Reel Pop

There is a moment at the beginning of Quarterlife, when a webcam turns on and a girl's face appears, that captures perfectly our capacity for at once loving and loathing ourselves. "My name is Dylan," the girl says. She pauses, quickly adds "Kreiger," and then explains haltingly: "My...my name...Uh..."

Tragedy! Even this simple declarative sentence has gotten away from her. So she gives up and sings: "My naaaame is Dylan Kreee-ger."

Sound familiar? That self-conscious twinge, the hesitant fumblings for a voice. It's footage common to any number of amateur video blogs; in Quarterlife, the new web series about finding one's place in adulthood from Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick ("My So-Called Life", "thirtysomething"), it's aped to excellent effect. Here we have a pretty post-grad girl, trudging through an unfulfilling magazine job ("I'm doomed to be an editorial associate"), envious of her roommates, silently crushing on her neighbor, and suffering through it all on her webcam.

Isn't that dangerous, to build a story around such a personal medium. In lesser hands, there'd be a tendency to over-focus on the webcamming, on the typing of URLs, on buffering icons and comment strings and the gee whiz of it all. Not here. Herskovitz and Zwick simply use the webcam as another camera, interspersing intimate shots with broader action. Like a reality show contestant explaining what just happened, this is Dylan Kreiger's so-called quarter-life.

As she uploads her own insecurities, Dylan outs those of her friends. There's roommate Lisa, the sexy bartender/aspiring actress who sleeps with boys to assuage her self-esteem problems. There's roommate Debra, the dependable one who's moving in with Danny, the lecherous TV adman. Danny's partner and roommate is Jed, who happens to be in love with Debra. They have to resolve that small problem while filming their first ad for a Scion dealership. All the while, Dylan's battling an out-of-touch editor at Women's Attitude who steals her idea for a new section.

And it's riveting. This is probably because Quarterlife doesn't seem to care about you. It doesn't pander to the audience, doesn't entreat you to view the character's profiles on MySpace or comment on their photos or write in to try and change the plot. Quarterlife doesn't need you to interact. As a series, it stands on its own. It seems not to care about what everyone is saying right now (this very second!) in the comments field under every video.

And that's odd, considering Quarterlife isn't just a series. It's a media platform, complete with a vlog-based social network (quarterlife.com) designed to be a support network for "creatives" fumbling through post-collegiate life. You couldn't create a more self-conscious show unless you spent 30 minutes pointing a webcam at your pierced navel.

But Herskovitz and Zwick have managed to suss the tension that exists online between presentation and interaction. They've created a show that's compelling as a standalone drama, but which offers further interactive rewards for those interested enough to pursue them.

Quarterlife premieres November 12 on MySpace. The social network is accepting members now.