Quarterlife: A Review of the Pilot

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 marked a special event in television history. NBC's new show, Quarterlife, is the first internet series ever to be picked up by a network studio. NBC made this choice to fill in the lack of new shows during the now-resolved WGA strike, but after seeing last night's premiere, it's not hard to see why they chose this show.

Quarterlife is the story of Dylan (played by actress Bitsie Tulloch), an unconfident 25-year old, struggling to make herself seen and heard in today's insane world. A writer at heart, Dylan uses video blogging as a way to be honest with herself, her unrequited love and make sense of the world surrounding her. The subjects of the majority of her blogging are her roommates and her job.

I will admit, I didn't watch this show when it premiered online, mainly due to the fact that I'm still stuck in the sad, little world of dial-up internet, and the other fact that it was on MySpace. I did, however, decide to give the show a chance when I caught the trailers on NBC and saw that Scott Michael Foster, whom impressed me in the ABC Family's show Greek, was a cast member (he plays Jed). Much to my dismay, he will only be in three of the six scheduled episodes.

I really feel that this show speaks to today's twentysomethings, who lost in a sea of new technology and human emotions (and the repercussions that combining the two can create). This is what television was missing. The only networks aiming any shows at the younger audiences are ABC Family and The CW. Even though those networks feature shows of that caliber they typically tend deal with teens (Kyle XY, Wildfire, Alien in America ...) or twenty year olds and humor or the paranormal (Supernatural, Greek), nothing realistic and I feel Quarterlife fills this demographic gap.

What I didn't like: One thing I wasn't too impressed on was David Walton's character Danny, but I'm not sure yet if that is because he seems too flat, or because of Walton's acting. The storyline of Jed being in love with Debra (Danny's girlfriend) was a little off-putting as well. Lisa (played by Maite Schwartz) sort of got old real quick, but I'm hoping she'll grow on me.

What will keep me watching: Dylan (Bitsie Tulloch)! Perhaps this is mainly because I can relate to her so much. Though I don't video blog, I am often the girl overseen and the one guys want to be friends with and no anything more, and I'm also a struggling writer. I'll definitely keep tuning back in to see how things turn out for her (and hopefully, her and Jed).

I was devastated when My So-Called Life was canceled (hey, I was in high school then okay), so seeing another brilliant show by Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick (also the creators of thirtysomething) is incredible and so far I'm not disappointed. I definitely recommend watching this show.