Nearly 600 audience members packed into the Paramount Theater in
downtown Austin Tuesday night, where ABC presented an exclusive
screening of the pilot episode of its new highly-anticipated show My Generation.


Network stations have been generating huge amounts of interest with “mockumentary” type shows such as The Office and Modern Family, and ABC is continuing this trend by launching a new faux-documentary that is set to air this September. My Generation
is based on nine high school friends who graduated from an Austin high
school in 2000. The premise of the show is that we meet the graduates
on screen 10 years later to discover how their lives panned out.


The students from fictional Austin high school, Greenbelt, are eagerly
anticipating graduation and their upcoming lives in 2000. We are
introduced to the archetypes of high school: the jock, the punk, the
nerd, the beauty queen, the wallflower, the rich kid, the rock star,
the brain and the over-achiever. Ten years later, these same students
are revisited in order to discover where their lives have taken them,
which turns out to look significantly different than any of them could
have planned. This particular time period has allowed this Generation Y
group to live through many monumental events in our nation’s history,
which are all incorporated into the show. This interesting cultural
twist turns My Generation into a “dramady,” which allows it to shine in
a new light of its own.


A diverse crowd of 600 packed into the Paramount Theater on Tuesday
night in order to watch the premier episode, give their feedback and
receive a chance to talk about the show on TV. Audience members of
various age groups seemed eager to see how their city would be depicted
in this modern drama, and the crowd did not appear to be disappointed
in the end.


The pilot showcased My Generation
to be unlike most of its predecessors on network television. This crown
jewel of ABC really does come off as an actual documentary, rather than
the “mockumentaries” that are currently aired, which, while
entertaining, are obviously fake. My Generation, however, has
no mock glances into the camera, no outrageous plot twists that you
would expect in a sitcom; the show simply depicts the awkwardness of
life in a very real way.

My Generation is brought to life by its uncanny ability to be
culturally relevant. Each of the main characters seems to be affected
by a major life event that has happened within the past ten years – the
controversial 2000 election, 9/11, the Enron scandal, the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars, and the 2008 economic crisis. Each of these, as well
as other major life events, seems to touch some character in a way that
drastically impacts their lives.


Austinites will not be disappointed by the way this show depicts their
town and its people; it portrays Austinites as expected – weird,
loveable, funny and heartwarming. These characters don’t feel like
actors, they maintain the illusion of the faux documentary, feeling
more like your strange, slightly offbeat neighbors who have a lot of
issues.


My Generation stars Michael Stahl David, Kelli Garner, Jaime
King, Keir O’Donnell, Sebastian Sozzi, Mechad Brooks, Anne Son,
Daniella Alonso and Julian Morris. The show was created and written by
Noah Hawley (The Unusuals, Bones) and directed by Craig Gillespie.

My Generation will premiere Sept 23 as the Grey’s Anatomy lead-in show on Thursday nights on ABC.