Season 1, Gen X — Episode 9 — Office Space (1999) and Falling Down (1993) w/Dan Evans
Death is a PhotographShow Notes
It's the new year, and Sam and Chase have returned to their PMC day jobs in force. Less mind-numbing conversations by the water cooler, less pizza parties, less boredom — but far more existential dread and precarity (who said things couldn't get better).
In today's episode, we're joined by sociologist and writer Dan Evans [https://x.com/dai_alectic?lang=en] to discuss two Gen X films about work and working: Joel Schumacher's Falling Down (1993) and Mike Judge's Office Space (1999).
During a period of steady wage growth, relatively low asset prices, declining (but still powerful) labour union power, and porous gatekeeping practices — why did Gen X hate work so much? We find out in this week's DPP.
Evans is the author of the brilliant A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie [https://repeaterbooks.com/product/a-nation-of-shopkeepers/] (you can watch him talking about it here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRp5xBKL54M&t=4s]).
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After a year, your hosts are ready to wrap Gen X. Season One is at a close. What did we learn about the self-professedly forgotten generation? What has Banksy to do with the spirit of the age? And, most importantly we answer the question that started it all: how did the dirty girls end up in the K-Hive?
DPP is back, baby — and this time for an encore. Chase and Sam thought they'd round out the season — find a 'capstone', if you will — for the last year. That pediment takes the form of Chris Smith's fly-on-the-wall documentary American Movie (1999).
Fear the coming of the trilby. Yes, that's right — today, in the last episode of our first season, we're looking at Gen X accelerating towards middle age and a crash encounter with those coming up behind them: millennials.