AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

The creators of My So-Called Life try to capture the new angst — SLATE

By Troy Patterson

A scene from Quarterlife

The new Web video series quarterlife takes a boldly precious approach to product placement. The show watches over a vaguely post-collegiate group of pals squirming toward adulthood, and two of them, fledgling moviemakers, pick up a gig producing a commercial for a Toyota dealership. (Given how the characters spout off about consumerism and artistic purity, it seems that we’re supposed to be mildly sympathetic when the pretentious one tries wooing the owner by explaining, “The whole concept of Postmodern filmmaking is based on the idea that there are no limitations.”) The dudes shoot outside of the showroom, where a sign on the window draws our attention to Toyota’s Scion, a line aimed at Generation Y. At one point, they take a meeting inside a car on the lot, hashing through their romantic rivalry in a manner that suggests a market survey about Gen Y ideas on commitment. For sure, they’re sprawling in a way that makes the car’s interior look intriguingly roomy.

The attitude is, if not Postmodern, at least post-cynical, and quarterlife drips with earnestness even when stooping to pay the bills. Creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick—the upper-middlebrow maestros behind thirtysomething and My So-Called Life—have launched quarterlife both as a MySpace TV series and as its own social-networking site.