Popdose: The Three Strike Rule: “Quarterlife”…what happened?
WHarrisBullzEye
· 1 year ago
I never watched the online version, but I watched the screener that NBC sent me, and I quite enjoyed it. But, then, my perceptions are often different from the general public. For instance, I liked the characters because they looked like real people rather than models, but I've seen reviews saying that they DID look like models. (Maybe that's just ANOTHER cases of my tastes being different from the general public.) Yeah, the dialogue might've felt a little forced at times, but, c'mon, it was "Twentysomething," basically. Seemed decent enough to me.
MatthewBolin
· 1 year ago
Question: Was the episode shown on NBC a combination of four of the episodes already shown on the internet? Because if it was, the target audience had probably already seen the episode(s) when they originally aired, and thus, NBC would have been trying to attract people OUTSIDE of the "traditional" target demographic for the show, which it seems they didn't do.
On the other hand, if the NBC episode was something which hadn't already been shown on the internet, I don't think that NBC did a good job of promoting that fact to the show's target audience. I would imagine many people would stay away from the NBC show, assuming they had already seen it on the 'net in the past few months.
Either way, it seems NBC did a pretty bad job in the promotion department, hyping up the internet connection without clarifying whether the NBC version was a repeat of what had already occurred on the 'net version, etc.
Also, by hyping the fact that they were taking a show from the 'net and putting it on broadcast TV, they removed one of the very things that made the show seem unique--and that's the platform it was associated with. It is also not surprising, seeing how major media outlets have been quick in the past to label 'net based sources of entertainment-be they blogs, social aggregators, or video sites-as inferior to their products, that to then take a show directly from the internet and put it on network TV would smell more of desperation than quality (regardless of the fact that the Thirtysomething guys were associated with it)--which in a way it was, since it was yet another way network TV was trying to deal with the still-existing writer's strike. Put it this way: if the Lifestyle section of the New York Times was to refer to Popdose or other music blogs as a bunch of basement sweller with no life experience that would inform them of being able to give decent critical notice, and this went on for a number of years, and then all of a sudden, they announce (possibly during a newspaper strike) that they've struck a deal to start featuring my Popdose articles on Rod Stewart, would the average NY Times reader go "Finally, the Times is expanding their horizons?", or would they be like "I thought you guys said anything associated with blogs was crap? Man you guys must be in bad shape." I think the same thing might be said of NBC's relationship with both Quarterlife and its "traditional" viewers, and might be another reason (besides the confusion over if the episodes have already been seen on the 'net) for the show's network failure.
DwDunphy
· 1 year ago
Well, it's very much the same with CBS suddenly putting Dexter on their network roster... But it really does speak to the inefficiency of network broadcasting that they couldn't work a decent spin for either of them.
Liquid Courage
· 1 year ago
I dug this article about the potential successors to quarterlife's "throne"
Zack
· 1 year ago
I always hated referring to Generation X's successors as Generation Y. It's stupid and unoriginal. I always thought of them as the MTV generation, mainly because they were born right around the time MTV began broadcasting, and hit their formative years at the same time that reality shows like "The Real World" came on the air and gave them an idea of how to socialize in a rudimentary fashion.
Elaine
· 1 year ago
As a bonafide Gen-X'er, I can say I had no interest in this show whatsoever. It's been done before, plus, I was among those that found "thirtysomething" whiny and repetitive and gimmicky. I know, I know, people say they're geniuses. I still found Michael Steadman and his friends annoying.
What they ought to call the 1980-borns is Gen-Net or something to that effect. They're the first Internet generation. They're the first ones to have handheld video games and Blackberries and cell phones before they were teenagers, too.
1Py_Korry1
· 1 year ago
I really tried to like this show (and I'm a fan of Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and even Once and Again), but it just fell flat for me.
All Comments
On the other hand, if the NBC episode was something which hadn't already been shown on the internet, I don't think that NBC did a good job of promoting that fact to the show's target audience. I would imagine many people would stay away from the NBC show, assuming they had already seen it on the 'net in the past few months.
Either way, it seems NBC did a pretty bad job in the promotion department, hyping up the internet connection without clarifying whether the NBC version was a repeat of what had already occurred on the 'net version, etc.
Also, by hyping the fact that they were taking a show from the 'net and putting it on broadcast TV, they removed one of the very things that made the show seem unique--and that's the platform it was associated with. It is also not surprising, seeing how major media outlets have been quick in the past to label 'net based sources of entertainment-be they blogs, social aggregators, or video sites-as inferior to their products, that to then take a show directly from the internet and put it on network TV would smell more of desperation than quality (regardless of the fact that the Thirtysomething guys were associated with it)--which in a way it was, since it was yet another way network TV was trying to deal with the still-existing writer's strike. Put it this way: if the Lifestyle section of the New York Times was to refer to Popdose or other music blogs as a bunch of basement sweller with no life experience that would inform them of being able to give decent critical notice, and this went on for a number of years, and then all of a sudden, they announce (possibly during a newspaper strike) that they've struck a deal to start featuring my Popdose articles on Rod Stewart, would the average NY Times reader go "Finally, the Times is expanding their horizons?", or would they be like "I thought you guys said anything associated with blogs was crap? Man you guys must be in bad shape." I think the same thing might be said of NBC's relationship with both Quarterlife and its "traditional" viewers, and might be another reason (besides the confusion over if the episodes have already been seen on the 'net) for the show's network failure.
What they ought to call the 1980-borns is Gen-Net or something to that effect. They're the first Internet generation. They're the first ones to have handheld video games and Blackberries and cell phones before they were teenagers, too.