Spotlight 25

I watched my usual silly shows, "Still Standing" and "Reba" on that Lifetime network tonight. During those broadcasts, the network repeatedly advertised an upcoming special, "Spotlight 25".

The special was going to highlight a select group of 25 year old women, their stories, profiles, etc., with a focus on the lifestyle of these "Generation Y" women. I decided to stay with it, and I'm glad I watched.

A real quick synopsis of the topics the show touched on:

Considering that sexual experimentation was something new to the Baby Boomer generation of women, how is it with the Gen Y ladies? They feel freer to have casual sex, sex doesn't always require feelings and relationship committments at first, but the group agreed that they were all now looking to start on the road to settling down. They outlined the challenges (men aren't necessarily looking to settle down in this new age, just yet) and advantages (a whole new world of opportunity with Internet, etc.)

Women of this age want careers, but not ones that completely engulf their lives. They discussed the reputation of Gen Y'ers as "job hoppers", and the pro's and con's of such a rep.

The concept of the Quarter-life Crisis. A tendency to compare oneself to peers. Financial independence is fleeting. Major debt hanging over them. Tuition loans, credit card debt, no savings, a need for savings. Impulse-spending...celeb mags heavy influence. Clothes shopping. Rampant sense of entitlement, blamed somewhat on the parents. The woman in the spotlight at this point had no clue about finances. A strong pull to keep up the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

I think the host, Willow Bay, did a good job getting the group talking. There were a few profiles done of individual women that added a nice touch to the show. It's always good to see people in action to illustrate a point or two. I think it was a good insight into what seems to be an energetic, ambitious, intelligent segment of society, especially in an age where young people are getting a bad rap from some other segments of society. Now mind you, this particular group has some serious issues to overcome (the life crisis at 25? uh oh!) but I think it was good that there was some time in the spotlight for some productive young people.

The network hasn't made it completely clear whether or not this is a one-time event, or something the plan on doing again. If they do, I think there's a few areas for improvement. I did have a few problems with the broadcast. Nearly 1/4 of the hour was spent broadcasting commercials, which sure made it tough to stay with the flow of the show.

I found something else very distracting, and that was the way these women spoke. As in their voices. There seems to be this trend for speaking in "bedroom voice" these days, this throaty, almost raspy tone that can really grate on your ears. Some of the women really sounded as though they were just waking up or something. Hard to explain, but it really started to get to me, particularly when they spotlighted this woman. It's weird. I never noticed it before, but once I did, it bugged the hell out of me. (if you want to see what I'm talking about, there's a film clip from the show on the program's site...click on it when you get to the page, and the host starts right off in the "voice". Sorry, it's one of those pet-peeves of mine)

But overall, I think it's something they should experiment. I think if they produced segments covering different age groups, they might have something here. I hope you all saw it, and if not, I hope Lifetime rebroadcasts it.