TV Review: ABC's 'My Generation'

ABC’s new mockumentary drama My Generation premieres Thursday, Sept. 23 at 8 p.m. The following are reviews from TV critics around the Web, compiled by B&C:

“[T]he concept… had the potential to meld soap opera with national events in a way that felt like nothing else on television. But the execution is just awful - leaden and predictable and eyeroll-inducing at nearly every turn.” – Alan Sepinwall, Hit Fix

“[D]espite such heavy-handed manipulation, the characters and camera-aware performances of My Generation are precisely what make the show surprisingly fresh, vivid and touching.” –  Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times

“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.” – Robert Bianco, USA Today

“The show, based on a Swedish series called On God’s Highway, is all high-minded make-believe, occasionally tender, but often reaching haplessly for cinéma vérité. There really is not much worse than watching actors struggle to pretend they’re in a documentary.” – Hank Stuever, The Washington Post

“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.” – Ellen Gray, Philadelphia Daily News