My Generation
ABC | Release Date: September 23, 2010
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
5
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: The mockumentary conceit has been done to death, especially in sitcoms inspired by "Arrested Development" and "The Office." But it's effective in this drama, lending the characters' monologues both poignancy and also a light layer of satire. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
Season 1 Review: All the performers use the documentary setup to their best advantage, shooting the omnipresent camera knowing, comical and anguished glances, and generally treating it as if it were another character. Read full review
80
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: Americans in their 20s have few good-time memories in their young-adult lives. If they can be coaxed away from their computers to the television screen, they may find themselves bonding with the characters of the well-acted and intelligently written My Generation. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
Season 1 Review: It doesn't sound great on paper: A documentary film crew interviewed a "Breakfast Club"-type group of high school seniors, and now is revisiting them to see how their lives have changed in the 10 years since. It would be interesting if it were real; it's not. Nonetheless, I got drawn into the 3 star drama--because, believe me, these kids have changed. Read full review
70
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: But after an episode, I'm intrigued. My Generation may end up as bad as the mockumentary it contains, but I'd rather watch it try and fail in its messy ambition than watch the competence of a dozen other new shows this fall. Read full review
50
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 1 Review: While it's nice to see a show that isn't cops/docs/lawyers, it'd be nicer if the show was better. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Give ABC credit for an interesting format and a drama that isn't about doctors, lawyers, or cops, but it's hard to imagine enough viewers going for this one that any of these folks will ever make it to 30. Read full review
42
Boston HeraldMark A. Perigard
Season 1 Review: My Generation is based on a Swedish series, "On God's Highway." Dramatic storytelling seems to have veered off the road and crashed into a tree. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: It's trite and forced, a collection of cardboard types rather than characters. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterRandee Dawn
Season 1 Review: Eventually, perhaps things will jell and Generation can evolve into the primetime soap it so badly needs to be. Until then, it's about as insufferable as wine-sniffing yuppies and carries an odor like day-old deli meat. Read full review
30
PopMattersRachel Michaels
Season 1 Review: By the end of The Breakfast Club, the kids have learned that each of them is not solely a Brain, a Princess, a Criminal, a Basket Case, or an Athlete, but individuals who defy categorization. If only the characters in My Generation--and its dwindling viewers--were afforded the same opportunity. Read full review
30
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: The documentary device is often stifling to and distracting from the drama, and using labels as shorthand to introduce the characters makes them feel even more one-dimensional--a device that's acceptable in reality TV, perhaps, but potentially fatal to scripted fare. Read full review
30
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: The result? A scripted version of TV Land's cheesy "High School Reunion" that should particularly irk fans of the canceled "FlashForward," which, whatever its faults, only knocked its characters unconscious, not its viewers. Read full review
30
Under The RadarLily Moayeri
Season 1 Review: There is absolutely no reason-other than the sheer good-lookingness of My Generation's cast-to tune into the show. Still, we are rooting for creator Noah Hawley (The Unusuals, Bones) to drag this one out of the mire. Read full review
25
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: There's not a moment that isn't ridiculous or false, as the characters continually collide on the street (small town, that Austin). And worse, there's not a single reason to care. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: My Generation's idea, of a documentary film crew that follows a high school graduating class in 2000 and revisits the cliche-heavy, stereotypical bunch in 2010 won't make you roll your eyes and get sick on your shirt. Everyone else--bibs on! Read full review
25
People WeeklyTom Gliatto
Season 1 Review: Contrasting the then-and-now lives of a group of high school students, class of 2000, the show is drearily familiar. [27 Sep 2010, p.56]
20
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: My Generation solves that problem by creating fake people. There still could be a worthwhile drama, or least an entertaining soap opera, in "life 10 years after high school." But not when your characters are all stereotypes. Read full review
20
HitfixAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Of the three terrible new shows debuting Thursday night, the ABC drama My Generation is the most disappointing....the execution is just awful--leaden and predictable and eyeroll-inducing at nearly every turn. Read full review
10
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: As for My Generation, the less said about it, the better. It's an insufferable show that could well be the season's first cancellation. And it can't come a moment too soon. Read full review
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