My Generation premieres this Thursday @8/7c on ABC.
Back in May when the promo for ABC’s My Generation was released to the press, I felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me in an instant, as if the show was speaking to me personally about my life post high school graduation. In short, I was already won over. With my first high school class reunion coming up next year, I felt that My Generation was a perfect mirror for me to reflect on the ten years that had passed by revisiting the times through the eyes of these nine characters. Well, I was wrong (but not in a bad way), because My Generation follows the Class of 2000, I graduated in 2001. Oops.
That date mixup didn’t deter my enjoyment, however, of the pilot for the ABC dramedy/mockumentary, which centers around nine high school archetypes (the jock, the beauty queen, the nerd, the wallflower, etc…) as their lives are documented their senior year by a film crew who revisits them ten years later. Needless to say, the moniker “the more things change, the more they stay the same” applies, but this, unfortunately, is where the challenge lies.
Based on the Swedish television series, God’s Highway, which is also called Blomstertid, My Generation takes the concept of the quarter-life crisis and amplifies just about every single characteristic of the subject. Almost every character has some regret or other that has haunted him/her for ten years, which drives most of the story. While some of these hidden (or newly recognized) hopes and dreams are purely plausible, others might get the big “Who cares?” groan from viewers. I say this, because after enduring college and life afterwards, you would think anything high school related would be forgiven, forgotten, or just not worth your time to ponder on. Yet with this particular cast of characters, their high school ‘shells’ still hang in their closets; alongside their cheerleader uniforms, cleats, and oxford shirts. The graduates of Greenbelt High School never threw away their feelings, aspirations, or their true loves, which has held some of them back tremendously, while others are only drawn back into the fold by circumstance beyond their control or by the button pushing filmmaker (Elizabeth Keener). In short, My Generation’s ‘challenge’ is attempting to get the audience to care about ten year old crushes, mistakes made, or missed connections that would have easily left the minds of most young adults during their college careers. That might sound harsh, but it really isn’t meant to be that way. It is easy to tell someone to move on, but it’s never really that simple, which is what My Generation sets out to prove.
Personally, I feel as if the actors behind the characters help carry the emotions needed for the audience to want to root for some of them to nip their crisis in the bud and move on with their lives. One character in particular that I really want to know more about is Falcon (Sebastian Sozzi), who is pretty much the accidental tourist of the group, because he’s the only one who doesn’t have any leftover baggage… or so it seems. Other stand out characters include Kenneth (Kier O’Donnell), whose dream to have a family fiercely still lives on and Caroline (Anne Son), whose life as a single mother has gotten more complicated now that her 9-year old son wants to meet his father. The other six characters are pretty much involved in Romeo and Juliet type love triangles, empty marriages, and the like, but again, the challenge there is to make it captivating for the audience to care about reconnecting with your high school sweetheart after ten years apart. It’s going to be a tough job, but I’m sure the cast and crew are up for the job.
If anyone is wondering if the show will barrage us with a bunch of pop culture moments from 2000-2010 down our throats, then you have nothing to worry about. The references are tastefully done, in my opinion, as some of them serve as catalysts for three of the character’s career changes, affecting them in more ways than one. I will refrain from telling which events effected which characters as it would kind of spoil some of the plot points within the show, although they do fall in the plausible category and add some sort of mystery to the show.
All in all, My Generation, despite it’s convenient character plot points and quirky set up, is one of the few unique shows on TV this fall, which should warrant it a chance with viewers, especially with the nostalgia factor and the fact that it’s target audience screams the 18-49 demo that advertisers and networks love. In more ways than one, the show is a breath of fresh air that I welcomed like an old friend from high school. Expect plenty of coverage of My Generation here at TVOvermind. A-
My Generation premieres this Thursday @8/7c on ABC.
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