Pajiba

The show looks promising. Lets see if it is. That quote is so very true, seeing as though it speaks to me, working at a job that sucks the soul out of me slowly. My quarterlife sucks.

~S

This would be a LOT cooler if instead of young Generation Ywhiners they were a group of humans who discover that "reality" is really a virtual construct built by machines, the lead character Xeo and his cohort Infinity are led by Scorpious and they have adventures.

Title: My So Called Web: Electric Boogaloo

Debra, Dylan, Danny, and Dyla?

Oy. Stace, you know I love ya, and I (sort of) respect your TV musings (wink), but... this is a tough sell for me. Maybe it's me and mine, but - I just never knew these "corporate 20-somethings who hate their lives". Most of my friends were pretty happy in their 20's. I dunno. Maybe just too much like Reality Bites, which I didn't particularly care for.

BSlim, that may have very well been the funniest thing I've read all goddam week.

Reminds me of the knock-off Disney and Marvel/DC action figures I saw while in Mexico.

...serving time.

So, is this is how it feels to be an anime hater, huh?

I am finding more and more sympathy for you folks.

I'm not sure that this particular age group's lives have gone unreported so far.

And uh, the "Singles" comparison? That would make this show into something clearly written by people in their forties and fifties, trying desperately to appear otherwise.

Above all else, it may very well be like "My So-Called Life" in that it's pretty much like any other show, but with more eye-rolling and pouting, which causes a small number of critics to over-hype it.

Eats the Sandwich: You, are wise.

Yeah, I guess that's it - when I was in my 20's (sniff), my job paid shit (I worked at a youth shelter), my apartment was a fucking dump, but... I hung around with my friends a lot, had a cool girlfriend (now my wife), and smoked a lot of grass. Despite being borderline destitute, I had a fucking ball.

And that's why I can't really empathize with these characters, with their extended, overly-eloquent monologues, their wide-eyed love triangles, and their most likely gorgeous apartments despite having supposedly soul-sucking jobs.

I'm not sure about a show that's going to be throwing around terms like "Yangst", but I kind of love Reality Bites despite 90% of the movie being pre-occupied with whiny melodrama and dirty-Ethan-Hawke (the other 10% being Steve Zahn - love!). Plus, I am way underappreciated and no one could understand how absolutely brilliant I am and I totally need a job that doesn't fuck with my unrealistic idealistic standards for where I may apply said brilliance. So, I'll probably give this a try.

I dunno TK, perhaps the whole mid-20's angst thing is more relatable to us creative-types. (Which is not meant to knock those in non-creative fields whatsoever.)

In my mid-20's I worked in a production house "designing" (in the loosest sense of the word) yellowbook ads with a bunch of disillusioned art school grads who were all miserable and hated our jobs. So for me, the soul-crushing job stuff was maybe a little too familiar.

Don't worry Stace! I can sort of relate, I spent my twenties working for a cable company with other disillusioned installers, including one who looked A LOT like that girl from Breakin.' Anyway, one day reality came crashing right through our daily grind when she was possessed by a the spirit of a homicidal and vengeful ninja.
Yadda yadda yadda, now I'm doing something else.

"non-creative?"

I do believe I've just been insulted.

Harrumph!

[spits on ground, turns on heel, stomps away]

As an almost-25 years old adult, I feel the pain of the underpaying job, the SHIT love life, and the longing for something better. Also, the guy who plays Jed (the cute guy from Greek) is awesome. I'll give it a shot, watching from my shitty apartment with my crap roommate. Quarterlife crisis-who me?

I get you, TK. My 20's were pretty fun, and I didn't even smoke pot. I'm a creative-type (writer) and so are my peeps (writers, actors, and even a stand-up comedian), and we spent our time entertaining ourselves and one another and laughing at the utter shit jobs we had and the complete squallor of our living conditions.

Somehow I missed the 20-something angst. I graduated from college, went to work, got married, got divorced all during my 20's. Any angst I encountered probably came from my ex-husband, and that could have happened at any age. My point is that life happened and you just deal with it and go on. No need for a bunch of navel gazing.

That said, I'll probably still watch this as I did enjoy "My So-called Life."

Oh wow, do I NOT fit in that picture. I'm 25, just finished uni (yesterday), while I have indeed had shitty jobs (IKEA), I have also had awesome internships (CERN) and I'm enjoying the FUCK out of my 20s. Oh and my first serious job starts on monday and it's pretty sweet. I don't know of any engineers that go through the whole "crappy job while trying to make it"-phase. I could just be in the wrong/right country.

I'll give this a shot while waiting for BSG though. Nothing else to watch anyway.

I'm not sure I can stomach this show. My biggest pet peeve, exacerbated by my years abroad and backpacking, is that a lot of 'kids' in the States think that life owes them. Well you know what? Life takes a little bit of dues paying and if your parents, teachers and professors didn't teach you that along the way I don't think you're so smart. The incentive of being boss is that you've worked to get there, and maybe got more schooling.

And before you jump on me (metaphysically) consider that I went to a tough private school, worked my ass off to go to a 'new ivy', worked every summer and still interned in DC several times post-college for no pay. I bartended at night so I could go travel. I've paid my dues professionally and economically and I'm still paying my dues making half what my friends do. It makes me want to punch my 23 yr old Class of '07(divisional) assistant when he implies that his starting 2 months earlier means he has some kind of seniority.

I'd also offer that the internet and its overnight wunderkinds has done some harm as well as good, socially and economically. Sociology and anthropology majors discuss.

ahem..my soap box is a little creaky. I'll step down now. Bye.

My 20's have been a mixed bag of both crapulence and awesomeness. My job is dull and unfullfilling, but it's my own damned fault because I'm too unmotivated to find a new one. There's been family drama and the death of friends, but that's what happens when you're...alive, I guess. I have the best mother, siblings, and group of friends in the world though, and I'm young and not a dickhead, so...it all evens out. I find more with my 20's that anxiety comes from not knowing what I want out of life, the whole "I'm an adult now but I don't always feel like one and wow am I the only person in the world that doesn't have a direct career path?" mentality :)

"Romantic entanglements and technological contrivances aside..."

That's the entirety of the show. So, since I have no plans to watch a shitty prime-time soap opera full of navel-gazing whiny shits humping each others' legs, I will have no trouble at all ignoring it.

I . . . I . . . I can't even pretend to care about this. Yet another turd pie entry for the inbred local fair that is contemporary television.

I think the whole "life owes me" thing is not necessarily generational. Examine the so-called "housing crisis" and you'll find at its heart a bunch of whiny 30-somethings who watched a shitload of HGTV and decided they couldn't LIVE without granite countertops and more bathrooms per house than people to actually shit in them. But I've paid my dues in a crappy neighborhood in a house with one toilet and no dishwasher, so watch out, muthafuckers, I'm going to capitalize on your foreclosure!

Sorry, so much 30-something angst; I just can't contain it.

Also, I'd like to add that I'm not sure the "I don't feel like an adult" thing magically disappears when you turn 30. See above.

"post-college, pre-adulthood"?
no such thing

Jon- I'd disagree and call it grad school. Its for those of us who wish to hit the snooze button on life. I've even taken to calling myself an elderly youth.

I'd check this out if I weren't overcome with ambivalence.

I am 25 right now and I sort understand this whole thing. I have a shitty job that has nothing to do with my degree and I don't really make much money, but I manage to have a good time anyhow. I really like Reality Bites and My So-called Life, so I might just give this a try. I do think all the love triangle business is a bit annoying though.

No.

Might I mention, to all who gush about how this show is so very sympathetic and inidcative of their current situation, that their situation is dependent in part on themselves. May I also, ever so presumptuously, suggest, that those who embrace the boob tube as a potential chorus to their own solo of "wah wah wah" may benefit from switching it off and going outside for some fresh air.

Also, this useless generational mudsligning over who least merits the title 'adult' nowadays is exactly that.

I'm almost 25, I've had to failed attempts at college...I withdrew for several reasons. I've worked my ass off since I was 14, have always had a job. Moved out of my parents house a couple years ago. May be struggling because cost of living is so high where I live. But I wouldn't change any of it.

I have great friends and goodtimes. Have the best job that I've ever had. Going back to school next year and I can't wait.

I love my 20's

I am a mid-20s blogger. I also teach high school English, have an amazing girlfriend of four years, and the best group of friends imaginable. Sure we have drama like any other group of friends, but we all know it's just drama and never treat it more seriously than it needs to be treated. We are not full of ourselves, depressed about not being "appreciated," nor do we constantly romanticize each other's relationships.

This show makes me and my friends look like the biggest douchebag since the party scene in Cloverfield. Oh wait, that wasn't that long ago. I guess this is the trend we're setting, isn't it, Hollywood? I refuse to get emotional and deeply affected by this, unlike your characters, however. I will just laugh and poke fun, and feel embarrassed for the first time ever for a Pajiba review(er).

I notices she has a personal ad at http://MillMatch.com . Is she still looking or it is just a joke from her fans? Her photos look every hot and popular on that site. who knows the truth?

Idlepug, sadly, those aren't the victims of the subprime crisis. Many, many of the foreclosed-upon are first-time homeowners just trying to build equity and not be lifelong renters. Here in the Northeast, lots of people of color got screwed by these predators.

"Having a job means checking your soul at the door and spending the day doing the bidding of people trying to exploit humanity, where you give up your dignity in order to strip other of theirs, and where your greatest asset is inauthenticity."

Who talks like this? I do not want to know these people.

Good lord. I feel sorry for anyone who does not work in a hospital/school/police/government job type situation and thinks like this.

Did I take myself this seriously when I was 25? I think when friends and I were in our 20's we knew our jobs were shitty and we did our best to laugh it off and try to find something better. And party. Lots of partying.

No, this show is not for me just like "thirtysomething" and "Singles" were not for me. I never relate to these characters and I always end up wanting them to just suck it up and deal because that's what I had to do. Cause I had to walk to work 5 miles every day...uphill...both ways.

I will always have a soft spot for "My So Called Life" - Oh that Jordan Catalano. All that aaaaaangst.

Samantha, I agree. Sorry Idiepug, but that view really shits me. I live in Australia and have a decent job (I'm 26). We have a housing crisis also, and both house prices and rents have gone through the roof.

I bought a two bedroom unit two years ago for the same price as my parents paid for their four bedroom house. Granite table-tops? Don't make me laugh! My entire house fits into most people's living room, and I don't have the money to fix our dodgy, dogdy plumbing, let alone install multiple toilets. My fiance (who is studying) and I just want to build up enough equity to one day have a house with a yard.

Meanwhile, all that aside, I love my 20's.

Pass. The people on "Friends" were all post-college hanging out at a coffee shop all the time whining about their love lives. They were all my age, and that show was a hit when I was post-college, too.

But I was married, working as a teacher, had a (new) mortgage and then a new child. My college buds and I were going through a bit of a loss of contact with each other while we were scrambling to pay our bills and those student loans. And learn how to change diapers and stuff.

I read some TV Guide article at the time about how it was aimed at my generation, people like ME. Really? Because I couldn't relate to it at all.

This thing? Ha. Even less so.

My friend has a quote in her Facebook profile that comes from a conversation between her and another friend: "Why are we standing out here in the cold?" "Because college only happens once." Yeah, it does...so grow the fuck up and act like adults now that you're not there anymore. I'm not that old, definitely not old enough to be as cranky as I am, and I cannot stand the people who want to be treated like adults but not act like them. I realize it's a difficult time in many ways, the whole "I can go to war but I can't go on a cruise by myself" thing, and that there is no one point or one definition of adulthood...but there is something of a general consensus within our society, so abide by it, damn it, and kwithcerbitchin'.

Erm...didn't anyone else have a completely messy and overwrought trainwreck of a decade in their twenties? The backdrop was the same, but whoa nelly did I ever trip up...the only thing adulting me up was the stench of wet nappies, thank goodness. Now I'm all wise and elderly feeling.

I think you either go easy or it all goes insanely wrong - one or the other only, very little middle ground that I've heard of. And what's the twee term for the intemanet these days?

Maybe my friends are just overly ambitious (trust me, they're not) but nothing described about this show speaks to any of us (Aged 24 - 27). College ends. Suck it up.

Something to remember if you're in your 20s - You're closer to being 40 than being 18. The sooner you accept that fact, the better you'll feel.

One quick pet peeve, and I hope someone else, somewhere, shares this. As a member of this generation (I'm 24), please...whoever's in charge of naming generations...pick something else for this one. I detest being named for coming after the generation before us. How about "The Internet Generation" or "The MTV Generation", or something less stupid? Anything that takes more than a millisecond of thought. What happens after next generation's Generation Z? Do we start over with Generation AA? Yes, this honestly bothers me, and yes, I am a sociology major.

You've got a pretty good point. After all, nothing preceded X, it was just Douglas Coupland or whoever's way of saying "gee, I dunno *who* these people are with their lack of a big catchall event or crisis". I don't know what word or two summarizes the kids born in the 80s, but yeah, there's something better.

For those of us on the cusp, the naming is far less important that being labeled as too old for Gen Y but having missed Gen X.

Optramark, fair enough... Gen-Y is a pretty stupid name. But you definitely ain't the MTV generation (if anyone is, it's those of us who were around when MTV was actually interesting and had purpose). Sadly, it'd be more like the Generation Where MTV Became A Loathsome, Irrelevant Whore. And no one wants that moniker.

Generation Useless Whiny Shitheads? Heeeey, don't look at me like that, I'm 25! I'll be the first to admit, we whine an awful lot.

You people are too quick to bitch about these characters being too angsty. I watched this last night and, between the drama and heartache, they seem to enjoy themselves and go out way more than I get a chance to as a twentysomething with the soul-sucking job of graduate student. I was jealous of them. Is that bad?

Generation Douchebag sounds good to me.

As someone born in 1970 and a pretty solid member of Generation X, I'm finding these comments hilarious. Generation Douchebag, LOL. I call the younger generation "boundary-less" because they don't seem to have a lot of personal boundaries, nor do they expect others to. I find it odd.

Oh and Replica? I had a pretty tough decade in my 20s, too. Wouldn't re-live those years for ANY amount of money, seriously.

I'm loving my 30s (though I'm closer to 40 now than 30). So much calmer and saner. I like the lack of drama my 30s have had. It's like my 20s was a decade long hurricane system.

Quarterlife Crises? Check.

I didn't have the "fun college experience" because I didn't have the money. So I figured I'd work. Four soul-crushing jobs later, I'm off to Student Loans 'R' Us.

But I've been hearing that Thirty is the new Twenty since I was a teen, so I never expected much more. Almost there!

Kathy - oh yeah, honey, sing it loud! That's why I'm not surprised to see mini-pops go off the rails so badly - really - you are at the height of your power sexually and physically (and ready to see what you can do with it all) but mentally and experientially? Not so much...heh. I am still explaining it (and apologizing) all in my 35th year.

This is hilarious. 75% of you just said that people need to "suck it up" and deal, and then went on to say how much fun you had while synchronously whining about the shitty jobs/living conditions you had while having said fun.

P.S. Nobody asked to read the story of your 20s.

Yeah...still no.

For anyone who was wondering about kids born after the 'Y', or what-have-you generation, I can tell you. It's dumb. One of my sisters was telling me about how her boss wants them do recruiting work on Facebook, so that they can catch the 'Millennials'.

Millennials.

My response: Right, because everyone would look for a job on a social network, they certainly wouldn't go to job websites. And kids who are in high school now, are DEFINITELY looking for career opportunities, right? They always want some young buck who's willing to be exploited...but he has to have at least five years experience. So, I guess my sister's boss is dumb.

Grad school is really, really, hard, tiring and boring, I'll give you that. I don't remember who it was who said s/he was having a hard time with it, but I'm sorry you are. I think that because we're in such a cushy, priviledged position where we're not necessarily doing something important (I'm not, would you call the piano important, or employable? I wouldn't), people think we're in an easy one. I don't ask for sympathy, I (personally) don't do anything right now that warrants it, but to say that it isn't hard is simply false.

I'd say the worst part of it is the intense loneliness. It is hard to meet new people, and none of your friends bother writing back to you, because they're busy with their own lives too. Yeah, I do get pissed/despondent over the fact that people who are far less busy than me don't bother getting up from under their current shack-mate to acknowledge my effort. But I knew the risks, and don't regret my decision. I don't think my experience has been soul-sucking, though. I could see how I could let it become that, yeah, my stipend is less than my rent, but I have a radio next to my bed, and man...grad school's not a bad place to be. I chose it, and a large reason for that was so that I could hit the 'Snooze' button on the 'Grow the Fuck Up and Do Something' alarm.

***

Maybe the reason kids in their 20s are so alienated is because we're too privileged now. Nothing seems real or feels like a victory when it's all given to you. I came from a messy, dysfunctional, wildly abusive, poverty-stricken home. Food bank, Salvation Army, Welfare, Social Work, Deadbeat father (oh was he ever), which sent my frazzled mother into full-blown out-of-her-mind crazy...it was just everything. Of course, seeing what kind of life it was (I have two much older sisters), my mother was determined that I come of that place a baby genius, so that nothing could land me in a situation like that, And hell, if it got her out the hellhole that having another child so late in life had created, good. Take something, give it back, right? Well, her idea of encourage was far, far, far, beyond the confines of what could generously be considered 'non-traumatic', and I've had to have do some work to sort myself out, but...so what? I'm not trying to sound smug, or solipsistic, but I was one of many, right? And I don't live in freaking Darfur or Nepal.

Honestly, those things have made me aware of how good I have it now. It's so peaceful, and I don't want anything to ruin that. So would I do the stupid, stupid, STUPID shit that I see other people do? No. It doesn't help anyone. This emotional sabotage/masochism crap, ugh, was NO EXIT right all along? No one should have to have to put up with the stuff I went through before I moved out, but hell if it didn't give me perspective. In some ways I feel a lot worse about things other people my age are doing to themselves. Does having been mashed into a fine paste or living in constant fear make me better? God, no! If that's what it takes to be better, than I guess we're better off. I resorted to some pretty pathetic stuff to get through. Did an empty stomach give me reason to have a chip on my shoulder? Same response. But, having that kind of life can be the impetus for being better than that, or it can be your perpetual excuse. Having only come out of that situation a little under six months ago, trust and believe that I wouldn't let something stupid like being 23 turn me into a self-pitying spaz sob-story who thinks the world owes her something, because... I can tell you about the world.

This isn't my lead-in story that I use whenever I meet people, very few people who have met me face-to-face know this. I used to be embarrassed, not anymore, but I don't wear it as a badge of honour (because people who do that are wacko, i.e. 'My name is Jewel and I lived in a car Kilcher'. Also, I'm emotionally stunted, and this stuff isn't anyone's business, so you know, it's all a rich tapestry of neuroses and useless information.

I think about this point a lot: all but one of my female friends (I love them all dearly, tell them at every opportunity), have let their lives fall by the wayside, all for the sake of a man. They all wanted to finish university but it wasn't fun after the first year. They wanted to take a job in a new city, but decided to move in with their loser (seriously) boyfriends instead. And it just goes on like that, it's so lame and clichéd. The 'Work is hard and boring, I'm unique, I need a man' mentality has infected people my age, so by and large, I'm with whoever said that my 'generation' or whatever, is the 'Douchebag Generation'. Maybe 'Entitled Twat-Waffle Generation' really gets at it. I don't know what they want. Frankly, I'm beyond caring. Sometimes I feel like screaming, 'Just fix it and shut up.' Nope, I'm still the freak who doesn't get asked out (hey, I've got a pretty lousy personality, give that some credit), and goes to school year-round (ugh, I wish you did too, maybe you'd learn how not to be so cavalier about your life and the lives of other. It definitely makes you get to feel superior for no discernable reason, I like that part).

I got super ill during the last year of my undergraduate degree, so I took a gap year. During those few moments when I wasn't having some ol' day surgery, or my body wasn't discovering that it was seriously allergic to some drug, I had to be a real grown-up. I freely admit that I sucked at it, as I always have. So I guess I went back to school partly because I'm a barnacle on society, and a terrible soda-jerk. Mostly to get out of my home though, so grad school--kicking the holy living fuck out my ass though it may be--saved me. Also, it embraces my uselessness, which isn't something anyone or anything else is prepared to do. I've spent my day watching 'Peep Show', doing (surely terrible) research on great music, pretending that I have any business playing Chopin, and then gabbing about John Coltrane's heroin and alcohol problem and Finnegan's Wake.

I'm lucky.

Interesting story, Jo. Thanks for sharing. I was going to say something more, but...anyway, I just wanted to say I understand you.

Terrible, terrible show. Whining, self-absorbed idiots making messes of their lives. A show written, as someone above mentioned, by 50-somethings pretending to be annoying 20-somethings and desperately hoping no one notices. Utter drek. This show can't be canceled quickly enough.

Thank-you for the support, joker. I appreciate it a lot.

Jax: "I'm almost 25, I've had to failed attempts at college..."

Judging by that sentence, I'm not surprised.

Anyone notice the ratings for this shitbomb? Whoohoo! Maybe there's hope for the human race, after all.

This has already been canceled. Link goes to story at EW.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20181166,00.html

God damn it! It was a good show, I'm telling you!!

No. It wasn't.

I saw the first ep. I completely forgot what happened about 20 minutes later. I think they should keep it and put it at midnight for when people are bored and can't sleep and don't want to read a book.

"I detest being named for coming after the generation before us. How about "The Internet Generation" or "The MTV Generation", or something less stupid? Anything that takes more than a millisecond of thought. What happens after next generation's Generation Z? Do we start over with Generation AA? Yes, this honestly bothers me, and yes, I am a sociology major."

Then I imagine you've also heard the term "Millenials."

And as a member of the generation that came before you, I'd just like for someone to remember that we're here. Everything I see is "baby boomers compared to millenials." I think Generation X might better be named "Generation Can't Get a Word in Edgewise."

So I guess Gen Y doesn't sound so bad to me. Sorry.

This show, on the other hand, is whiny and derivative. Guess what, folks--quarterlife crises aren't new! My mom had one, and she was born in the 1930s. I had one, too, when I couldn't find a job (and believe me, I looked and looked and looked) for over a year in the early 1990s, which was NOT a good time to enter the workforce.

It could be interesting and entertaining, but this is much too angsty. That's not particularly interesting at any age. I'm out.

Kate you cracked me up with the "Generation That Can't Get a Word in Edgewise." Ain't that the truth.

I wish I could find the article again, but I read an assessment of Generation X, written because now we're all in our early 30s to early 40s (!!!). It said we were seen to be apathetic in our teens (the 80s), because comparatively speaking, our parents (the baby boomers) were so loud and proud in the 60s. But the authors suggest reassessing that view--that we were never apathetic, just quiet. A reflective generation. I believe that.

It also pointed out two pretty cogent items: we were the first wave of kids to be affected by the rising divorce rates of the 70s and 80s. We were also the LAST generation to completely grow up without the internet.

Interesting implications there, both ways (though not any that are related, necessarily). Anyway, the article ended pretty nicely, saying that despite the fact that we got labeled slackers in our 20s (I think every generation gets that label in their 20s) we're actually a very hard-working group of adults now. Good to know, LOL.

Hi, Kathy. I think those are good points--also we're the first generation to be told "no pension for you" across the board. I think it's worth remembering, too, that many of us are not the children of Baby Boomers, but the children of people who grew up in the Depression and WWII.

Which has nothing to do with quarterlife, except that it provides a different perspective than is often seen, even when characters are in their 30s and 40s.