The Great Indoors Is More Than Just A Millennials Vs. Gen X Comedy

In the first episode of The Great Indoors, Eddie (Chris Williams) is tending bar when adventure writer Jack (Joel McHale), the CBS sitcom's hero, admits he got in trouble at work for insulting a Gen Y underling. [...] people saying their feelings were hurt for being depicted as too sensitive only reinforces the point, a fact that wasn't lost on its executive producers (Mike Gibbons, Chris Harris and Andy Ackerman) or star Joel McHale. The show is not a withering social commentary, he said, but you know, a sitcom! The Great Indoors finds Jack navigating a new gig at the magazine Outdoor Limits; he's stunned to learn from founder Roland (Stephen Fry) that he'll be doing less of the out-in-the-field romping around he's used to but instead managing a crew of young'uns he's got at least 10, maybe 15 years on. No, that's not that much older, but, due to cultural and technological shifts we're all keenly aware of, Jack feels older than he actually is -- especially when he learns that the magazine is going all-digital. Jokes are made at both generations' expense and since much of said differences have to with technology, there's a lot of "Gosh, people born before 1978 sure don't know how to use the Internet, LOL!" humor here. Beyond the pithy one-liners and laugh track though, there's actually some redeeming and provocative stuff happening. Jack's discovery that his magazine is now all-digital is too familiar to writers, advertisers, illustrators, designers, editors and others who've seen the publishing industry tank and mutate into something new. The anxiety Jack covers with sarcasm and snark voices the panic and existential paralysis people over 35 (let alone those over 50) experience in a new economy where it seems that everything that once demanded specialized skill and complex thought can now be done in a click. Jack needs to know [Mason's sexual orientation] because I don't fit his mold of what masculinity is,