Being and Nothing

Seinfeld, a show allegedly about nothing, featured four infantilized adults on the verge of middle age leading lives of little consequence. It was brilliantly written and executed and became perhaps the most successful show of all time. It was cloned to make Friends, a much worse but occasionally funny show on the same theme. There are approximately three hundred similarly themed shows today, each showing the inevitable noise and copy errors of repeated cloning. They all stink.

Given that sad situation, I thought the least I could do is suggest an alternative or two. Today's entry is NBT, or Next Big Thing, about four nerdy engineering undergrads at a prestigious East Coast school determined to come up with the next big thing and become zillionaires. Let's call them Josh, Erica, Thad, and Mark. They struggle with their ideas, worried helicopter parents, demanding classes and professors, and trying to find girls who will date them.

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