quarterlife: Episode 1 thoughts

Herskovitz and Zwick's quarterlife has premiered. I first have to say that I've never been a huge fan of their work. I like My So-called Life well enough, but never got into thirtysomething or much of their other work. I like to keep my more petulant, whiny side bottled up (the better to unload it in big splashes on TheWife,) so seeing a lot of that on screen rarely appeals to me. It's not that I don't recognize the quality of the material, it's that I wish the characters would just grow up.

So I went into quarterlife with certain expectations. I expect to be annoyed by the characters, but drawn in by the writing.

Sure enough, episode one lived up to my expectations. It's well-written, has a clever meta-narrative aspect - when you consider that quarterlife, the website, is very much the site Dylan (Bitsie Tulloch) blogs on in the show. So you go to quarterlife (the site) to watch quarterlife (the show) in which the lead blogs on quarterlife (the site-within-show). The performances were solid, the production qualities were broadcast-ready, and the direction was excellent.

I just wish I didn't hate the characters.

There's also one *very* played out trope. Dylan, who wants to be a writer and is hiply sloppy, works as an editorial associate at a magazine called "Women's Attitude". She has a little Barbie Doll co-worker named Britney. Guess what happens when Dylan tells her about her new, hip, alternative idea.

I say watch. Excluding the cliché plot thread at the magazine, this is pretty interesting and innovative stuff. It'll help a lot if you're not old and crusty like me. But even I found the first episode view-worthy and will probably watch a few more. Maybe I'll even grow to like these characters (or mail them Prozac.)