Since we were just on the topic of eschewing the languid, insipid hipster R.I.P.sters, Just Eschew Them All To Hell I Say! (No, not really) what do we do when we find a new television show that exalts them to a heaven full of ironic sustainable farming magazines and cool media jobs — and we find it rather enjoyable?
Well, you sit back and just kind of hang out, no?
MTV’s scripted series lineup has been more than a little lackluster. No, scratch that, it’s been pretty disappointing save for a few bright spots. Yet, even in those, Teen Wolf, Awkward, and perhaps even The Hard Times of RJ Berger, we’re mostly talking youthful, teenage, fare. Their attempt at more mature programming had us wailing with disdain and derision once they let that turgid, detestable Skins show arrive front and center to a copious amount of parental ire and sensationalized vapidity. Wow, what a venereal disease of a television show that thing was. So, yes, MTV figured out, in a very CW television network way, how to speak to teens. What about adults?
There are just so many RW/RR Challenges or seasons of The Jersey Shore one can watch on a network that no longer shows music videos. This should also not be the only reason why viewers come skulking back. So, for a network that claimed to know what young people wanted, and let’s be clear, those young people MTV began courting thirty years ago were not pre-teens and the American Idol set a la Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez — yawr, those two were never going to be in the same lineup as a Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, or a Prince in a pre-TRL world. We even mocked New Kids on the Block if they dared show up on MTV! We did! This is just fact. Irony! I’m an old. Shut it, and bring me my newspaper.
You could question if MTV should even attempt adult scripted series. After all, what will the now defunct music channel offer those who aren’t interested in Teen Mom Season 40 Wackadoos or Oh, My God Is Janelle Back in Jail Again or Whatever Else Is Happening On This Crazy Series? Sheesh. What they’ve come up with is a little bit of self-deprecating hipster humor with a bunch of unexpected wit and a whole Williamsburg studio apartment’s worth of charm. (No, really, a Williamsburg studio’s worth is a good amount. It doesn’t matter that your mother says it’s like living in a thimble inside a rat’s eardrum.)
Haha! Oh, studio apartments. Remember those? MTV does. I Just Want My Pants Back follows the daily life of a recent college grad, or yes, one of you millennials out there, named Jason, as he tries to find meaning in random hookups, a job a monkey could do, and a lackadaisical, albeit charming, little life in Brookyn. He has a few friends, including BFF Tina, a snarky, snippy, cool-chick Web designer who hates just about everything, but is loyal, and pretty hilarious. Think a youngish, blondish, Janeane Garofalo, because I will never compare anyone to Chelsea Handler, ever. There’s also a set of couple-friends complete with co-habitory mishegas and a cutesy exposition on what it means to be both hipster-centered AND goal-obsessed. Imagine plenty of bong smoke, academia, and anal retentiveness. Does this even exist?
The show packs in many a pop culture reference, unabashed hedonism, and a meaty helping of snark with equal bits good-natured fun. While it embraces the hipster (R.I.Pster Zombies AAARRRHHH!), it also sees the goofiness of it all, and pokes amicable fun at the whole thing, which is pretty goddamned smart and funny if you’re open to it. Critics will try and pin the “Oh, it’s a hipster show about hipsters doing eyerollable things in the hipster graveyard in Brooklyn.” On the surface, yes, but after closer inspection you’ll see the joke, and it’s nice to just go with it.
In a myriad of shows on other cable networks that seem to swim in a sea of raunch and lazy shock value, you tend to believe the earnest attention-seeking here, and can see how some of the mindless verve fits the era, the generation, and that thing that’s made Brooklyn and its inhabitants so alluring. It really comes down to the premise of the show, and its title. In a nut shell Jason in efforts to end a sexual “dry spell” hooks up with a cute, funny, and mysterious girl named Jane, who post-coitally asks to borrow his jeans so she’s not seen wearing the same clothes as the night before. For some reason this utterly charms Jason. We watch as he takes the big step in asking for the girl’s phone number (after they’ve already hooked up) and get a notion of how big a deal that is. Things don’t go as planned and Jason ends up chasing both the girl and his pants, but really in saying “I just want my pants back” he’s really asking, “Hey, why didn’t this thing work out? What did I do? PLEASE EXPLAIN!” in a texting, sexting, Facebooking, sort of “hands-off” world.
Later in the season the group faces such concerns as whether or not to go to James Franco’s ravioli party (snort), and our heroine the snarky Tina, has a fight with a loser guy who proclaims her “more of a ‘late night text’ kind of girl than an ‘introduce to your friends’ kind of girl.” (Ouch. Milennial dilemma? Yep, sounds like it.)
Sure, it’s simple, but that’s the nice thing about it. It’s not overworked like some random show about couples on NBC, or too slapstick like the otherwise fabulous Happy Endings on ABC. The show gets it, and reviewers seem to agree. The kids are likable with the one probable “douche” relegated to one guy they all kinda know, sorta like real life, right? At its heart, what you gather is that “Pants” is talking to the millennial who’s probably really afraid of that whole “Quarter Life Crisis” thing and says to them, “Most of this stuff is fleeting, so enjoy it. Life is messy. Everybody wants their pants/life/youth/friends/chance/moment back in some form or another. Get in the mess.”
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Here are the first two episodes from Thursday.
I Just Want My Pants Back Airs Thursdays at 11pm on MTV.
