Round Two: My Generation (Last Episode)

My Generation: Season 1, Episode 2 “Home Movies” (F)

Pointing out all the things that don't work on this show when it's already been canceled after only two installments feels a bit like kicking a man while he's down. The second official casualty of the season (following “Lone Star”) was a big experiment in terms of format that just failed miserably. There are so many reasons, mainly that all these characters are just terrible caricatures that can't actually be taken seriously. Showing a bad iPhone picture of Caroline while Steven is on the phone with her is one thing, and bleeping out expletives from some of the characters just feels completely wrong. All of the conversations feel staged and hopelessly awkward, especially when it comes to Jackie and Caroline. Jackie's desire to simply order in pizza instead of having fancy, pompous meals every night is silly, and I can't even really address the stupidity of Dawn as a character. Kenneth looking away every time she undresses is preposterous, and filling in the blanks about her family life falls very short of interesting. This show is trying to be a war drama and a melodrama at the same time, and the results are laughable. Rolly gets shot, immediately expresses that he's okay, and leaps up to hurl some foul language and a volley of bullets at some terrorists. The interviewers are so indignant and obnoxious that, if these characters were actually two-dimensional, it would be hard not to feel pity and sympathy for all of them. The note from Anders scrawled on the screen accompanying his flowers at the end was the icing on the cake, and officially serves as the last dumb thing to occur on this show that should never have been made. Good riddance.