Stream It Or Skip It?

We are firmly within Generation X, and while we fully admit that we have some blind spots when it comes to current pop culture — mostly involving viral TikTok stuff — we don’t think we’re hopelessly out of touch. We’d also imagine that an Xer who works in an industry like advertising would have their fingers at least partially on the pulse of pop culture, as well. But the creator of the new Tubi comedy The Z-Suite — who is a millennial, by the way — portrays Xers as hopelessly out of their element when it comes to trends.

THE Z-SUITE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see a video from the Women In Creative Advertising Awards about Monica Marks (Lauren Graham), the CEO of the Atelier agency.

The Gist: Monica accepts a huge (literally) award, with her right-hand man, Doug Garcia (Nico Santos) at her side. Of course, she take all the kudos, and she isn’t exactly modest in her speech.

Watching the speech from her Brooklyn efficiency is Kriska Thompson (Madison Shamoun), the 24-year-old head of Atielier’s social media team. She’s been working there for about four months but is already annoyed that Monica won’t hear her pitches for campaigns. After TikToking her morning routine, she comes back to her apartment to start working. Her she and her team — Clem (Anna Bezahler) and Elliot (Spencer Stevenson) — have chosen to work from home, seemingly on whatever schedule they choose. On their Zoom/Teams call, they’re joined by an annoying non-creative millennial they call Minnesota Matt (Evan Marsh) to his face.

As usual, Monica and Doug are juggling multiple major campaigns, with one for a headphone brand called Vibezz about to launch. But the first thing they have to field is a call from George (Mark McKinney), the CEO of a burger chain. He wants his new campaign to really target Gen Zers, and while Monica thinks she can create a campaign for Zoomers, any ideas she and Doug bat around are woefully outdated. “Send in the clowns” she says to Doug as she resigns herself to getting input from the social media team. Kriska comes up with an idea involving Olivia Rodrigo, but wants to pitch it to George herself. Monica tells her that they can be at the meeting but not talk.

Of course, Kriska speaks up with a social media component to the campaign when she sees things going poorly — George brings his teenage daughter to the meeting. Of course, this sets Monica off, railing against the entitlement Zoomers like Kriska seem to have.

Then the campaign for Vibezz comes out, with an unfortunate slogan that gets Atelier killed on social media. It goes so bad that Oliver, the owner of the firm, actually comes into the office. He fires Monica and Doug and installs Kriska as the CEO, with Clem and Elliott as part of the new C-suite.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The generation gap plot of The Z-Suite, created by Katie O’Brien (Teachers), has the feel of other shows that feature teams of people at vastly different ages, like English Teacher and Hacks, but here the age differences feel like the only source of comedy.

Our Take: Let’s get this out of the way: It pains us to no end to see Lauren Graham playing an out-of-touch dinosaur, and not just because we’ve been following her career since the ’90s, before she starred in Gilmore Girls. Until recently, most of Graham’s characters have been in touch with the world and pop culture, not in a generational bubble where every reference she makes seems desperate and moldy.

That being said, Graham does a lot with what is a cartoonishly confident character in Monica. While “cartoonishly confident” wouldn’t seem to be in Graham’s wheelhouse, she plays self-absorbed well, mainly because Monica is self-absorbed with lots of quirks. One of those quirks is that she has an exact replica of her office in her apartment. Nico Santos is also funny as Doug, who is utterly devoted to Monica and blew all of his money collecting Christmas train village figurines.

On the other side of the ledger, while we’ve been fans of Shamoun’s previous work (go watch The Lake on Prime Video and you’ll agree with me), Kriska is a little too Gen Z for our tastes. In fact, all three of the “Z-Suite” characters seem to be walking, talking bundles of sensitivities, entitlement and self-centeredness.

We get what the arc of this first season is going to be: The zoomers think they know how to run the agency better than the veterans that they replaced, and they get in way over their heads. In the meantime, Monica and Doug are going to try to get their jobs back, and perhaps Monica might learn a little humility in the process.

The show had enough funny moments that we think that, once each set of characters move away from the cliches around their respective generations, there could be a good workplace comedy here. But the whole “Gen X is out of touch, Gen Z thinks they should have everything right away” shtick grows old quickly.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Monica and Doug are escorted out of the office. As they get into the elevator, Monica says, “Don’t worry, Doug, it’s not over.” Doug drops Monica’s award on his foot and says, “Not again!”

Sleeper Star: Evan Marsh is funny as Minnesota Matt, who’s an unapologetic suck-up, but one that is completely ignored by everyone; in fact, most people have no idea what he does there.

Most Pilot-y Line: Doug’s first idea for the burger joint campaign is to have a takeoff on the musical Rent. That’s not just an old reference, it’s a really old reference. Also, Kriska said she wanted to get into advertising because of Mad Men. It’s an interesting reference, given how she was 6 or 7 when that show came out.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Given the cast and the potential for a series with some good laughs, we’ll tentatively recommend The Z-Suite. But the writers really need to take their feet off the gas when it comes to cliches about both Gen X and Gen Z.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.