talking about quarterlife

me: so what did you think of quarterlife?
louisa: i only watched like the first 10 or so episodes so far. i mean the mini ones, on the website
me: right, how do you feel about the mini-ones? i couldn;t stand the little tiny segments
louisa: i felt fine about them. interruptions don't bother me.
i liked the mini things for the same reason i like books with short chapters
because you are always near another good stopping point
me: its funny because of course they shouldn't bother me, i mean they're no different from commercial breaks
me: but i guess i just hardly ever watch shows not on dvd or whatever so i've stopped being used to that kind of segmentation
louisa: right but now people are getting used to tivo and shows on dvd, a lot of people are getting unused to watching ads
louisa: so, i thought it was a lot like other soap opera-ish shows out there. i definitely got hooked and was like ok just one more, over and over
louisa: i definitely recognized real things in there, that don't get talked about a lot
louisa: about what its like to be young. like, you feel like you should be doing something amazing and wonderful, like that weird friend of debra who's always going to protests and stuff
me: yeah
louisa: but in reality, nothing you do seems amazing, you just do what you can do
and like dylan working at the stupid magazing and the boys making commercials. thats not their dream of doing something amazing, but its all they have right now
and then debra maybe doesn't even have a dream so she's just doing what's easy
me: its interesting how well they develop all those ideas in just 7 hour long episodes
louisa: true
louisa: so that stuff is interesting cause i feel like it hasn't always been the situation for 20-somethings. these days going to college is not really enough and getting a steady job is not enough, you also have to be changing the world.
then the relationship stuff, at least so far, i think maybe is not that different from other soaps
but as always its entertaining
me: althought i've never actually seen thirtysomething (its not out on dvd) from what i know its very much about people who went to college in the 60s and now are just standard American consumerist families... and then there's my so-called life which is actually about urban high schools and poor kids and ethnic kids and smart kids who are stuck there... and i like the way quarterlife is kind of caught between those (and indeed that phase of life is very much caught between those)
me: i can see why critics, especially like upper middle class new york times critics, would criticize that because it is so ambivalent, so caught between responsibility and dealing with victimhood, but i like very much that narrative of not only life and growing up but of life and growing up on tv and as television narrative
louisa: mhmm. and its cool that its about her video blog but it isn't just her video blog
like lonelygirl and this katemodern are basically made up of people's video blog posts, but this way we get to see what its like growing up online and how its accepted and not
cause posting stuff online and pissing people off is so common now
me: and its funny how its both very much our own experience and yet also clearly something younger, or something new, even newer than us
me: i mean dylan on quarterlife is our age but i dont know anyone who has a videoblog
its both the present, our present, and the future
louisa: well yeah, maybe it's not because she's younger, i think its because the fictional quarterlife website somehow makes it magically easy to record and edit your videos
me: haha yeah that too
louisa: i mean a lot of kids now have the hardware and the skills to make videos, but not quite that easily
8:00 PM
me: im gonna post this convo about quarterlife in my blog, ok?
louisa: what?! my end too?
me: is that ok?
i think it was a good discussion/analysis. good follow up
louisa: well i guess if you think its worth posting then it must not sound as stupid as i might think
louisa: so alright

quarterlife

from the creaters of thirtysomething and my so-called life... first they tackled well, thirtysomethings, then teenagers, now recent college graduates.
it hasnt gotten great reviews but i like it quite alot.
first i think the idea of web-tv is really interesting. its sort of an extension of youtube... i personally find youtube kind of annoying, i like narrative especially extended narrative adn whats so cool about webtv is teh potential for anyone to crate their own extended, televisual narrative. obviously these guys are professionals but still its an interesting crossmedia innovation. i watched the first episode from itunes and then i tried watching it online but the 5-10 minute segments were so fucking annoying. i couldnt stand it. so today i downloaded the rest of the episodes from itunes.
something i really like about the show though is the way it blends (sort of cheesy) teen melodrama (of the wb variety for one) with something more interesting and perhaps more genuine. these characters are completely self-indulgent, dylan with her video blog or lisa with her video or debra with her father's money, but theyre not self-indulgent in an obnoxious way theyre self-indulgent in a very real way. so many of us (myself included) have or have had blogs in which they pour out their feelings half convinced no one will read it but half desperate that someone will. so many of us get drunk just so we have an excuse to pour our hearts and express real genuine emotion and fear and celebration and hatred. and it is pathetic and self-indulgent just like the kids on quarterlife, but its real.
and maybe thats especially when youre a recent college graduate or a twentysomething who cant quite believe that you actually made it to being a twentysomething that you made it to being able to go to bars and being able to buy beer and yet youre there and youre nothing like the twentysomethings you knew when you were in high school or even in college. and i feel pathetic for not having something to show for myself because it even seems like my friends have more... and thats a feeling that i think the show captures well. all of these kids think theyre pathetic failures and theres always a sense among that they they see their friends as far more successfull than they feel themselves.
the video blog is also a nice mechanism, ive gotten rather tired of voice overs as a narrative device so even though i dont know anyone who has ever used or even though about using video as a means of blogging or sending messages i like the way its used... its something more authentic and free-flowing? than anytime you have people writing in journals or doing anyother kind of voice over. dylan does sound like an idiot alot but thats what makes her videoblog authentic.
i also really like dylan's relationship with eric. i love how she always expects him to be able to read her mind knowing he can't, having him tell her he cant and yet still expecting it. i think thats kind of what relationships are all about... and i like how dylan has this job that doesnt actually have anything to do with what she wants to do but is in the vague vicinity and so she's stuck with it.
its all a strange combination of what it was like when i was living with dena and monkey and what its like now. but quite familiar. its too bad it took two middle aged white men to get anywhere close... because i think a different kind of authorship would really change the show...