Siri, play “Jealous” by Nick Jonas. After years of relentlessly mocking millennial cringe in tweets and TikTok compilations, the Gen Z youth are finally admitting that we’re envious of our slightly older friends. We would indeed like a taste of social office vibes, dating and hooking up sans apps, BuzzFeed culture, gallivanting around cites all day instead of doomscrolling for hours on end, Obama-era optimism, a sense of community, ya know… that ~skipping through life~ feeling. There’s a reason why every other TikTok on my FYP is Gen Z-ers lamenting the fact that we weren’t 25 in 2014. Shockingly, Covid zoom classes and wasting your day away on social media doesn’t make for the most magical life experience.

While we can’t go back in time and be born in the late 80s or early 90s, we can certainly obsess over that golden era and relive it via the high art television of the time. As a nostalgic, TV-loving Gen Z woman, I took it upon myself to compile a list of my favorite millennial shows that quench my thirst for escapism, happiness, etc. Because Wellbutrin can only take us so far.

Shows To Watch If You’re Romanticizing Being A Millennial In The 2010s

Girls

The culture. The blueprint. The Bible. It should be extremely obvious to everyone that Lena Dunham’s magnum opus, Girls, is the first show to turn on when you wanna live out your 2010s millennial fantasy. Just four scrappy gals stumbling around NYC, navigating messy dating and sex lives, and following their dreams — all with a very Obama-era blind optimism that things will just magically work out for them. As Hannah Horvath once said, “All adventurous women do.” Sit with that.

The Bold Type

The Bold Type is peak millennial BuzzFeed culture, but make it Scarlet. That’s the women’s magazine three mid-twenties besties work at in this glamorous Freeform series. The girlies dress up in chic fits to go to the office everyday (imagine that) and brainstorm big ideas that transform women’s media. Naturally, they all have very spicy love lives and give each other the tea in the company’s ginormous fashion closet. You’ll get your dose of media optimism, office culture, and non-dating app dating.

Younger

Sutton Foster’s character may be a fake millennial in this show (Liza pretends to be 26 when she’s actually 40), but the show is all about her attempt to fit into the cool, trendy millennial culture in Brooklyn. She studies the millennial icons around her (Josh, Kelsey, and Lauren) and even works on a publishing imprint titled Millennial. If you’re craving an escape to 2010s artsy, pre-Covid Williamsburg, this is the millennial fever dream show for you.

Insecure

Facebook makes an appearance in the very first episode of this iconic 2010s series, practically screaming ~simpler Millennial times~. Insecure is a Los Angeles-based comedy that follows two millennial Black women as they navigate the ups and downs of their friendship, the complexities of modern dating (so many new labels and apps), their career struggles in a post-recession world, and the general angst of their millennial adulthood. The Solange-curated soundtrack is the cherry on top.

Broad City

Much like Girls, Broad City is a story about deeply flawed besties trying their best to “make it” in New York City. These girlies are broke, they’re lost, they end up in all kinds of whacky situations, but it’s the 2010s, so there’s an underlying assumption that everything’s gonna be just fine. That viral TikTok sound from the show, “In da clerb, we all fam,” really sums up the whole cringe but free vibe. I don’t make the rules: This classic sitcom is required watching in the “millennials running around the big city” genre.

New Girl

Obviously, the 2010s Los Angeles answer to Friends earns a spot on this list. New Girl is a distinctly millennial sitcom that follows a quirky gal and her all-male roommates figuring out their careers and dealing with the awkwardness of dating in their twenties. Instead of rushing to settle down, they’re “finding themselves” in their late twenties and thirties — a millennial phenomenon at the time. The show ran from 2011 to 2018, so you can experience literally the whole decade through the eyes of these lovable characters.