An hour after the weekend has started, I finally got around to watching this week's internet sensation:
quarterlife. If you haven't been paying attention, it's a video series appearing on MySpace (
profiles!) that users will supposedly be able to control the outcome of. Though it's from the creators of
My So-Called Life and
Thirtysomething, it reminds me more of
Reality Bites than anything else (right down to the misuse of the word
irony).
NY Mag interviewed the lead actress (say it with me:
Bitsie Tulloch -- you're gonna hear it all the time now). Karina
gave the first episode a thumbs down, but
rumors are still circulating that NBC might pick it up. My opinion? It kinda sucks and I love it -- both at the same time.
UPDATE: In the comments, Colin links to an amazing
MTV promo for something called "The Spot" from 1995. And whaddya know, NBC actually
bought quarterlife in the few hours since I wrote this post.
It's only the beginning of TV 2.0.
I...kinda like it.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?
flashback
Hey, cool, somebody stole the script of "What About Brian" and put it on the internet.
I think it's pretty awful, but I feel bad saying so, b/c I saw the creator, Marshall Hershkovitz, give a talk about the show a couple weeks ago and he was really sharp & engaging.
He's almost as excited about the accompanying site as he is by the show itself -- he sees it as a focused social networking site for young creative people.
Good idea, boring execution, dull storyline.
Actually, I think the definition of irony was one of the few things that Reality Bites got right! See 2a here.
But it does have in common with Reality Bites a script that makes you feel embarassed for the writers. Eek! Almost as scary as obnoxious commenters who link to dictionary definitions.
I really don't know why this deal really irks me. Maybe it's NBC's presumption that you can take a show meant for online distribution, and put it into a prime time slot, at their convenience.
The creators obviously wanted this deal, so whatever. They need to get paid, I get it.
Will someone call me when somebody launches an online video series that is meant to be online. It's like they're taking a banner ad and printing it in a newspaper. Blah.