“Quarterlife,” which is scheduled to premiere Tuesday on NBC,
represents the next step in television series.
The show it’s been around for three months, but over the internet
broadcasting episodes of seven to nine minutes on its own website and My-Space
TV.
Probably it would have never seen the TV screen if there
wasn’t any writers’ strike. But let’s not be too critical and gave the show a
chance.
Being the first series of its kind it’s easy to tell that it
will be harshly watched in order to see if this kind of transition, from
internet to TV, does the trick.
After its premiere on Tuesday the series will be moved to
Sunday.
“Quarterlife” has behind the team from “My So-Called Life” and
“thirtysomething,”
producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, so it’s easy to tell what
kind of themes the show will tackle: characters with deep emotional issues and intimate
stories.
Herskovitz talked about the show: "I think certainly
what we're doing — which started out to be an Internet-only show and now has
this television component — is part of some, I think, hybrid process that will continue
for the next few years. You're going to see things that have a life, you know,
in both sorts of camps in some way,” Houston Chronicle reports.
He also said that it’s the first time a television gives
producers the freedom over their shows. They will offer NBC complete episodes
without even seeing the scripts.
The show is about six friends in their 20s who are
struggling with their lives having at its center Dylan (Bitsie Tulloch), a
character who has a video blog and messes everyone’s lives with her “need” of
being honest.
Other characters are Danny (David Walton) and Jed (Scott
Michael Foster) who are aspiring filmmakers and best friends. Their
love interst will be Debra (Michelle Lombardo). The group is
completed by Lisa (Maite Schwartz), a bartender and an insecure actress and Andy
(Kevin Christy), a computer wizard.
NBC will have an hour long series, which will be made up of
six online episodes, adjusted for time.
After Quarterlife was refused by ABC in 2005, the producers
decided to re-write the script and make it for the internet.
Herskovitz says: "I felt it would be interesting to try
to create a community that was more focused on artistic people, creative
people, passionate people who really, really want to accomplish something in
their lives, and want to get somewhere. ... And the authentic artistic
experience of trying to be better is something that I felt was missing out
there, and that's what we've tried to do."
