In 2024, Alexandra Tanner’s hit debut novel “Worry” introduced the world to Jules and Poppy Gold, two neurotic Jewish sisters spiraling out together in Brooklyn in 2019. At the time, I called it a book for “Hot Jewish It Girls,” one that adeptly captured being young, anxious, Jewish and messy in a world on the precipice of falling apart. Now, we are getting more of Jules and Poppy.
“Worried,” a TV pilot adapted from the novel, just opened at Sundance as a part of the festival’s episodic fiction pilot showcase, and director Nicole Holofcener, co-writers Lesley Arfin and Alexandra Tanner and stars Gideon Adlon and Rachel Kaly do not disappoint. Though the creative team themselves liken “Worried” to a zillennial “Grey Gardens,” I cannot help but think of the pilot as “Broad City” meets “Girls” meets acerbic, laugh-out-loud funny zillennial Jewish anxiety.
The 30-some minute episode drops us into the Gold sisters’ world just as a hive-ridden and perhaps overmedicated Poppy (Kaly) comes to live with Jules (Gideon), who herself is going through an identity and existential crisis. The sisterly chemistry between Adlon and Kaly is superb — the two bounce off each other like atoms, egging each other on in their unhinged, unhealthy behavior and quickly flipping between being the other’s best friend and most bitter enemy.
Nowhere is this more palpable, tender and hilarious than in two stand-out scenes. In the first, Jules, Poppy and Jules’ situationship Jon (a delightful Devon Bostick, whose disposition and general vibe lend themselves to comparisons with Adam on “Girls”) get cross-faded. Jules worries aloud that she’s not an “integrated” woman — at least compared to the mommy TikTok influencers she obsessively watches — one moment, and in the next, she and Poppy are playing “Would You Rather,” debating whether or not they’d prefer to blow their dad or eat all their pubes. For Poppy’s part, she knows who she is and what she believes; she just doesn’t like herself. Late in the evening, she rants about an idealized version of her life where she dreams about marrying the male heir to a recycling fortune, despite not being attracted to men. “And I think I wanna kill myself,” Poppy concludes before retching watery wine into her hands.
Later on, Jules and Poppy get into a fight about the latter taking up too much space in the former’s apartment. Poppy takes out her rage by spray-painting her new furniture on the roof while blasting “Last Resort” by Papa Roach. (Rachel Kaly, what a scene-stealer you are…) And still, somehow, the pair are able to make up with Jules literally offering Poppy the shirt off her back.
While the pilot for “Worried” is relatively faithful to the book, one major change is that it no longer takes place just before the COVID-19 pandemic; rather, it seems to take place now. In a scene where Jules and Poppy traipse around a flea market, Poppy scolds Jules for considering buying a used Sodastream. “Those are made in Israel,” Poppy remarks. “You’re literally facilitating a genocide if you buy that.” (In the book, this scene takes place in Brooklyn’s “worst Target,” where Poppy disapproves because Sodastream is on the BDS list.) While I loved the pre-COVID book setting, where the Gold sisters’ folie-a-deux felt an underlying urgency in the pandemic they had no idea was coming, this time shift towards the contemporary opens up so much potential for Jules’ and Poppy’s Jewish identities. It allows “Worried” to examine the most pressing and authentic debate for young Jews today: how to feel about Israel-Palestine. And of course, it allows “Worried” to let Jules and Poppy spiral out over it.
The pilot already begins to do this when Poppy first meets Jon. He is completely nude, doing dishes after he and Poppy unsuccessfully attempt to have sex, when Poppy wanders in. He grabs an apron designed with little wine bottles reading “I make pour decisions” to cover his nudity, and Poppy lays into him. “So Jon, what do you think about the war?” She asks, apropos of nothing. Later, she clarifies, “If you would even call it that.” It’s a very funny, very authentic moment that underscores how absurd some conversations around Israel and Palestine can be, and how unprepared and undressed they can make one feel. It also tells us a great deal about how Poppy relates to her Jewishness and how that Jewishness informs the belief system she touts.
Should “Worried” go to a full series (please, God), hopefully, the show would continue to engage with this conversation with the same authenticity and comedic edge it already has. (Jules comes off as a little less critical of Israel, which might be an intriguing dynamic to explore between the sisters.) I’m hopeful that future episodes could pull more sharp, uproarious Jewish moments from the book, like Jules and Poppy’s blow-out argument in a Jewish cemetery on Staten Island or the sisters dealing with their mom, who is now a Jew for Jesus.
So all that to say: Please, someone (looking at you, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and Amazon Prime), pick up “Worried.” I desperately need more of this smart, funny show. If you don’t, I’ll probably crash out about it.
