REVIEW: ‘Platonic’ Season 2 Is ‘Superbad’ For Grown-Ups In the Best Way

Few comedies understand adult friendship like Platonic Season 2. It’s messy, co-dependent, unexpectedly warm, and constantly teetering on the edge of disaster. Season 2 picks up with Will (Seth Rogen) and Sylvia (Rose Byrne) trying to support each other through new midlife chaos. There are weddings, career shifts, personal breakdowns, and plenty of painfully funny moments in between.

Created by Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco, Platonic Season 2 returns to Apple TV+ with a stronger ensemble and sharper voice. Delbanco, who also appears in a recurring role as a hilariously blunt realtor, delivers one of the season’s most understated but memorable performances.

This small but standout role captures the Platonic’s signature mix of awkwardness and insight. This season builds on everything that made the first great, offering a comedy that feels sharper, more reflective, and deeply in tune with what it means to grow up without growing apart.

Platonic Season 2 captures the emotional chaos of midlife.

If Superbad captured the emotional chaos of adolescence, Platonic is what happens when those feelings grow up but never fully go away. Will and Sylvia’s bond remains the emotional core of the series, not because it’s ideal, but because it’s real. Platonic Season 2 doesn’t ask whether their friendship is appropriate; it asks whether it can survive the weight of everything else.

That “everything else” hits different in your 30s and 40s. The pressure to evolve and keep proving you’re stable, productive, and happy never lets up. At a certain point, it’s not about who you want to be, but who you still are when everything gets messy. Platonic Season 2 leans into that discomfort. It reminds us that we’re all improvising, even when it looks like everyone else has it figured out.

One of the best parts of Platonic Season 2 is how the supporting cast gets more time to shine. Will and Sylvia’s friends aren’t just comic relief; they represent the many divergent, messy, and sometimes conflicting paths adulthood can take. These characters reflect the emotional sprawl of midlife, where no two lives look the same anymore. Some people have found stability; others are still chasing the next big thing. Some have settled, some are spiraling, and some seem perfectly fine until you spend five minutes alone with them.

One of the best parts of Platonic Season 2 is the supporting cast.

Carla Gallo as Katie brings a quiet, steady presence that becomes more impactful as the season progresses. While Will and Sylvia spiral through various midlife crises, her character offers a counterbalance to theirs. She’s someone building something meaningful in the background, without fanfare.

It’s a subtle arc, but one that speaks volumes about how success isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s just about trying, following through, and letting things grow at their own pace. In a show full of chaos, her rising trajectory is one of the most grounded, satisfying things to watch.

Aidy Bryant brings a wildly different energy as one of Sylvia’s newer connections: someone fully embedded in the high-speed, Hollywood-adjacent social scene. Her life is an endless loop of event-hopping, last-minute invites, and curated chaos. She embodies a pace that feels impossible to keep up with, yet weirdly aspirational in moments.

It’s fully no sleep, club, another club, plane, next thing energy: the kind of rhythm that makes even Will’s rollercoaster life feel like a controlled burn. Through her, Sylvia gets a glimpse of what a certain kind of “success” could look like: fast-moving, visually impressive, and deeply exhausting.

Kyle Mooney, on the other hand, plays a character who feels built to antagonize Will, and he commits to the bit. As a smug, opportunistic weirdo, Mooney’s performance is designed to get under your skin. He’s a direct threat to Will’s ego and stability, someone who knows exactly how to stir the pot. But it’s done with such dry absurdity that it never becomes melodramatic. It’s just another reminder that life doesn’t slow down for anyone.

Platonic Season 2 offers a reminder that we are never the only ones struggling.

What this ensemble captures is something quietly profound: we are never the only ones struggling. While Sylvia and Will are dealing with their own spirals, everyone around them is fighting different battles—some louder, some internal. It’s a gentle but sharp reminder that friendship isn’t just about being there for someone; it’s also about accepting when you’re no longer the center of their story.

Platonic Season 2 asks real questions about what it means to grow apart, not just grow up. What happens when your best friend’s life starts moving without you? How do you celebrate them while grieving your own stagnation? And how do you keep loving people who no longer need you the same way?

Platonic Season 2 continues the first season’s quiet knack for cultural commentary. Whether it’s poking fun at Bridgerton-style obsession, the overproduction of podcasts, or the way parasocial relationships turn strangers into idols, Platonic has a sharp eye for how absurd modern adulthood can feel. The show doesn’t overexplain the joke, it just plants it and moves on, trusting you’ll catch up.

There’s also a powerful storyline about creative burnout and the weight of stability. Sylvia’s husband, Charlie (Luke Macfarlane), is one of the most sneakily complex characters this season. On paper, he’s doing everything right: successful career, loving family, decent moral compass.

Platonic Season 2 continues to prove that episode length doesn’t matter.

But underneath that exterior is a man quietly falling apart, realizing that being good at something doesn’t mean it’s good for you. That tension between responsibility and self-actualization hits hard. Especially when you start to feel like it’s too late to change.

Platonic Season 2 continues to prove that episode length doesn’t matter when every scene has a purpose. Whether it’s a quick 25-minute entry or a longer, slower build, each episode feels tight and complete. The pacing is confident. The laughs are earned. And the emotions creep up on you when you least expect them.

The music in Platonic Season 2 isn’t just good, it’s perfectly curated. Each intro and outro track lands with purpose, capturing the emotional undercurrent of the episode without ever feeling on-the-nose. Some choices are familiar chart-toppers; others are more under-the-radar gems. Every single one hits.

It feels like getting playlist recommendations from two different friends: one who lives inside Spotify’s discovery algorithm and another who still burns you physical mixes just because they thought of you. No skips, no filler. just bangers that stick with you long after the episode ends.

Platonic Season 2 is a great reminder that life isn’t meant to be navigated alone.

There’s something beautiful about watching your favorite creatives age with you. Superbad was a comfort film because it exaggerated teenage anxiety we eventually learned to laugh about. Platonic captures the adult version of that feeling—the sense that yes, these things really are that serious now. Careers, families, finances, dreams deferred, it’s all heavy. But the show never loses hope. It argues that maybe the answer isn’t certainty; maybe it’s just connection.

More than once, the show suggests that our lives aren’t meant to be navigated alone. Whether the bonds we hold are romantic, platonic, familial, or professional, they keep us grounded. They give us mirrors. And even when things fall apart, the belief that someone’s still willing to sit next to you in the wreckage makes all the difference.

Platonic Season 2 deepens everything that made the first season work. The humor is sharper, the relationships are richer, and the emotional resonance is undeniable. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne remain a phenomenal pairing, striking a balance between the absurd and the sincere. But the magic is in the ensemble, the cultural texture, and the honesty woven into every scene.

In a streaming landscape full of prestige dramas and genre swings, Platonic Season 2 is something rarer: a smart, funny, emotionally grounded comedy about trying to be a person. It speaks to something real, and it does so without ever feeling like a lecture.

Platonic Season 2 premieres on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, August 6, 2025. 

Previous Season