Total Forgiveness

I watched clips of this on YouTube and it was hard to justify getting a subscription to DROPOUT, but after watching the first episode I was pretty interested. The premise leaves so much space for chaos I was genuinely curious to see what happened when you take a bunch of the funniest people on the internet and then give them the ability to gain wealth by messing with their friends, it seemed like an opportunity for shenanigans. After watching this series I thought it was hilarious way to highlight student debt and its effects. There are moments where I felt genuinely uncomfortable watching it, which doesn't sound like a positive but it reminded me of the awkwardness I felt while watching Peep Show (also great). As a person who does not like most reality shows, I was shocked how much I enjoyed watching two likable people try to mess with each other's lives.

College debt is a huge problem. It's bad for millennials and it's worse for Gen Z. State/Fed funding for public colleges is continuing to drop and that puts an increasing burden on students who will, for potentially decades, be continuing to pay it off even if they have good jobs in the career field they studied for. This show casts light on the problem and does it in a way that is both contemporaneous, appealing and appropriate for our time and the Dropout: brand. The quality of the production really does lend itself to a higher end mainstream outlet like HBO and any other streaming provider should have jumped at this opportunity. Congrats to Dropout: and Ally & Grant.

One of the earlier Dropout series, I believe I had caught this once before but not remembering much decided to give its short single season another go after re-subscribing to the platform. Two good friends, Ally Beardsley and Grant O'Brien, must slowly challenge each other to ever more difficult dares, with each subsequent challenge earning more cash to pay directly into both's crippling amassed college debt. With tens of thousands of dollars on the line, the challenges start tame but slowly ramp into the insane and the cringe, as the series tests the relationship of the two and how far they're willing to go to be financially unburdened. Each episode was fun in their own way, and of course I love Beardsley and enjoyed O'Brien, but production-wise the show felt a little too loose and I think could have benefitted with a bit more foresight (and scripting) for the unscripted format. That said things tie up well, and while we never got another follow up like it, I don't know if we could. If you already like College Humor or have Dropout, would recommend.

I came into the show as a fan of Ally in dimension 20 And Total forgiveness is truely one of the best shows I've watched and I cant recommend it enough. Ally and Grant are so incredibly funny!

If you didn't realize, the protagonists of this show present a fake reality about college loans. There is no possibility that two very famous critical writers/actors have student loans while they don't even pursue a career nor do they have a small income.