"quarterlife": Gen-Y Bloggers Shake The Cradle

In his hatchet-whirling review of "quarterlife", Slate's television critic Troy Patterson has also showcased the series' sole brilliance: its nauseating realism. "Protagonist Dylan Krieger is the chief self-absorbee," as Patterson describes her:

"Why aren't you happy?" one of her friends asks in a lighter moment. Dylan responds in a preteen pout: "I don't feel like it." It's supposed to be cute.

He's right: That ironically adolescent retort isn't cute, but Dylan thinks it is. Which is the devious point of this budding series about budding Brooklyn malcontents. The curse of an infantilized generation is its infancy, constantly in tug-of-war with adult contexts that cutesy pouting and self-interested blogging can't possibly work through. A genuinely charming pouter, or conversely a woman too mature to pout, would have none of the resonance that Dylan does with Gen-Y web-surfers, precisely because teenage vices are what make any televised twenty-something believable. The grating heartache and humiliations Dylan's peers suffer arise mainly out of how lame they all are, which is what makes them real enough to their viewers to eke sympathy in the first place.

"quarterlife" dives headlong into the fantasy of the Gen-Y blogger, who writes internet postings as though he or she doesn't truly expect to be read. Listen closely to the language of most youths' personal blogs--the kind which publish diary-style musings--and you will discern a voice that's anxious to authenticate itself by sounding unaware of how it will be perceived.

Dylan's bedroom soliloquies and I-just-bit-a-lemon frowns look like the usual diaristic fumblings of self-navigation that have snowballed lately into a culture of confessional YouTube clips--canonical descendants of the LonelyGirl15 character who, if she appeared back in the '80s, might just have written bad poetry and shelved it in her closet. Consider how Dylan airs her secret love for another character on her blog, only to delete the confession later when, serendipitously, the object of her otiose affection tumbles into the bedroom to gush privately over her foxy roommate. It's a sad, funny moment, but who cares -- what should interest us is that it's also a snapshot of an entry made in cognizance of what its audience will think. Somehow, the context of the personal blog always shouts, "I wrote this for myself, not for the impression it would give those who happen to read it," when the obvious narcissism at work tells a different story. This is not even quite self-love; it's love of the self projected on the blog; it's the love of an image Dylan wants her readers to think she sees in the mirror, and moreover, she wants to think she sees it too.

Many avid viewers of "quarterlife" probably recognize themselves somehow in the show, but they may not necessarily know why. Really, they are watching their own blog posts, edited and acted with more flair and better plot. Because "quarterlife" is about the social network it's launched, and on which it airs, the show quite literally models for bloggers the characters that they will concoct with their own, similarly formatted profiles -- even now that the show is on regular TV. But viewers who find "quarterlife" nauseating for the immaturity of the characters and the occasional shallowness of the plot should note that its characters are nauseated with themselves for the same reasons. Like bloggers, "quarterlife" characters are in possession of a conflicted double-image: They are children and they are adults, and the latter half shakes its cradle-bars in frustration.

Comments

[Pippilangstrumpf]

You think that tv is going to actually represent you truthfully? That's a joke.
I was 30 when the show "Thirty Something" was on the air. That show made me want to puke.
Actually, Masterpiece Theatre has been showcasing all of the Jane Austin books these past few weeks...and it's truly amazing how this author taps into the universal soul of human nature all those years ago.
I was in a horrible marriage when I read Anne Karenina and it felt as if the author was speaking to me through the title character.
That's true art.
Not this crap that is on television today. I was going to cancel my cable when I thought that the new show "Therapy" might be the one reason to keep it. Not.
It's horrible. I cancelled my cable this week. It's ridiculous to pay for hundreds of channels when there is nothing of value on any of them.

[nihilon x]

I've seen much worse on television last much longer.

You can't make network shows for Gen Y because many in Gen Y don't watch network TV.

[kellygrrrl]

Viewer who think teens and 20-somethings in America look and act like Miley Cyrus and Paris Hilton SHOULD watch this show and rest assured there is intelligence in the future

[ObamaEdwards]

That is so true. You understand bloggers completely. I am a middle aged woman shaking the cradle bars!

LOL

People really shouldn't generalize so much. It skews the world for you. Humans are complex. Get over it.

[SkimaskBob]

this is the WORST show I have ever seen - it's offensively bad. Example: After getting off the phone with the owner of a used car dealership who decides to let the two guys shoot a commercial for him, one guy turns to the other and says "This is what we've dreamed about for so long!"

Really? Making used car commercials? If you want truth from your television tune in Fox's 'Moment of Truth' ... at least its honest.

[XtheXlanternX]

With TV as poor as it is these days, I made special effort to watch this show, especially after it getting hyped up on the internet and USA Today. I had to turn it off after about the first 10 minutes. The characters were just massive walking stereotypes, and as a 20 something American, I felt insulted and disgusted that this is the best that the networks can come up with to portray my life. I'm about ready to give up on pretty much every series that isn't on HBO or Showtime.

[SkimaskBob]

thank you