“WHY DOES TELEVISION SO MISUNDRSTAND GEN Z? As a 20-year-ed who watches a lot of tv, i pause before getting my hopes up about an authentic portraysal 35-YEAR-OLDS. While Euphoria is Plenty Entertaining, It Can Feel”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
While Euphoria is Plenty Entertaining, It Can Feel More Like Fantasy to Many Actual Teens Whos Lives and Traumas Aren’t So Glittery – How Are Are None of them getting Dress-Coded? The Sex Lives of College Girls Took An Honorable Stab, But The Characters Can Feel Like Caricatures. The Executives Who Greenlight Things Don’t Understand that, Typically, Shows Targeted at Younger Audiences Don’t Actually resonate with Younger Audiens.
Unlike Hannah Horvath in HBO’s MILLENNIAL GEM Girls (Resurgently Popular Among Gen Z), I do not clam to be the voice of my genetation. But Ites Feel Like An Appropriate Time to Speak Up About How YounCes Feel About The HotTtest Television Shows, Especially Since My Cohort Helps Keemers Afloat Aflots Afloat.
Am i at Times Offided WHEN THE TOKEN GEN Z CHARACTER CAN’T HELP BUT Feel Like They Being Gaslit, Gate-Kept and Girl-Bossed? YES. And WHEN WHO CANCEL A FRIEND FOR PUTTING Compost in the Garbage? Also, Yes (but Seriously, Composting Isn’t Hard). While a Lot of Media Can’t Seem to Pin The Taail on the Donkey (Metaphorically Speaking, Of Course, Since Who The Hell In My Generation Played That Game?) Not Always for the Reasons You Think. So Before You Pat Yourselves on the Back for All The Shows You Loved Creating for Us 20-Iear Olds, Here’s Some of What We Thought.
. I Study Film at UC Berkeley, The #1 Public University in the World (Sorry, UCLA) and Talk to A Lot of Smart People About Smart Things (at Times). I have an interest in Television writing. And, Well, I Really Like Watching TV. I GREW UP Watching A Slew of Shows with My Siblings, Parents and Grandparents, Shows As Different As[BythewaythesearemyqualificationsandconnectionstotelevisiontovalidatecreditordebaseeverythingI’mabouttosay–yourcallIstudyfilmatUCBerkeleythe#1publicuniversityintheworld(sorryUCLA)andtalktoalotofsmartpeopleaboutsmartthings(attimes)IhaveaninterestintelevisionwritingAndwellIreallylikewatchingTVIgrewupwatchingaslewofshowswithmysiblingsparentsandgrandparentsshowsasdifferentasThe Brady Bunch, Lizzie McGuire, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT and Even The Little Rascals from 1922, WHICH IT TURNS OUT HAS NOT Aged Very Well. The FIRST TV SHOW I BINGE-WATCHED WAS ABC’s Once Upon A TimeTHEN GOSSIP GIRL, The Vampire Diaries and During Covid, I Think I Watched Four Criminal Minds Episodes every day. I was going integ Stranger Things WAS FIRST RELEASED, AND I’ll be Well Into My Junior Year of College WHEN The Supernatural Adventures of Hawkins Come to A Close – I Practical Grew Up Alongside the Cast.]
Perhaps I have charmed my contemporiaries to read this far, which i can admit is a struggle in a 24/7 attention econsomy. Regardless, Tese Are My Takes On Shows in 2025: What, Who and With Whom I Watch. D Spoiler Alert, If You Are Looking For A Hot Taken On LOVE ISLANDyou won’t find it here.
Severance Starting Off Strong. I’M Hored on this Intelligent and Bone-Chilling Series, Reveling in The Pletora of Conspiracies and Easter Egg Rabbit Holes My Tiktok and Instagram Algorithms Have Handed Me. Noty Were My Social Platforms Feeding My Greedy Need for Details, But I Was Surrounded by Other Tuned-in 20-Somthings Looking Down The Infamous Hallways. WHEN BERKELEY STUDENTS WEEN’S NECK-DEEP IN SCHOOLWORK or Connecting with Each Other on LinkedIn-Yes You Heard It Here Firm Goats, Helly R and Cold Harbor. ALTHOUGH MOST OF My Friends Are Pre-WorkForce and Haven’t Really Experiented The Erosion Between Office and Leisure Yet WHEN WE WALK INTO Some CLASSES.
Hacks Talk About Generational Communication: Hacks might be the comedy to get it right. While The Character of Ava is Technical A Millennial, Her Confrontations with Deborah Are Hysterical, and Every Struggling 20 -Sometting Gets Her Grit. Moreover, It’s Special To See A Cross-Generational Friendship On TV. I Relate Way more to ava, or to Hannah and shoshanna from Girlsthan maddy or cassie from Euphoria. Just shows that depict the SPECIFIC FEELING OF TRYING TO FIGURE shit Out.
The White Lotus Forget What You’ve Heard: My Generation Has Not KILLED APPOINTMENT TV. It Just Takes The Right Show to Bring Us Together. If The White Lotus Season Three Was An Object of Worship, Then My Friends and I Were Loyal Disciples, and Anyone’s Living Room Was Our Temple. From february to april this semester, we’d gatherer overtout (bonus points if it was thai) and prepare for the most indulgent, distressing and entertaining hour of Lives. Mike White’s Social Satires is the most accounting of generation MISCOMMUNICATION THAT I’VE SEEN. And Although Representations of the One Percent On Their Luxurious Vacations Might Feel Distant from College Students Running on Instant Ramen, The White Lotus ACTUALLY GETS GEN Z RIGHT, WHATHER IS SEASON One’s Discourse on Privilege and Performativity with Paula and Olivia, The Portia-Albie Dynesty in Season in Season Two Or. Season.
The Studio Apple TV+’S New Hit Starring The Charismatic Seth Rogen Was Particularly Entertaining to Me As A Self-Proclaimed (Hopefully One Day Certifiably AcClaimed) Industry Enthusiast. I Didn’t Hear Much Commotion Over the Show The General Student-Agged Population, But Itly Played Among Young Cinephiles and Aspiration Hollywood TPES. IT GAVA A TASTE OF THE INSIDER WORLD to TOSE ON OUTSIDE, EVEN IF ITS ACCAUCY HAS BEEN CONTESTED by Real-Life Execs. (“The Oner” and “Casting” Were Standouts.) While it Sems Aimed at Those Already Working in Hollywood, It’s Almost A Satiric Crystal Ball for Those Who Haall.
The Last of Us Full Transparency, I HAVEN’T ACTUALLY FINISHED THE NEW SEASON, WHICH HAS GARNED 16 EMMY NOMS. But I Really Enjoed Itbut Back in 2023. High Schools Like me at the Time Sparked to the Pedro Pascal-NESS. Gamers Talked About It for MONHS. And the show Even Stars A Gen Z Hero! Bella Ramsey Shines Alongside Pascal, Giving the Show A Wry and Witty Voice Every Teenager Now Now Echoes.
Shrinking Shrinkingmy beloved. This Show Is Equal Parts Feel-Good and Pass-ME-THE-TISSUES-BECAUSE-I’M-SOBBING. I’ve watched it with my family, friends and by myself (with a pint of ben & jerry’s). Gen Z Wnts to Feel Included, Not Moned, And Bill Lawrennce’s Series Strikes The Right Chords. As Someone Who Got Her Dad to Go to Ultimate Sad Girl Phoebe Bridgers’ Concert with Her, Seeing Jason Segel’s Character Sobbing to The Artist’s “I KNONE END” on A BYYCLE BYYCLE BYCLE BYCLE BYCLE. Home. And Lukita Maxwell’s Alice Is Authentically Scoffing and, Well, Gen Z.
The Bear The Show, Whose Contentious Emmy Category Placement Will No Be Discussed, Is Getting Awards Love for Its Four Season. I THINK THAT Any Shameless Fan Aka Any Young Girl Will Tune in to See Jeremy Allen White Smoking Another Cigarette While Looking All Distressed. Not to Mention Ayo Edebiri’s Knockout BreakthROUGH Performance That Really Keeps The Show Going. Sydney’s Storyline and Younger Voice Is What Cuts Carmy’s Cynicism and Richie’s Profanity.The Bear is loming steam. The Show Is Down 24% from Last Year for Minutes Watched on Nielsen and Many Critics Are Calling The Fourth ITHation A “Do-Over.” From The Perspective of A Gen Z-E? I’ll just leave it at jermy allen White.
Adalescence A perfect look at a genetation of boys raised listening to the Andrew Tates of the World. I Could Think of A Few Jamies I Came Across in Middle School. The MOST FABRICATED Part Was The Discovery that Certain Emoji Combinations Translate to Hyperspecific MESSAGES. I WAS A LITTLE LIKE, “Come On?” Maybe i’m Too Far Out of the Loop. IT HAPPENS EVEN TO GEN Zers.
This Story First appeared in an august stand-alone Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. To Receive The Magazine, Click Here to Subscribe.