Since a young age, we are told to go to college, get a degree and dive into a career of our choosing. It has been a successful formula for years, but it seems that finding a post-college job is getting harder. College graduates across the country cannot find well-paying jobs for months, even years after graduation. In MTV’s new show “Underemployed,” viewers are given a look at such a disheartening situation.
The series’ pilot episode begins with a young woman named Sophia at her laptop, presumably trying to come up with a good opener for a piece she is writing. She then has a flashback of her and her friends shortly after their college graduation. Bright-eyed, she and her companions Daphne, Lou, Raviva and Miles all dreamed out loud as they described what they hoped their futures would look like. They vowed to keep in touch as they each took the world by storm.
However, as the flashback ends, the viewer can see that those dreams have not yet come to fruition. Sophia is shown working at a fast food restaurant, wearing a donut hat on her head, while Daphne tastes dog food at a corporation.
At this point, many questions ran through my head: “Will that be me after college? How long will it take me to find a job? Is going to college really worth it?”
I believe questions like these are the basis for the series, and the main characters will aim to figure them out.
As we start to look into the lives of each character, the first conflict exposed is between Lou and Raviva. A very pregnant Raviva surprises Lou at his front door after a long period of no communication. They exchange a few awkward words before Lou presumes the baby Raviva is carrying to be his. He proceeds to freak out about how he is going to provide for her and the baby, she becomes offended, and storms out. Upon first seeing this exchange, I thought it was a little silly and out of place. It was a short scene, and I didn’t understand why Raviva had such a sharp reaction to Lou’s words.
Later in the episode, Raviva vents her frustrations to Daphne and Sophia about not only Lou, but the present condition of her life. She said that she imagined her life as a touring musician, not an expecting mother. This made me once again ponder if my life will actually be the way I envision it. Including a pregnant character enforces the show’s theme of unpredictability.
Meanwhile, Lou searches for a job by going on multiple interviews. He dressed for a corporate position and tried his best to impress the interviewers, but each interview ended the same way. The employer said there were no available openings and thanked Lou for his time. Lou does eventually find a job, but only out of pity because he was an expecting father and the boss’s son. Is succeeding in life really a result of who you know rather than talent?
Lou later admits to Raviva that although he did acquire a job, his true love will not earn him enough money to take care of a family. This issue of passion is a dilemma in determining a major for college students. I thought that it was cleverly woven into the plot of the episode.
Looking to other characters, Daphne is revealed to be an unpaid intern at an agency that tests dog food. She desires to receive pay for her efforts, so her boss invites her to lunch with him to discuss the details. The pair do very little talking before their conference moved to Daphne’s boss’s car, where they proceed to lock lips. After the two were finished with their romantic session, they returned to work as normal. However, it is later revealed that the boss has a girlfriend. Finding out this news, Daphne uses it as blackmail against the boss to get a pay raise.
The boss later told Daphne that he and his girlfriend had separated. I don’t believe this to be true; he only told Daphne this so that he could continue to court her while at the same time saving his reputation from potential ruin.
At the very end of the episode, Raviva and Lou work out their differences just in time for Raviva to go into labor. The entire gang united at a hospital to welcome a baby girl named Rosemary into the world. The group, although not having their lives completely together, remains optimistic as the pilot ends.
“Underemployed” gets a stamp of approval. It’s a fresh new look at what life after college could be like. It also raises many questions for viewers to ponder about earning a living, maintaining relationships, and prospering in life. The pilot displayed the potential of the series as a whole, and I believe it is worth tuning into.