Hulu's New 9-Part Friends Replacement Debuts To Underwhelming Rotten Tomatoes Score

Hulu‘s new comedy, which plays out like a modern Friends, has debuted its Rotten Tomatoes score.

Considering its status as a global pop culture icon, it’s hardly a surprise that many sitcoms have tried to replicate the success of the NBC show about a group of friends looking for love and professional success in a big city. Some prominent examples that viewers cite include How I Met Your Mother and New Girl.

Both of those shows went on to develop their own distinct identities, shedding the comparison of being a Friends clone by relying on the chemistry of their respective ensembles and leaning into what makes their specific premise and settings shine. That’s what the new Hulu comedy, from Mindy Kaling, hopes to accomplish.

8 Things Friends’ Replacement Shows Did Better

The success of Friends has led to many TV shows trying to replace it, and while they didn’t achieve that, they did some things better than Friends.

Hulu’s nine-episode comedy Not Suitable for Work has debuted with a score of 50% on Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews. The score will likely fluctuate as more reviews are added, considering that the series only made its debut on June 2.

The cast of Not Suitable for Work in a promo photo for the Hulu show

Created by Kaling, who serves as showrunner with Charlie Grandy, Not Suitable for Work centers on five friends who live in an apartment in a New York neighborhood. There’s AJ and Davis, played by Ella Hunt and Will Angus, respectively, who work in the world of finance. Josh (Jack Martin) dreams of a successful career in journalism and has no problem using his last name to get ahead.

There‘s also Kel Washington (Nicholas Duvernay), who is a med student who would rather be an actor, and Abhinaya (played by Avantika Vandanapu), an assistant to a rather demanding celebrity stylist. Kel has a crush on Abihinaya, who pretty much lives right across the hall. But over the course of the show’s nine episodes, all sorts of romantic entanglements form.

The less favorable comparisons to Friends and How I Met Your Mother are mentioned in Angie Han’s review for The Hollywood Reporter, as well as Alison Herman’s Variety review. But both mention that the cast is worth tuning in for, hinting that the Hulu Original could eventually find its groove like many other Friends copycats.

Duvernay, last seen in The White Lotus season 3 as Belinda’s son, and Avantika (Tarot, 2024’s Mean Girls) are particular standouts early on. Plus, the fact that many of the main group have the same job as the Friends characters may end up serving as its own throwback appeal. Even though it’s far from perfect, Not Suitable for Work has potential and room to evolve.

New episodes of Not Suitable for Work season 1 release Tuesdays on Hulu, with the finale set for July 29.