Money doesn't actually talk. We do.

Quarterlife Thinks Money is Icky

Twenty-somethings are a confused bunch. That’s the premise of the web-based series (and social network, although that’s sort of been its secondary identity) Quarterlife. The show, created by Marshall Herscovitz and Edward Zwick of My So-Called Life fame, originally premiered on MySpace and has recently been picked up by NBC, premiering tonight at 10pm Eastern.

There are many things about the show worth talking about: the sly Gen-Y product placement, the TV series’ not-so-traditional launch and its crossover into the mainstream, and perhaps the philosophical significance of conundrums like “Why do we blog?” and “responsibilities are the death of dreams” uttered by the show’s witty characters. But, us being a personal-finance site and all, our task is simply to investigate how Quarterlife deals with twenty-somethings’ financial dilemmas.

In the spirit of goodwill, let’s begin with what the show gets right. Unlike the basis of ridiculous shows like Friends–where young artsy types live in beautiful Manhattan apartments well outside their conceivable incomes–Quarterlife is more genuine. The characters wear plain, non-designer threads, always cook dinner at home in lieu of eating out, and openly admit that most of them are still getting help from their parents. For example, Danny, a wannabe commercial producer, is attempting to make a Toyota ad funded entirely by his father. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Debra still works for her father, who essentially pays her rent. It’s a world that seems familiar and yet isn’t discussed on television as much as it should.

But, as much as Quarterlife gets right, it also gets wrong. The characters have presumably attended fancy liberal-arts schools, but there is, of course, no talk of student-loan debt. Or bank-account balances. Or rent payments. Or bills in general. There is one scene in all of 32 webisodes when Jed, Danny’s aspiring film-maker roommate who references Godard a little more than necessary, looks at his bank account: $367.35. He sighs, clutches the front pieces of his messy hipster haircut, defeatedly leans on his elbow, and the whole thing is suspiciously never brought up again.

Quarterlife’s creators have also taken a somewhat socialist approach to establishing class levels: There aren’t any. The show’s characters seem to have identical middle-class backgrounds and never find any reason to argue about money. By flattening the socioeconomic curve, the creators eliminate any need for friends and roommates to argue over which restaurant to go to or who bought the pricy Swiffer cleaner with all the attachments when a regular broom works just fine (not that I’m still bitter or anything). The characters experience no financial anxiety in relation to one another, which is unlikely for people in their mid-to-late twenties that are bound to be financially diverse.

Tonight’s NBC premiere will apparently deal with the characters facing an eviction from their building (they’re all either neighbors or roommates). Something tells me they’ll all land on their feet.

–Irina Aleksander