For me, the new Australian webseries, SYD2030, is a little bit Boston Legal meets Gossip Girl. Set in a fictional Australian University, this series is about law students and, I’d like to believe, made for law students.
No matter how you feel about programs like Gossip Girl, whether you hate it or pretended to hate it while you’ve secretly been following the dramas of Chuck and Blair in the fifth season online, SYD2030 is way more addictive.
Our very own Survive Law Founder admitted that she “always shunned Gossip Girl. Until it involved law students”. Truth be told, not all of our Survive Law team are completely impressed by this new drama’s take on the life of law students. One said, “This is nothing like my life. It's mostly unattractive nerdy males, too much time in the library, no social life, alcohol twice a year and definitely no sex. Either that or I'm going about things in the wrong way. Blatant misrepresentation I say!”
Admittedly, the producers hope that the program doesn’t represent anyone’s life too much as they’ve regularly disclosed that any resemblances to “real persons, dead or alive, is purely coincidental!”
After contacting one of the producers, Tatjana Marjanovic, I learnt that SYD2030 is produced by five recent university graduates who were fed up with the way shows depicted young adults and "wanted to create program that we can all relate to", by portraying university life in “all of its glory.” As a current law student from the University of New South Wales, Marjanovic and the rest of her production team, Cheese on Toast, wanted to represent some of the pressures and demands law students face, amidst the fierce competition, crazy workloads and unsustainable hours spent studying (or partying away regrets of an either academic of personal nature).
According to Marjanovic, the production team hope that perhaps by targeting a wider young audience, beyond mere law students, the series may evoke the message that: “law students deal with a lot of s*#% so cut them some slack!” – a message I know we, as law students, can all appreciate!
Regardless of whether you think this program mirrors the drama of balancing your party lifestyle while scoring an HD average, this is a series worth following. For me, the best part is that each episode is usually no more than five to ten minutes long, so it is the perfect way to escape your real law student life (or procrastinate from writing that property law essay a little longer) and delve into the exciting world of SYD2030 where “the characters are over privileged, far too clever for their own good and absolutely hopeless when it comes to relationships.”
Click here to check out the series.
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