My Generation

Americans in their 20s have few good-time memories in their young-adult lives. If they can be coaxed away from their computers to the television screen, they may find themselves bonding with the characters of the well-acted and intelligently written My Generation.

It doesn't sound great on paper: A documentary film crew interviewed a "Breakfast Club"-type group of high school seniors, and now is revisiting them to see how their lives have changed in the 10 years since. It would be interesting if it were real; it's not. Nonetheless, I got drawn into the 3 star drama--because, believe me, these kids have changed.

While it's nice to see a show that isn't cops/docs/lawyers, it'd be nicer if the show was better.

By the end of The Breakfast Club, the kids have learned that each of them is not solely a Brain, a Princess, a Criminal, a Basket Case, or an Athlete, but individuals who defy categorization. If only the characters in My Generation--and its dwindling viewers--were afforded the same opportunity.

The documentary device is often stifling to and distracting from the drama, and using labels as shorthand to introduce the characters makes them feel even more one-dimensional--a device that's acceptable in reality TV, perhaps, but potentially fatal to scripted fare.

Contrasting the then-and-now lives of a group of high school students, class of 2000, the show is drearily familiar. [27 Sep 2010, p.56]

As for My Generation, the less said about it, the better. It's an insufferable show that could well be the season's first cancellation. And it can't come a moment too soon.