Daria

Discuss TV shows old and new.
Message
Author
User avatar
mizo
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:22 pm
Location: Heard about Pittsburgh PA?

Re: Daria

#26 Post by mizo » Mon May 04, 2015 7:39 pm

Can I pointlessly bump this thread just to proclaim how wonderful this show is? Hardly a unique observation, from what I've seen, but I just finished the finale, having received the DVD set in the mail only a couple weeks ago, and I can't think of any other show that has affected me so deeply. There are the obvious reasons, like that I've found myself identifying strongly with Daria more than a few times (it's been a longstanding concern of mine that my chronic inclination to choose an evening with a movie over going out has kept me from experiences that can never be replaced) and also that the show has tackled a few subjects that are pretty close to home (the episode with the scholarship applications, for example, I basically lived). But in general, I've never seen another show with such a great, memorable, and virtually-impossible-not-to-adore set of characters (apart from Upchuck, of course). It's rare that I can become so invested in the lives of a couple of animated characters that I was very nearly in tears at the end of the episode where Daria and Jane work with other people on a school project, and Daria wants to apologize for the way she's brushed Jane off, but Jane stops her and...God, I've got to get a hold of myself.

Anyway, apart from gushing over my inordinate love for a show I was too young to watch in its time, the real reason I posted this was to try and tease out a few other appreciations. What I've read on this board suggests I'm not the only one with a fondness for the show. I'd like to hear the words of some others, maybe some who were even fans when the series was originally on. Favorite moments or episodes? Reasons for loving the show?

I'm sure I'm coming across as way too overzealous. I just want to spread the Daria love (a sentiment I doubt she'd have any part of).

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Daria

#27 Post by domino harvey » Mon May 04, 2015 8:20 pm

Daria came on at the ultimate sweet time in my life and I remember MTV playing the initial batch of episodes constantly to the point that I've unknowingly internalized just about every line regardless of merit ("Fuh-moss-three, fuh-moss-three"), and of course as a teenage smartass Daria spoke to me as a kindred spirit. Though as an adult I find myself enjoying Quinn and the Fashion Club more than anything else in the series (which, on the whole, as I stated earlier in the thread, holds up marvelously). At some point I legitimately believe whoever was running things on the show strongly preferred Quinn stories to Daria ones and my favorite aspect of the later seasons is how the writers start to take more and more interest in the Fashion Club-- not as a one-note joke but as actual characters, absolutely relishing their surface-level tendencies to both counter and mirror Daria and Jane's not all that fundamentally dissimilar myopia. And looking back on the series, I appreciate how clever MTV was to seemingly pander to the cynical Darias watching with regards to mocking the Fashion Club while still giving those characters some amazing esoteric jokes that only those in the clique under attack would really get and thus still attracting that viewing quadrant! And because this is the internet and it's important to have strong opinions on these things, of course Stacy is my favorite member of the Fashion Club, though Sandi has the best lines (I still think her referring to "the Haight-Ashtray period" of American fashion is one of the funniest things ever)

User avatar
mizo
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:22 pm
Location: Heard about Pittsburgh PA?

Re: Daria

#28 Post by mizo » Tue May 05, 2015 6:56 am

I completely agree regarding the strength of the Fashion Club plotlines, as well as the brilliance of those characters (but how could you forget Tiffany? "Hold the tweezers in your right hand or your left hand, if you're left-handed. Begin to tweeze eyebrows. There is pain involved."). Still, I wouldn't sell short more than a few of the Daria stories from later episodes, such as the one with her and Tom's anniversary. I like to point to that one when faced with the criticism that Tom is a bland, perfect character. I mean, he has a nasty tendency to be overly logical or stubborn to the point of shutting down or discarding opposition (as in the scene where he angrily leaves Daria alone on a park bench after she can't find a way to tell him why she's unhappy), which probably comes from his elite upbringing (or, at least, the show seems to be hinting at a connection). The only reason he gets away with his behavior in most instances is because Daria is, first, inexperienced with relationships and second, is sufficiently distressed by the idea of becoming like "any other teenage girl" that she often hides her actual problems and sympathizes with Tom's exasperation when he can't understand her. I'm not saying that Tom was positioned as a kind of villain, by no means. As faults go, his is a pretty common one among boys his age (in my experience). This is just a side of him that, I think, warrants mention, especially when he is reduced to a perfect boy, or otherwise just a plot device to create a rift between Daria and Jane.

And regarding the memorability of certain lines, if post signatures weren't a waste of space, I would be sincerely tempted to finish off every comment I make in this forum with:

"None of these numbers are gazebo numbers."

User avatar
bearcuborg
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:30 am
Location: Philadelphia via Chicago

Re: Daria

#29 Post by bearcuborg » Tue May 05, 2015 10:37 am

I own the official MTV release and a bootleg with all the original music. I'll echo everyone's statements above - but I just have to say having the original music really brings you back to the 90s. The downside of course being the quality is sometimes suspect.

Clone High had one very strong season too. I also have the Maxx. Ah, good ol days...

I always thought MTV should re-release the early Real World shows, and keep the music by offering some kind of QRC on screen that allows you to buy the song from the band/record company. They could sell it at Urban Outfitters or something.

User avatar
Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: Daria

#30 Post by Drucker » Tue May 05, 2015 11:23 am

I still stand by 3-South as the dumbest show that makes me crack up. It ran the same time as Clone High, has Jeffrey Tambor and Brian Posehn doing some voices, and I think shared creators with Family Guy. I downloaded all 12 episodes in college and have them on still-working DVD-Rs.

User avatar
djproject
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 3:41 pm
Location: Framingham, MA
Contact:

Re: Daria

#31 Post by djproject » Tue May 05, 2015 5:51 pm

As someone who was born during that sweet spot - also known as growing up to see MTV as its best and to bear witness to its irrelevance and eventual death - I also remember Daria very fondly.

From a generational standpoint - and also looking at the show in hindsight - I see it as Generation X commenting on what would become the Millennials. Daria has always had a touch of the old soul (but still a teenager ... more on that later) and this makes her cynicism even more interesting when confronted with situations that either were happening at the time or will occur in due time: overemphasis of self-esteem, student self-expression, awkward corporate-school transactions, "fun ways to learn" that have little to do with actual learning (economics in the mall?), competitiveness in applying for colleges, etc. And yet, there's no doubt that stupid things have occurred no matter the time or the generation.

As far as using the original music in the official release ... I'm sure hearing it officially would have made the nostalgia factor even more poignant, I know it would have been more distracting. There are probably some music I have no interest in hearing again.

As far as Tom is concerned ... I do see him as grossly atypical since he sounds way more perceptive than a teenager would sound. That being said, I understand his storytelling function, which was basically to give Daria a new set of experiences she wouldn't have normally experienced ... for obvious reasons =]. If it was a demerit point against the show, at least it's an honourable one (there are way way worse tweaks made to television programmes ... shark jumping if you will).

Yeah, I'm getting more and more misanthropic in my advancing years. I'm sure that's not going to change any time soon. I'm glad at least I have some companions on the journey =].

User avatar
mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Daria

#32 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:03 pm

MTV thinks cynical teenage girls aren't gonna see right through their Daria reboot, something it sounds like Daria herself would have rolled her eyes at

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Daria

#33 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:15 pm

Now here's an idea absolutely no one asked for, except some MTV exec realizing they still owned the rights

User avatar
Feego
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:30 pm
Location: Texas

Re: Daria

#34 Post by Feego » Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:49 pm

mfunk9786 wrote: ↑
Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:03 pm
MTV thinks cynical teenage girls aren't gonna see right through their Daria reboot, something it sounds like Daria herself would have rolled her eyes at
That's of course assuming teenage girls even know about the original Daria, which according to this video may not be the case.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Daria

#35 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:00 am

Revisiting this for the second time in adulthood, and I don't ever foresee this show's nostalgia, relatable humor, and poignancy fading. In addition to all the terrific insights already stated in this thread, the aspect that becomes piercingly clearer as I age is how Daria's worldview, and more importantly her role as a participant, is validated in ways that walk the razor's edge between fantastical wish-fulfillment and a satirical realism. This comes from polarized directions that both reflect characterization revolved around her perspective and also puncture said 'insights' with objective epiphanies. Obviously it's a show centered around a main character, and a cartoon, but the main execution plays like a fluid daydream from me-as-a-teenager, where passive apathy is elasticized into active expressions of agency. Instead of remaining silent or being ignored, Daria's intellectualizes everyone around her into a corner with nearly every remark, self-actualizing her way from mic-drop to mic-drop, the way I wanted to quietly command a room without having to raise my voice to wittily express the ennui that felt like it permeated the world. What a demonstration of having your cake and eating it too.. or so you might think. Yet instead of comfortably stewing in solipsism, the show colorizes these spaces with loud characters worthy of contesting with, and Daria very quickly opens up not as the alpha heroine independent of her environment, but a person who needs this diverse group of peers in order to actualize. Her identity and place in the world is defined by her milieu and era, and the connectivity between this collective is crucial to elevate the developmentally-appropriate ego-induction, and also humbly challenge its superiority toward a kind of empathetic humanism that acknowledges the affinity all these kids have for coexisting during many of the same stages of life experience. mizo points to some of the more sobering moments that provoke self-reflection and displace us from the false security of maintaining a faux-detached position towards all, and the most beautiful custom of this show is watching Daria (and really everyone) glimmer with subtle excitement as they interact with other people, even those they patronize. It's ironically ubiquitous in a show about someone pretending to want to be left alone, to become consistently inspired to live through extraversion.

That grey area of competing parts and perspectives, working subconsciously together in an effort to cultivate an authentic self, disputes that imaginary safety net around social isolation's static pleasures from condescension. Daria-the-assured-superkid from the first couple episodes continuously rediscovers that sustaining a serene state is not only impossible but reinforces a meaningless attitude, in a way that isn't self-fulfilling because she clearly is looking for more in life than her demeanor suggests, and relies on communal influence from beyond the self to get there.

The simple pleasures I get from watching the most sympathetic 'social nightmare' of forced engagement, rooted around an outlook and personality I adore and am synthesized with, yet propelled into an atmosphere of limitless fun opportunities to embrace such circumstances, could not be more comforting. The affirmations are sardonic, honest, and sensitive; liberations that are realised when one playfully transforms perceived imprisonment into empowerment and amusement. The bonus that they're hilarious too makes this one of the best shows ever, but the predominant sensation is one that soothes, in just about every way across the cognitive-emotional spectrum.

The Misery Chick is when the show really took off for me as a complex depiction of coping with competing emotions, grief and the existential egocentric consequences of death, the concealed vulnerabilities of people as they magnetize toward Daria, and Daria's skills as a therapist emerging in contrast to her shell that is itself deconstructed here. Absolutely beautiful.

Post Reply