QUARTERLIFE Recap: Episode One

Did you all check out the new show Quarterlife last night? Sadly a technical glitch kept me from watching it, but it’s ok because I’ve got SB’s recap to catch me up to speed. If you caught the show last night let SB and others know what you thought.

Original Airdate: 2/26/08
GMMR Recapper: SB

Wow. There was SO much going on in this episode last night. Six characters, plus a couple of ancillary characters, and what felt like a zillion storylines. I do suppose, however, that this is how life sort of is, and if you were blogging about your life, the people watching would most likely jump in with both feet and catch on as they went, so I’m going to forgive that. I will say that trying to write this recap is really intimidating because so much happened, but then I realized that it wasn’t even so much plot-heavy as much as it was character sketching, so I think we can tackle this. And that’s also good news for people who missed the first episode—it won’t be hard to come in late.

So, to introduce the characters, there’s Dylan, who is the blogger; her two roommates Debra and Lisa; Debra’s boyfriend Danny; Danny’s best friend Jed; and some random Screech Powers-esque character named Andy. I admit, I had no idea what Andy’s name was when I started this recap, so I headed to the Quarterlife site to find out. When it said Andy Melman, I about had a heart attack, because I thought that was the name of Ricky Gervais’ character on Extras. Wrong, but close—his character was Andy Millman. And, for the sake of clarity here, I will refer to him as Andy, but I think you should know that in my mind, he is Screech. You know what I’m saying—he’s just sort of there as bizarre comic relief and hasn’t so far served any real purpose other than rounding out the Saved by the Bell/Friends rule of six friends, equally divided on the gender line. He has a crush on Dylan, but at least in the first episode, you never really care because it seems more like a joke than anything you’d sympathize with.

Next, let’s tackle the love triangle. Gotta have one of those in a show about good looking 20-somethings, eh? Anyway, Danny and Jed are best friends who are trying to get their big break in advertising (anyone else think of Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey there?) and who manage to get hired by a Toyota Scion dealership to make a commercial. I will confess that I found their sales pitch to the dealership owner oddly realistic as Scions are marketed to 20-somethings but, if what I’ve heard is right, are being purchased more by an older demographic. This is where we find out that Danny is “charming” and “smooth” because he basically makes the sale, and he’s talking about parlaying that into more business. Meanwhile, this is where we find out that Jed is “a true artist” and has “creative integrity” and wants to make this commercial some kind of artistic venture. And I put all of that in quotation marks, because I feel like the archetypes are being laid on pretty think with these two. And there are other things, but we’ll get to that shortly.

Meanwhile, Danny and Debra will be moving in together soon. Debra knows that he doesn’t really want to, but she’s going ahead with it anyway because he says he wants to and because you have to move on with your life. This, to me, is some really stupid reasoning. I mean, I will continue to annoy people who will only tell me that they are annoyed passive aggressively, because I don’t believe in rewarding that kind of behavior, but I wouldn’t move in with someone on the same principle. And on top of that, how about moving on with your life WITH SOMEONE WHO ISN’T A JACKASS?

Of course Jed is totally in love with Debra, and I have no idea why really, because at this point, Jed is one of my two favorite characters (Lisa is the other one). Even though, like I said, he’s been set up as more of an artistic stereotype, the actor really sells it and besides, I’ve known people like him and I buy that. Meanwhile, I suppose Debra is sort of pretty but she’s nothing to write home about, and I have yet to find anything redeeming about her character. She leads Jed on to the point where I’d say it’s pretty disrespectful to her relationship, which seems totally dysfunctional anyway, but which she is apparently happy with. She knows that Jed is in love with her and she almost kisses him, and then turns right around and tells him how great her relationship is going with Danny. I feel like she is the embodiment of all of these characteristics and neuroses that I don’t like in females, like being so dependent on having a man around and on just getting attention in general, and the worst part of this is that I feel like I’m supposed to like her. And I don’t. I actually think I could like her as a sad character, you know, because I feel like there’s a lot of potential there for that, but she just seems too happy for me to believe right now.

Also, I think we’re supposed to be getting that Danny cheated on her with the girl from the car commercial, who I was convinced the entire time was the party host from Can’t Hardly Wait—you know, the one who went around smelling everyone’s shoes for poo? But a trip to IMDB proved me wrong.

Let’s do Lisa next, since, as I said, she’s my other favorite. She’s the first one in the line of fire from the blog, as Dylan has said, more or less, that she’s a slut with a drinking problem. I didn’t really like her at first because I thought that the scene where she confronts Dylan about the blog was some weak acting, but she really grew on me, and she’s a good “sad” character. She’s in an acting class, and I don’t know if it’s just a community theater class or if she’s still in college or what, but her acting teacher is really rough on her. The really heart-wrenching scene is where he tells her that she has Pretty Girl Syndrome and that she has no sexuality and that she’s boring and doesn’t know where feelings come from. It’s harsh. But I like how no one ever thinks about the plight of the pretty girl because no one ever really feels sorry for them, but there are a lot of self-worth and identity issues wrapped up in that, I think, because people have valued you only for your appearance and it probably makes you wonder who you really are on the inside. I did like the karaoke scene at the end, for how she got more confident but also because that girl (if it was, in fact, her singing) has an amazing voice. Really pretty.

And last, although no more “least” than stupid Debra, is Dylan. And how do I put this? It’s like she’s a mishmash of characters we’ve already seen. She works at a magazine as a frumpy editorial assistant, a la The Devil Wears Prada and Ugly Betty. Her bitchy, ladder-climbing boss stole her good idea for the magazine, a la 13 Going On 30 and the completely stupid movie Grandma’s Boy, starring Adam Sandler’s entourage. Yeah, that’s right, he wasn’t even in it. I’m sorry for subjecting you all to that reference. But the point is, I am so over her job because I’ve seen it all before. And really, her personal storyline isn’t that much better. She’s in love with Jed, who is already involved in his own little love triangle, and she is supposed to be the involved observer with her friends. Ooooooh, exciting. Except not, because she actually contributes very little to the story beyond being a vehicle, and she doesn’t really offer any insights that a halfway intelligent viewer couldn’t gather on their own.

Okay, so. It sounds like I’ve been hating on the show a little bit but I really did actually like it, and I felt like it got better as it went on, which makes sense, as it would improve from the beginning and these were actually several “episodes” consolidated into an hour. I will say that it did kind of feel like that too, especially early on—that you could tell where episodes ended and the tone would shift some. I’m really excited to see the next episode, though, because I feel like some of that will smooth out.

I think one of the hardest things for me here is going to be not comparing this show to My So-Called Life, but I can’t help it, and especially at the end, where Dylan and Lisa were talking under the bridge, I got a strong sense of Angela and Rayanne, where one is more overtly sexual and the other is more doe-eyed sexual, and they mutually admire each other. I liked that relationship on MSCL, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again here.

Here’s my biggest thing, though. I felt like a lot of the details were totally not realistic and it felt like people writing about things they really didn’t know anything about. First and foremost, how on earth would that many people find out about her blog that fast? It’s not like you just put up a blog and the next day the entire world is buzzing about it, or everyone in your town discovered it. It was just weird.

Secondly, I didn’t think that Lisa was nearly pissed enough at Dylan, especially when she told her that everyone was looking at it and Dylan got excited about that. It was just such a terrible friend thing to care more about your own success than your friends’ hurt feelings over something you said, and I felt like there should’ve been more fallout.

Third, I don’t really see how Jed and Danny would be that great of friends with their personalities being so totally different. I guess that if there was a reasonable background story, like they grew up together or something, I could buy it, but as of now, it seems strange.

Fourth, on the subject of Jed and Danny … Billy works in advertising, and let me tell you, it is not like that. There would be client involvement, meetings, budgets … it’s not like making an art school film, and that was probably the most unrealistic element for me.

I think I’ve already done enough bitching on the Debra subject, but on a related note, I wish people would write characters that aren’t all in love with each other. It is possible to have friends that are just friends. And I get that there has to be some romantic tension for dramatic purposes, and that’s fine or whatever, but seriously … Andy loves Dylan who loves Jed who loves Debra who loves Danny who is a jerk? Please. Although, sidenote, I was impressed by how much chemistry there was between Dylan and Jed. Really nicely done, especially when he was at the foot of her bed and then later at the bar scene when they were finishing each other’s sentences.

I do like this show a lot, though, and I’m already getting worked up about the characters, which is such a good sign for me. I’m looking forward to the next installment on Sunday (note the timeslot change), and like I said—it won’t be hard to jump in with both feet, so I’ll see you there.

SB has many interests, including photography, her pets, entertainment, traveling and writing. She does have a day job, but that mostly amounts to her being a sarcastic young woman with a lot of time on her hands, which is why she appreciates the opportunity to recap.