My Overly Dramatic “Quarterlife”

By Ccandygrace

Our generation has been called a lot of things. Lazy. Fame obsessed. Narcissistic. Unmotivated. Oversexed. Why haven’t you Twenty-Something’s moved out of your parents’ house yet? The general consensus seems to be. Why are your parents still giving your money? Stop watching reality TV and and get a real job!

Instead of pushing against the unfocused, immature stereotype so much of the older generation is trying to box us into, “Quarterlife” a new MySpace web show (soon to be a real NBC show) plays right into their frustrated hands.

Produced by “the creative minds behind My So-Called Life”, “Quarterlife” follows 6 white kids in their twenties, most of whom consider themselves some type of artsy bohemian. In weekly, 10-minute installations, the characters on “Quarterlife” walk around plugged into their iPods and deal with, you know, issues. Sexual tension, boredom, sexual frustration, confusion, sexual discontent…everyone’s so like, conflicted. So like, unsure. Happiness is fleeting, and nothing makes like, any sense at all.

My So-Called Life was one of the best representations of teenage angst that’s ever been brought to the small screen, but retooling the recipe to fit the lives of Twenty-Somethings doesn’t work at all. The dialogue is pretty much drama (the good kind) free, and whenever main character Dylan video blogs (oh yes, she does), she rambles on and on with a Reality-Bites-combined-with-Kevin Smith-eque “deepness”.

“It’s just weird that you can never know what someone else is thinking. We’re all trapped in our nuero-transmitting soup, having our own indelible perceptions of a universe that for all we know is just an illusion anyway. And I supposed to laugh at that, or cry?”

Because it’s MySpace inspired, “Quarterlife” is more than just a languid drama. Billing it’s website as a place for “social networking”, it encourages its audience to upload art and thoughts, and meet other like-minded Twenty-Somethings through chatting and profiles.

Integrating fantasy and reality is an interesting idea, but if the “real” members of “Quarterlife” are anything like the fictional characters that supposedly hang out on the site all the time, I can guarantee this Twenty-Something will be staying far, far away.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to ask my dad for ten dollars and go back to sleep.