Leo Reich's 'It Gets Worse' Crosses the Atlantic After Rave U.K. Start

Leo Reich's comedy "It Gets Worse" — A24's first U.K.-made show — premieres on Paramount+ in the United States on Friday, six days after its Channel 4 launch drew rave reviews from The Guardian and The Times in Britain.

Reich, 28, wrote the series and stars as Ethan, one of three best friends and roommates stumbling through their twenties in London after moving out of a shared flat. Emily Fairn plays Abi; Olive Gray plays Sam. The show follows Reich's stated premise precisely: "The show is meant to be about three characters who see themselves as main characters in a TV show about themselves," he said. "And they've grown up watching all of this stuff about how being in your 20s in a big city is meant to look, and they're failing to do it."

What does the show actually deliver?

Ethan looks for love while refusing to look for a job. Abi stays in an unfulfilling relationship out of longing for a traditional life. Sam, a struggling writer, shares an apartment — and a lover — with her ex. Reich calls it "people living for the plot, and it's like, there is no plot, sweetheart. This is your real life."

The cast carries unusual cameo weight: Andrew Scott as a hot therapist, Zadie Smith as narrator and voice of reason, artist BabyMorocco as a douchey DJ, "Chicken Shop Date" host Amelia Dimoldenberg as an annoyingly nice it-girl, and "Inbetweeners" star Blake Harrison as a quirky lodger.

How did Lena Dunham end up in it?

Dunham plays a Millennial girlboss at Abi's office. The two met after she watched a recording of Reich's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe breakout show, "Literally Who Cares?!" — later picked up by HBO Max. "I get a call being like, 'Lena Dunham's written a part for you,'" Reich recalled. "I literally fell to the floor. I couldn't believe it."

That part was Boss Gibbons in "Too Much," Dunham's return to TV nearly a decade after "Girls," and Reich's first screen acting role. Dunham later gave notes on the "It Gets Worse" pilot and offered to appear. "She went, 'Oh, and I'd love to be in it if you want me to be,'" he said. "I was like, 'What are you talking about?! Do I want you to be in it? Uh, yeah.'"

Reich grew up on New York-set shows — "Frances Ha," "Girls," "30 Rock" — and tried the city for six weeks early in his stand-up career. It disappointed him: "I was like, 'This sucks.' They didn't get me!" He is now anxious about whether American audiences will connect. "There is some kind of significant cultural difference in what people find funny intuitively, so that will be interesting," he said. Variety's U.S. review has already rung in positive.

The series does not avoid sex — one storyline turns on a sex party gone wrong — but Reich resists framing it as a statement on Gen Z's reported ambivalence. "I just think sex is funny," he said, arguing that both educational and over-eroticized screen sex miss "how people have sex."

On autobiography, Reich splits the difference. The characters are "sort of different versions of me," not real people. Ethan's love life is "based off like, 50 people — an amalgamation of some of the most inaccessible kind of bisexual men that I've thrown myself at in the most desperate ways."

Will there be a season two?

Reich has "loads of ideas," though he insists no one triumphs. "No one's gonna make it! It's in the fucking title," he said. "No one gets what they want ever." The worst outcome, he added, is cancellation — though even that carries "a little bit of a badge of honor... Kind of a cult classic." He is also eyeing film, perhaps a rom-com. "If this is my job for the rest of my life, I'll be the luckiest boy in the world."