Whether or not a viewer will enjoy "quarterlife" essentially depends on his or her threshold for angst. The show's Web site is, after all, a "community for artists, thinkers and do-ers," as its motto states.
The premise behind the show "quarterlife" is an interesting one. It will air on NBC starting Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 10 p.m., but the show started out online at MyspaceTV.com and quarterlife.com, a community site connected to the show.
Despite its humble beginnings, "quarterlife" has the quality of a network television show with the anticipated hang-ups of an Internet one. The show is brought to you by the people behind angsty yet captivating shows like "My So-Called Life" and "thirtysomething," so it would appear that their dislike for capitalization has manifested itself before.
The show revolves around Dylan (played by Bitsie Tulloch), whose video blog entries tie the show together. Her roommates, Lisa (Maite Schwartz), the pretty, promiscuous aspiring actress, and Debra (Michelle Lombardo), the down-to-earth best friend, provide fodder for Dylan's blog. Their subplots generally have more meat to them than Dylan's, like Debra's tension-filled relationships with her boyfriend Danny (David Walton) and his best friend Jed (Scott Michael Foster), the third wheel in their love triangle.
Each character lives the life of a tortured artist in some way, whether it be Dylan's job as a drone for a women's magazine that offends her independent writer's spirit (which apparently has not been done enough in other recent movies or TV shows), or Jed and Danny, fresh out of film school, shilling for a car dealership. And for some reason, the show wants us to believe that Lisa has an amazing singing voice, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
But regardless of the high density of tortured souls in the show, or perhaps because of it, the premise and plot are intriguing. When will Debra realize that her boyfriend is actually a jerk, and will she end up with the shy, creative Jed (for whom Dylan secretly pines)? How will Lisa resolve her problems with vulnerability that prevent her from being a good actress?
Things hardly get better for the characters as the series progresses. A great deal of the series can already be found on quarterlife.com, and future intrigue includes a new character, Eric (Mike Faiola), who preaches about issues like global warming while engaging in a fun love-hate relationship with Dylan. As the show goes on, we are gradually treated to more scenes with less clothing.
The show deals with real issues concerning twenty-somethings with appealing candor. Characters openly discuss sex, and they don't usually conform to traditional views of sexuality. Things also get heavy for Debra as the series goes on, but "quarterlife" refuses to cleanly resolve her issues. This is quite admirable, though her plotline tends to drag the show down.
The things these twenty-somethings face are not exactly out-of-this-world, or even out-of-the-ordinary. They generally face slightly-more-than-everyday problems, like how to deal with working for a parent, making the realism of the show refreshing and absorbing, but also a little worrying.
The characters live in an in-between place. No one on the show even remotely enjoys their job. The authority figures on the show just don't understand, and the main characters live and work at their mercy. Even their ideologies tend to be caught somewhere in between idealism and cynicism, in a place where they hate society and its faults but also preach about changing the world.
What "quarterlife" needs to do is stop shoving its Web site down viewers' throats. We are supposed to believe that everyone's lives revolve around this Web site, but most attempts to insert it into the show are just too contrived. Why send a video message to someone through this random Web site asking them to call you when you have their phone number? Do these people not use e-mail or instant messenger?
It is understandable that the creators of the show want to create an online community out of "quarterlife," but their attempts come off as too manufactured.
