N.Y. Life

N.Y. Life is an American structured reality docuseries that premiered on Showtime on June 29, 2015. The series focuses on the lives of a group of twenty-something gay men working at the headquarters of the defunct record company Holy Trinity Music Group in New York City.

Production
The series focuses on the lives of a group of twenty-something gay men working at the headquarters of the defunct record company Holy Trinity Music Group in New York City. Holy Trinity is a record label founded by Alesha, Putanovska and Shell Ruin in 2010 after their previous label Ensemble Entertainment went into administration. All three singers releases multiple albums on the independent label before signing multimillion dollar deals with Fusion Records.

The show chronicles their day to day work schedules, taking a satirical slant on the music industry with each intern overseeing the careers of the singers. The record label, which cease to actually release music in 2014, seemingly offers no use to their singers whatsoever except the daily running of their social media and legacy releases. Within the show, the singers and the label play out as a sub-plot which isn't entirely important to the narrative of the show, instead the show's popularity and viral meme generating episodes were thanks to the everyday social lives of the interns at Holy Trinity. N.Y. Life was described by Rolling Stone magazine as "The Hills with gay men".

N.Y. Life was commissioned by Showtime in 2013, at which point all three artists were still signed to the label though they hadn't released music since 2011. The show initially documented the return of Alesha, and the release of her self-titled album in 2014. Each episode showed the readying of her album, and an industry point of view of what goes on behind the scenes. The show premiered in June 2015 to negative reviews, though fans of Alesha appreciate the show and its candid look at the making of her comeback.

The show returned for a second season in June 2016, at which point Alesha, Putanovska and Shell Ruin were no longer associated with the label and had signed multimillion dollar deals with Fusion Records to release Play and The Law of Desire. Subsequently, the role of the singers and their careers played a small role in the series as the stars of the show began becoming minor celebrities, characterised by their dark humour, witty one-liners and internet memes.

The third season premiered in June 2017 to 10.4 million viewers, Showtime's most watched programme in the network's history. Despite being critically panned, the show was popular among the 18-30 demographic, particularly LGBT viewers. For the third season of the show, Alesha, Putanovska and Ruin were added as executive producers.

Cast

 * Brenden Jones, 26 — Brenden works as the secretary of Holy Trinity Music Group.
 * Joshua Hurts, 27 — When he was 20 years old, Hurts released a number one album After Hours in 2010 before being dropped by his label. He subsequently started working for Ensemble Entertainment before getting the job as Shell Ruin's Social Media Manager in 2015. Hurts oversees the running of Ruin's Social Media accounts and the day to day running of her legacy releases, streaming profile pages, official website and merchandise store.
 * Nelly Jenkins, 25 — Nelly Jenkins oversees the running of Putanovska's Social Media accounts and the day to day running of her legacy releases, streaming profile pages, official website and merchandise store.
 * Jacob Williams, 27 — Williams oversees the running of Alesha's Social Media accounts and the day to day running of her legacy releases, streaming profile pages, official website and merchandise store.

Reception
Reviews for the show have been largely negative and the show has been widely panned by critics. Andy Swift of HollywoodLife.com wrote that "the biggest downside to N.Y. Life is that it knows how ridiculous it is. The stars are very much aware they’re on a show, and the whole thing couldn’t feel more scripted. Basically, it's gross."Tracie Egan Morrissey of Jezebel.com wrote "Ultimately, though, these people are a bad representation of LGBT, and not worth watching on television," and "none of the people on the show seem to recognize that their words might have any meaning — probably because they typically don't." Writing for The New York Times, Jon Caramanica wrote "The result is a document of young narcissists relentlessly documenting themselves and their high praying, low working cushy office jobs in New York."