**Warning: Spoilers for the season 5 premiere of Younger**
It’s always weird to watch shows of our past through our current lens and wonder how we, both as individual viewers and as a culture, let things slide. With the rate things are moving, that question of “what were they thinking?” can apply to some fairly recent entertainment.
In season two of TV Land’s Younger, Liza—a 40-something single mother posing as a 20-something after finding job opportunities lacking—met Edward L.L. Moore, a George R.R. Martin stand-in with a habit of making lewd overtures toward young women. That Liza was forced, for the sake of her job, to dress as Moore’s favorite fur-bikini-wearing character from his fantasy novels and endure his sexual comments was always framed as totally inappropriate, but it was never fully addressed. It was dismissed as creepy but harmless behavior, and seen as such by her boss, Charles, but he encouraged her to endure it, again, for the sake of his company.
Moore’s introduction on Younger was only two years ago. But if it wasn’t already hard to swallow then, it’s certainly difficult to rewatch now without feeling frustrated over not just the behavior, but the complicity of everyone involved. Luckily, in this week’s new season premiere, the show tackles all of that head-on.
After an anonymous comment is made on an online forum, accusing Moore of sexual misconduct, Charles and Diana ask Liza if his behavior ever made her uncomfortable. But the company is gearing up to announce a new prequel series and it’s made clear that Liza would be making big waves with any answer other than a no. Diana dryly tells her that if she has anything to say about Moore, “it could destroy the company but we’ll support you.” It’s a great (and infuriating) example of how companies or any environment can say they support women while actively making them feel unsafe and unsupported.
The episode also showed how women can face major fallout after they speak up. (Spoilers ahead.) After talking to other women who have played the fur-bikinied Princess Pampam, all of whom were similarly harassed by Moore over the years, Liza tells Charles a line was crossed, and Charles halts the book launch and announces an investigation. In response, Moore digs up dirt on the women, including the secret upon which the show’s entire premise hinges. It was a great plot device (the writers were reportedly going to have Charles find out Liza’s secret in last season’s finale, but postponed), but it also represents yet another reason why so many victims of sexual misconduct stay silent. The victim-shaming and personal attacks are very real fears. It’s not clear how big of a role Moore will play in this season, but he’s already done significant damage with his retaliation for Liza’s allegations.
Moore’s creepiness isn’t the only way the new season of Younger addressed issues of workplace harassment. The relationship between Liza and Charles has always had a #MeToo cloud hanging over it. It’s not the darkest cloud, since we, the audience, knows that Liza is not a naive 26-year-old in her first real job, and we also know that we are meant to root for these two characters. But the fact remains that Charles is married, is Liza’s boss, and that he sits at the top end of a major power imbalance.
The latest episode touched on Liza and Charles’ problematic relationship via a confused conversation and an HR training. I don’t think they need to dwell on those points for too long, but I hope they don’t move past it immediately in favor of focusing solely on Liza’s lies. I’m so glad they’re finally addressing issues of workplace harassment in this show, and that they’re managing to do it with humor while still taking it seriously. As Miriam Shor (Diana) said in a post-episode “Inside Younger” segment, “If you’re gonna talk about a woman in the workplace and her struggle to come back to the workplace, I don’t think you can ignore it.”
(image: TV Land)
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