Watching Mindy Kaling's new sitcom on Hulu «"Not suitable for work »"," I, oddly enough, thought of Richard Nixon. Elected vice president at 39, Nixon was famously described as "a young man's spokesman for an old man.". «"Suitable for work »", a comedy about the lives of roommates after college, in the tradition of "« Friends"» и «"The new girl"» , is a representation of young people for an older generation. The cast is relevant, and the scripts are rife with internet slang. But the characters bear so little resemblance to the Generation Z we know that they might as well have been at Central Perk in 1994.
Like many similar series, «"Suitable"» , which premieres June 2 with three episodes, is set in New York City. However, unlike the bohemian types from «"Girls"» and last year's «"Adults"» , who barely make ends meet in the suburbs, these friends live in Manhattan's upscale Murray Hill neighborhood. "I'm not cool enough for Brooklyn," laments freshman investment banker AJ (Ella Hunt), in a complaint as dated as the bisexuality subplot in« Sex and the City» . She moves in with her best friend Abby (Avantika), the enterprising assistant to a cranky stylist (Constance Wu). Their lovers live across the hall. Kel (Nicholas DuVernay), a reluctant med school student, dreams of becoming an actor. Josh (Jack Martin), a middle-aged liberal in his politics (Obama poster, NPR merchandise), is perfectly entitled to use his tycoon father's influence to land a job with an Anderson Cooper-esque cable news anchor (Victor Garber), whom he admires. Awkward romantic comedy kid Davis (Will Angus) falls head over heels for AJ, who also happens to work with him.
Left to right: Will Angus, Nicholas DuVernay and Jack Martin in "Unfit for Work" - Kara Howe - Disney
That these characters are what baby boomers would call "nerdy" and millennials would call "ordinary" isn't such a bad thing. Young, creative urbanites are overrepresented on television; even in TV series "Industry"« Financiers look cool, but only to psychopaths. Hunt, Avantika, and Angus are especially good as overgrown teenagers, trying to hide their softness with varying degrees of ambition. Even when the jokes fall flat, which often happens, the actors' charm makes the episodes light and airy.
But this group of friends isn't just out of step with their generation. They also exist in an alternate universe where, if you put aside the forced references to beauty treatments and the now-stale Laboobu jokes, the experiences of young Gen Zers are little different from those of Gen X. Is the economy a nightmare? Is artificial intelligence destroying the very low-paying office jobs these recent grads can easily obtain? Is anyone, other than Josh's boss, as we're told, gay? Not in this part of the multiverse!
It seems that the great workplace protest that was the #MeToo movement never happened. As the name suggests, TV series "Suitable"« focuses on the professional lives of its characters, especially how they are complicated by matters of the heart. The series opens with Davis failing sexual harassment training, and Abby being urged not to sleep with famous clients. Three of the five main characters eventually find themselves embroiled in love triangles at work. AJ's triangle involves her managing director (Jay Ellis from «"Unsure"» ), a ruthless man who loves his job so much that it's hard to believe he'd risk it by courting a subordinate. A more generous interpretation of all this is that Kaling—who was at the peak of her popularity thanks to the films« I have never done this before."» , «"The Sexual Life of Female Students"» и «Running Point» — says that every generation makes its own mistakes, regardless of institutional constraints. This may well be true. But that doesn't mean TV series scripts should sound as indifferent as the inexperienced characters who populate them.