Let me first say that as an Austinite who grew up there, half the reason I decided to watch the show when I first heard about it was the fact that it's filmed in my hometown. I'm kind of a fan of the city, and so I try to support it whenever I can. That being said, when I give My Generation a 5 out of 10, you know it's just not that great. Or at least that was my opinion about 10 minutes into the pilot episode. For one thing, the stereotypes of the fictional Greenbelt High School alumni were a little forced, in my opinion. Speaking of the Greenbelt, I think they named the high school that because the people who went there had the most wooden personalities I've ever seen. Seriously, it was like watching a bunch of trees act, these people had very little genuine personality and even less acting ability. Nothing against them personally, they just couldn't really hold up the show. Which leads me to my next issue with My Generation: the storyline itself. Yes, I understand, hell everyone understands that there have been a lot of events in the past decade that, for better or for worse, were extremely influential on American youth. There's no argument there. But I was honestly expecting something a little, I don't know, different. Like a unique spin on the events or something. I just remember a bunch of quick flashbacks showing scenes from 9/11 and then the school jock joining the army. That's not to say that 9/11 didn't create a huge surge in people joining the armed forces, quite the contrary, of course. But the guy's character was never really fleshed out. It was just the narrator giving us this expository dialogue about him joining the army, a few battle scenes, him talking with his girlfriend for a few minutes, and that was it. I never really got a sense for his character. And everyone else, again, was just kind of boring and uninteresting. Plus, the whole storyline of then getting back together was kind of shallow. People longing for high school crushes 10 years after the fact. It was all just very two-dimensional to me. And what about Austin?! That was half the reason I watched the show in the first place (I'm currently living out of state, and so I wanted some nice nostalgic views of the city). At least for what I saw, Austin was maybe shown twice, and even then they were generic skyline shots, not anything interesting that captured the personality of the city, or any of the landmarks, or anything. It was simply used as a location. Don't get me wrong, I like that more films and TV shows are getting filmed here, but it was just treated like any other city. I didn't like that. And just one last thing I gotta say. I hope I'm not being overly stereotypical here, and if I am please let me know and I'll delete this sentence right away. But what exactly was the writer thinking when he came up with a character who's Black and from Austin (a fairly Liberal city), who ardently supports George Bush? Is it me or was that way too ironic? At any rate, just not very impressed at all. I might watch a few other episodes to see if it gets better, but it's no longer a priority on my list.
Review of My Generation
