Quarterlife. I’m not so sure…

The latest craze at Casa Pearson is the internet-based TV-show “Quarterlife.” I’m not sure I understand what it is, how it works, and whether I think it’s good.

On the surface, QL is a TV-show about 20-something artsy-types living in California, figuring out “who they are.” The main character is a blogger/aspiring writer/unconventionally beautiful and incredibly smart young thing, designed no doubt to remind all female viewers of themselves. The ensemble cast goes through the requisite love-triangles, roommate-cest, cheating-on-partners, giving-up-on-dreams-of-being-an-actor, confronting-evil-corporate-bosses, eviction, oppressive-mother-figures, and hate-relationships turned love-relationships one would expect from a TV show about artsy quarterlifers. The acting and writing ranges from really really astute to cringe-worthy. Not unusual for a show’s first season.

All this to say, it’s pretty darned addictive.

Oh, and a huge plus: it’s created by the same guy who produced My So-Called Life, Marshal Herskovitz. Word.

So here’s where the weird/possibly cool thing comes into play. In the show, all these characters video-blog about their lives on this fictional social networking site called “Quarterlife.com.” On this website, users can not only post their music, video, film, art or video-blog entries, they can also leave video-messages or make video comments on each other’s profiles. The characters’ online interactions is responsible for a lot of the plot-driving.

You can see where this is going. The producers of the show then created an actual website called “Quarterlife.com” where everyone can do exactly what the characters do on the show. You can also WATCH the show, in 8-minute installments, on the website. They have announced on the website that next season, the show will be driven by what’s actually happening on the QL website. They’re calling it “the first user-generated TV-show in history”. In other words, the first season was a way of introducing the then-fictional website. Now that the website is it’s own thing, they can base the fictional plotlines on this no-longer-fictional social networking site.

I feel funny about this. Is the website promoting the show, is the show promoting the site, or is the site there in its own right? Is it “user-generated TV” as they claim it to be, or some creepy way to create a new cult-phenomenon? The show’s been picked up by NBC, which makes me wonder how much longer they can keep up this open-forum, underground e-mystique. Or is this just a cool and brilliant new concept for a new type of interactive media? Are they groundbreaking hippies of the interwebs (like, say, the folks @ Indyish), or evil corporate sleezeballs trying to exploit confused an angsty quarterlifers for their internet savvy and addiction to social networking sites?

Check out the site. Watch the show. (it’s only, like, 35 8-minute episodes). Then report back here. Let’s form a consensus, World.