophie Goodhart

streaming on: Hulu

Run Time: 60 Mins [9 Episodes]

Rated TV-MA

Watch The Trailer Below: