Friends From College

In hindsight, Jacob, I'm glad you turned down my suggestion of watching First They Killed My Father because, you're right, it would've been too sad for a morning that started out with a mini victory (Arsenal F.C. tied at Chelsea... big deal for viewers other than Jacob), even though I thought it looked super interesting. Friends From College, what we chose to watch, looked particularly interesting since it had actors from some good shows we've both seen in the past-- Robin from How I Met Your Mother, Key from Key and Peele, and Ben from Ben and Kate-- but also because I thought it could have some sort of relevancy to our lives, possibly some advice for keeping friends in college.

I was a little taken off guard when it opened up in a sex scene between two of the characters who were friends all throughout their years in college. Quite a bold choice to start out the entire show with that and even more surprising, as it turns out, the two characters were both married to other people in the show which amplified how uncomfortable the show was going to be. Last week's homework made me realize I should pay more attention to the title sequences (thanks @Allison) and after watching the first chunk of the show, leaving us both a little concerned if this was really something we wanted to continue with, it transitioned into a pretty good title. The whole time the camera stayed positioned at an aerial view of a table of six all swapping food and making messes; moving into different, more sophisticated meals in which we could tell that they were all growing up together. It was kinda cool, at first you could tell it was more of a middle school/high school table with the trays and chocolate milk cartons, then into college in which they "cheersed" with pizza, then onto that same sort of cheers with actual champaign and continuing into other milestone meals. All the while, a song entitled "Cut Your Hair" played in the background, reincorporating that things haven't really changed since college at all despite what it seems on the surface.

The premise of the show was a little odd, I think we both agreed. They threw in some semi-known actors in an attempt to give the show a familiar vibe and it started out funny with little one-liners here and there, but after taking a step back and looking at the episode as a whole afterwards it was definitely abnormal. Essentially, the characters all took shots at the young adult literature genre, as one of the main characters' career choice took a slight turn from writing adult novels to young adult. Even though a good part of the show was dedicated to knocking on it, I think you made a good point in suggesting that the writers of the show were probably young adult writers, too. It just came across like they're too cool and wanted to complain a little to make themselves feel better.

Overall, there were some elements of the show that were interesting, but in entirety it was a mess.