Mike's Initial Reaction Review:"ILL"

First off, I've decided to forego the 'good points, bad points' format because I feel that it could be too difficult to classify things as entirely good or bad, so instead I've listed a couple of main points(or what I perceived as main points) of the episode with my comments. Here goes, Enjoy:

Trent Watch- This is the first time we get to see all of Mystik Spiral(yes that's a 'K' in Mystik, I have no idea why). It also wasn't *that* surprising that Trent was one of the causes of Daria's mystery illness(he does produce anxiety for Daria, after all[anyone that doesn't know this, hasn't been watching]). Even though part of the cause was predictable it didn't take away from the story.

Unbelievable Illnesses- Now, I'm no doctor, but I've never seen(or heard of) any rash that comes and goes that quickly. I guess i can accept it, though, since it would be hard to wait too long for something like this to develop naturally(it would take at least two or three episodes just for it to start to emerge, this is an animated program, not a soap opera

Animation Mistake of the Week(Bad Pun Alert)- The clock in the Morgendorffer's kitchen still is missing its hands, I guess no one had the time(oooh) to fix it. This could also be a continuity check since most of the time(oooh) the clock is handless- maybe it's not really a clock.

Running Gags of the Week- Anyone who is familiar with me may know that I'm not a big fan of repeated jokes in an episode. However, I think that they were handled quite well here. Mrs. Sullivan provided us with a vivid(possibly unnecessary, that's debatable) dream sequence where Daria thought she was dead, and I for one didn't expect to see her alive.(How did Daria know what Mrs. Sullivan looked like, anyway?) The running gags as a unit didn't add anything to the story, but they didn't detract from it either(I guess that's good).

Jake's Road Rage- If the man has a heart attack, it will be sooner than later. I have to say that Jake's scenes made this episode for me, I laughed out loud at almost everything Jake did(he's living up to the "flying off the handle" decription), especially his mad rush to the hospital.

Even though this episode was somewhat fast paced, it flowed together nicely. It showed to me that Daria has some friends or at least people who care about what happens to her(see the scene where everyone is in Daria's hospital room, I know it was "Saved By the Bell"-ish, but it was touching). Some of them my be misguided, but they do care. "Ill" is my favorite episode of the second season so far, and I give it a big fat A.

Mike

In article , [email] wrote:

It could be that all that was happening was that Daria was just getting flushed. Yes, a RASH would take a little while to clear, but flushing can come and go pretty quickly. Flushing = overreaction of the blush response.

It was probably originally designed to be animated...a "virtual cel" would be overlaid over the clock to show the time (they are after all using computer ink and paint) However, that means someone takes time out to animate the clock, and time is money, so...no animated clock, and we're left with Handless Clock On The Wall.

That was hilarious. Jake, dope that he is, made the episode with his insistence on Daria being on drugs.

I guess that scene could have been hideously lame if it had not been handled with such subtlety. As such, it was touching without being cloying.

Definitely one of the better Daria episodes. --.\\<-H--

laughed

the

All through Jake's going on about drugs and whatnot, I keep expecting to say something along the lines of, "Dad, I prefer your half-assed underparenting to your half-assed over parenting." Yeah, I know Bart Simpson said it first, but it would have been appropriate.

nicely.

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room,

I think that perhaps Daria is not quite the outcast that she thinks she is. Nobody really HAD to go see her in the hospital, except for Quinn and maybe Jane, but all the rest showed up anyway.

The mystery rash/flushing/whatever brings up an interesting point. It would be easy to say it's related to her feelings about Trent, but what about the second attack in school? Any ideas what brought that on?

How many thought Quinn's explanation about having to help anyone with a skin emergency (because of FC by-laws) was just a cover so she wouldn't seem to being helping Daria and thereby upsetting the universe as we know it?

In article , "NVRaptor" wrote:

Quite correct. I missed that completely. Thanks for pointing that out.

Regards, Strider

Michelle Klein-Hass wrote:

Not really, I had this sort of problem once, wrong laundry detergent, hot humid summer days and my skin puffed up and turned red pretty quick. I solved it by using goldbond short term, and switching brands long term. Took a few weeks to figure it out though, since it really only triggered on hot days.

Poor jake, he is trying. My favorite moment was at the end, when Daria realized her parents really do care about her, like most kids I think she tends to take them for granted and judge them too harshly.

Mark

Mike, as usual, you have done a smashing job in outlining the ep. There are only a couple things that I would add, intermingled below.

In article , [email] wrote:

One point that was made on Planet Daria was that Daria got the rash after she drew a caricature of Mr. O'Neill. My explanation was that Daria thinks he has a crush on her, as evidenced in 'Monster' (Um, I'm afraid of an air-bag injury). Now I know this is kind of spooky. What is even spookier is the thought of Daria having a crush on Timmy-baby, but I don't have the courage to go there.

Right. This is animation, after all. Let's not get too technical.

However, Hives DO come up rather quickly; perhaps that is what was intended, and perhaps it was easier to ink it the way they did rather than draw the individual lesions.

It might be a porcelain clock (non functional) or perhaps Helen tore the hands off it in a fit of pique. Or maybe Daria secretly removed them to counter Helen's tightly-wound preoccupation with puncutality. Of course I'm guessing here.

Let me give this one a try. I really don't think it was a gag, but rather some very subtle character development. On the second viewing, I found that the dream sequence echoes Daria's view that only the brainless get the good stuff (like Heaven), and those with brains get Shit (unless you have Shit for Brains [WARNING: pun alert]).

When St. Peter (dressed as Mrs. Sullivan) discovered that Daria had a brain, naturally she was committed to the fiery depths, namely the Hell on Earth. Now remember this is just Daria's dream, and may not necessarily reflect the views of the producers, nor does it reflect my own view.

Now, what this might mean is that she is only projecting her disgust at how the brainless seem to always get all the cool stuff in life without even trying, and the only thing her intelligence gets her is the torments of Hell. With increasing knowledge comes increasing grief, as they say.

This may be a prelude, or foreshadowing, of some changes in Daria's behaviour yet to come. The gist of it is that you love with the heart, not with the brain, and that is the point of the dream. You can't work hard and expect to receive love in return; love is a free gift, with no strings, else it is not love, but rather oppression. Daria is learning how to love and be loved, and in future episodes I expect we will get to see her transition take shape before our eyes.

If this is true (and I will admit it is a long shot) then I am counting on the producers not to make a mockery of it. A tall order, and certainly not something you expect to see on MTV, or any entertainment medium, for that matter. But they have managed to surprise us with quality so far; let's hope they get this one right.

I will support my assertion by noting that the end credits song had to do with 'waking up dead', thereby targeting the dream sequence as the crux of the ep. Also notice all the people who visited Daria in the hospital; she is learning that people do love her, but they keep the expression of it guarded for fear of sounding too shallow (and you know what Daria does with people who sound too shallow!).

Also, Trent is going to play into this big time. Remeber in 'Road Worrier', the song they used there was 'You showed me'. Review the lyrics again and tell me that she isn't trying to learn how to love. I figure Trent is going to be the one to help her with the big breakthrough, but what we are seeing now is just the groundwork for it. I'm staying tuned!

Good point. But let me also note that both Helen and Jake expressed compassion for their daughter in this ep (in their own hard-charging way), and even Daria expressed (haltingly) her appreciation for it.

It did flow rather well. And it was only 'Saved-By-The-Bellish' in that the friends all clustered around; they didn't GUSH about it like they would have in SBTB. AND she didn't fly off the handle and insult everybody for 'checking on her', nor did she rail on Jane and Brittany for squealing; she is learning how to be loved and still live with herself.

I found no nasty subplot to distract from the ep, either. I agree completely with your assessment, but I did have to watch it twice.

I did have one gripe: when they revealed Mrs. Sullivan, I was still thinking about that when they cut to the Morgendorffer kitchen. I missed the part about the rash being most likely caused by anxiety. I wish they had stuck an establishing shot in there to give me time to wake up.

Regards, Strider

In article , [email] wrote:

Well thank you, I did note some other things when watching the ep but I'm trying to keep from "rambling" (SSW-RIP) too much.

I honestly never thought of that, it is definately possible. I guess having a crush on Mr. O'Neill could give Daria(or anyone) a rash, especially if she thought that he had a mini-crush on her.

Animation for the animators could be a "hideous bitch-goddess", and again I did forget about hives(I've been corrected on this a couple of times).

I was sort of surprised by the reaction to this comment, it was just an attempt to get some lame jokes into the review, comic relief if you will. I could see Daria removing the hands though. Maybe the thing on the wall is a jello mold(my aunts and grandmother always had jello molds they never used hanging on the wall in their kitchens)

An example of a person like this would be a Homer Simpson type, someone who does jack and some how gets rewarded for it(see the Simpson's ep with Frank Grimes for more background). Your analysis of the dream sequence hits the nail right on the head. I didn't realize it while watching the episode, but the dream sequence in some way will reflect how Daria thinks of things. The 'heaven' in her dream may represnt how she perceives her environment, she sees it as place with a whole bunch of semi-braindead people that are happy, and now she wonders if she has to be semi-braindead to be happy. But maybe they're not happy because they don't think but because they are loved and love someone else, she may begin to think that using her brain(instead of her heart) all of the time isn't the best idea. One introductory Psych course and I think I'm Sidmund Freud.

That's basically what I meant, I would have stopped watching if they did gush:)

The subplots and B-stories should only be done if they add something to the main plot or A-story. Otherwise, it feels as if they're trying to fit two different episodes into one.

Mike

Where is planet daria????

Jewlya

"Don't worry, I don't have low self esteem. It's a mistake. I have low esteem for everyone else."---Daria ("Esteemsters")

"Cut and paste sweetie, or else no one will know who you are talkin to....and don't u post to be heard and understood?"

www.the-wall.net/~daria/. But don't go to the board for a couple days, it's erupted into a stupid flame war. I used to frequent it, but it's probably not going to have anything interesting for at least 3 days before they get bored with saying "You SUCK!!", "NO, YOU SUCK!!!!!!!" a lot

Kyle

JewlyaRose wrote in article ...

esteem

to....and

Thanks...and I SUCK!! LOL...just kidding, i really don't.....:) I wouldn't be in Alt.celibacy.involuntary if i did;) Jewlya

"Don't worry, I don't have low self esteem. It's a mistake. I have low esteem for everyone else."---Daria ("Esteemsters")

"Cut and paste sweetie, or else no one will know who you are talkin to....and don't u post to be heard and understood?"

I've heard some pretty convincing arguments that sucking doesn't count. :) Kyle

I mean, even when i am out of the group...I will not be sucking.....eating maybe;) If i was sucking, i would be f*ckin too then i would be out of the group Jewlya

"Don't worry, I don't have low self esteem. It's a mistake. I have low esteem for everyone else."---Daria ("Esteemsters")

"Cut and paste sweetie, or else no one will know who you are talkin to....and don't u post to be heard and understood?"

Ok. There is no shame in leaving the group, though. I wouldn't mind ditching it some day.

JewlyaRose wrote in article ...

:)

sucking.....eating

the

esteem

to....and