To be fair,
I think the whole "One generation forward" thing is sort of a very accurate real-world assessment that so many members of Gen X and Y have ended up useless drains on Mommy & Daddy's checkbooks well into their early 30s. Yes, before say 1999 you had "Career College Students" but they were a VERY DEFINED MINORITY, of individuals who had learned to game the system so they didn't have to move on and out into the real world.
Once those holes were plugged in the collegic system I started to notice more and more of my peers doing things like 2yrs at community college (So as to be able to take advantage of Florida state law, which many states have versions of now, saying that if you get your Associate of Arts degree and are a legal resident of the State, then that state's Universities MUST accept you) then 3-4 more years at the nearest University to their parents/former primary caregivers home with an Undetermined/Undeclared Major and a part-time job to bolster Pell Grant + Financial Aid + Student Loans + Cash squeezed outta family....
Then, EVENTUALLY...or rather FINALLY, the rug gets pulled out from under each and every one of them. The details differ. This one can't get enough $$ from the College anymore to make being a career student a viable "career"...that one basically ended up subject to a tough-love "Do something with your life or don't come around anymore" speech-intervention by their parents/primary caregivers...or they simply ::GASP:: finally grew beyond the repetitive user-centric lifestyle and decided to get up and do something.
Even then the trend there was the same. After career College student you'd see lots of Associate of Sciences-based careers. (X-Ray Techs, Dental Assistants/Hygienists, Phlobotomists etc) Or there was always a mid-to-lateish 20s entry into the military to provide life-structure they were unable or unwilling to provide for themselves. (These are the folks who finish a stint in the service, the last six months to a year being a tail-end deployment to Iraq/Afghanistan, who then turn around and become (Paid) poster-children for Anti-War groups)
The point of all this isn't an ideological rant. It's PERCEPTION. For reasons not well-quantified..some of which I just satirically illustrated, we Gen X-ers have never really shaken the Shallow Slacker tag that got slapped on us when we were teens. I think perhaps the reason you see blowback in things like commentary-heavy books/shows/movies is now that dismissive contempt with which Gen X in particular was regarded is morphing into a (for the older generations for one reason, and the younger generations for quite another) horrified panicked realization that we're reaching the age where our generation is becoming the motivating force in society. For ossified elements of our society, or very fluid but ultimately incompatible-in-outlook elements (the younger generations in particular) that's a very scary/upsetting reality to face.
I think some writers, of scripts and novels alike use these cultural biases as a layer of subtext in building their characters. With people living so much longer these days, the generation from which you come is becoming a more markedly different aspect of the "human experience" all the time.
Andrea....excellent in The Mist...as was Dale, and Carol's very brief performances at the beginning and very end of said movie. The actress portraying her has demonstrated talent beyond what we're currently seeing in Season 3...so I'm honestly beginning to wonder if the writers aren't deliberately playing us by manipulating a residual dislike for the character in some vocal circles from Season 2 into an even more unpalatable personality in Season 3 for some as-yet-unrevealed reason. Why? Because SHE ISN'T THIS HORRIBLE AN ACTRESS!
We should be asking ourselves why every little annoying thing about her has become magnified and inflated so quickly, amidst a ferociously-speeding plot. To what end, I honestly don't know. I just think there's more here than meets the eye. An opinion reinforced by the above commentary on my part, but not necessarily wedded to it.
Note: When I said satirical, I didn't really support that properly. I'M a member Generation X, and went through years or behavior like what I described above I now cringe at the thought of. So it wasn't some sort of judgmental attack of ideology...more a self-depracating observation I happen to KNOW applies just as much to a significant % of the generation to which I belong. Felt this bit of source-clarification was necessary to illuminate what I was driving at and so the ideas being expressed would be taken for the intellectual observations and commentary (of a quite subjective nature, no argument) instead of just an anti-social rant.
Honestly, anyone who's seen The Mist knows that both actresses currently portraying Andrea and Carol in TWD could be INSTANTLY 5x more likeable with no other change than insisting the writers block out more of what comes from them as body language, facial expression etc, as opposed to dialog. They both clearly possess the ability to convey complex emotional and psychological reactions to fictional events with few to zero words spoken on their part. The fact that these quantifiable elements of their repertoire as actors aren't currently in play is SO noticeable that it MUST BE a deliberate choice on the part of writers & director(s). Again, no idea to what end such a deliberate choice might be made in pursuit of...but I believe it's a fairly well-supported conclusion if one looks past the DELIBERATELY ENGENDERED irritation and shallowness (that the Andrea character in particular is currently spewing) to realize that if the actress is capable of a better performance, it isn't a mistake or an accident that she's coming across as a shallow, self-satisfied annoying little b!t&h at the moment.
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Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
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Originally Posted by Moon Knight
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