Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-#308 (3-34), "Lane Miserables"

Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-#308 (3-34), "Lane Miserables"

Spoilers Space for #308 (If you don't want to know, then don't scroll!)

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Mike's Delayed Reaction Review- "Lane Miserables"

MDRR #308 (3-34) - Strap yourself in, this is a long one.

Poor Jake's Almanac -- I like Jake. He is still very funny and makes me laugh. The problem is that he has to be completely idiotic to be funny. How can anyone be so oblivious that he or she has no idea how old his or her children are? I am starting to feel sorry for Jake; one of the few male characters that has a chance to be portrayed in a positive light is being turned into an utter buffoon and a walking joke.

Have I Seen You Before? -- I find it hard to believe that Amanda Lane would not have shown up in some role, even if it was just in the background, at some point in the past other than in Arts 'N Crass. However, what really pushed my suspension of disbelief to the limit was the fact that all of Jane and Trent's prodigal siblings would all decide to return home at the same time (not to mention their father, who was a bit of a self absorbed, blank slate). I admit that this was a necessary contrivance for this episode to work, but it bothered me nonetheless.

Repeated Lines of the Week -- I'll start with the less obvious and work my way up to the blatant. Amanda started to repeat the 'let it be' speech to Helen but gave up about two lines in to it. No big deal, she didn't even get to the butterfly part.... Both Helen and Jake got to play the three questions game with Jane. They both asked questions that I would expect them to ask about Daria. I liked this gag and thought that it worked and was well thought out.... Now for the "too obvious." Let's run down the list of who said "who could that be?" in the order in which they said it. First there is Amanda, then Wind, Penny, Jake, Helen, Daria in her fantasy, Mr. Lane and finally Jake again. This line was repeated more than anything should be in a twenty-minute period. The odd thing is that I don't even think it was intended to be funny the first time.

Attention on Deck -- This episode proves to me that for the time being that one of Quinn's main goals at present is to get as much attention from as many people as possible. The main evidence of this is her fantasy where her suitor answers her every whim. The only other thing she needs from him is soda in a crystal goblet (credit Jordan for this point, it was lost on me until he pointed it out). The interesting thing is that she doesn't care if the attention is good or bad. She was nearly going insane about the fact that Trent was getting yelled at about staying out late, while her transgressions were going unnoticed. For further reference, the fanfic that John Berry* named after the reviews explores this point beautifully.

It Really Makes Me Think -- The way that Amanda went to Helen for help gives me the impression that they are old friends (especially, when it was found out that she wasn't there to get Jane and Trent). It is certainly reasonable to think that they may be friends. It also gives me more reason to wonder why we haven't seen Amanda more in the past; if Helen is an old friend (or even a friendly acquaintance), since their daughters are best friends.

Kindred Spirits -- Despite Jake's buffoonery, he seems to have found the son he never had in Trent. He can relate since he was also "driven from his childhood home" by his family. On the other hand, Trent has found a somewhat stable structure that he can't get under her parent's "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" attitude toward disciplining their children. He needs people to show that they care about him once and a while, like Jake and Helen did. He's long realized that he won't get this kind of attention at home, except maybe from Jane (who was one of the only person to visit him in the tent). Jane ended up a little annoyed by the Morgendorffers (especially Helen) but seemed to feel that that situation it was better than dealing with her own family.

The Obligatory Spooge -- I had hoped that the whole Daria/Trent thing would be resolved this season, even if the official position is that it won't be. With Daria's realization that she was "over" him, gave the impression that this was it, only for it to be reversed after Trent left. It wasn't resolved as much as it was redefined. This is one of the first steps for Daria and Trent's relationship away from it being just one-sided crush with Trent' admission that he has some feelings for Daria on some level. Incidentally, I initially felt that the bomb dropped in this episode was the fact that Quinn now knows about Daria's appreciation for Trent. However, the way she reacted seemed to make it look like she already knows about it.

Lane Miserables was a good episode that summed up just how dysfunctional the Lane's really are. It also gave a good insight into how far Daria, Jane and Trent can be pushed until they start to lose control. Overall, besides for the necessary contrivances and the fact that we were led to believe that the crush was resolved, I couldn't find much wrong.

The Bottom Line -- A strong episode, even with the obvious shipper fodder.

Grade: A

Daria as a Whole, What's for Dinner? -- Helen was cutting lasagna at the beginning of this episode. It's not like we've ever seen that before.

*Hey John, I told you I would find a way to work your name in somewhere :)

Next Week- Jake finally has that heart attack we've been waiting for (what took so long).

Copyright � 1999 Mike Quinn [All Rights Reserved]. Daria and all related characters are � 1999 MTV Networks, Inc.

Missed a review? Check Outpost Daria http:// www.lawndale.net

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Beautifully covered all aspects of the ep. Props to ya Mike. wicka_chick

Stop depressing me! I don't have MTV (normally I'm happy enough without, 'cause MTV other TV shows are so stupid) and I can only see season two and Season three will just be shown in january 2000 where Ilive and also it's funny to see the colors of hair of the Lane family 'cause they're not looking like each others, or anything..

I just realized this when re-watching this episode last night. He actually said something insightful without realizing it. Of course, it's the writers making a comment, but anyway...the first time he was reading the comics and said, "If B.C. is a caveman, how can he celebrate Ash Wednesday?" There was a controversy recently about the B.C. comic strip because the artist is adding a lot of religious content to the strip (I guess he's been "born again" but I'm not sure). On some days, some papers have either removed the strip entirely or moved it to the editorial pages if they felt the religious stuff was too blatant. You might have thought this was a throwaway joke, like the "why don't they put Marmaduke to sleep?" line, but NOOOOOOOO.....

Not that I don't trust you, but wasn't it said about 50 more times? Or does it just seem that way?

I wondered about that. I would've thought there'd be a "Oh my God, Daria likes a guy!" line. Would this be some evidence that Quinn is more of a brain than we think, or did she just eavesdrop once on a chat between Daria and Jane?

I agree. This was quite the excellent episode, and also I have to say that <ding dong> who could that be?

[email] wrote:

(Time for me to break the basic rule about never discussing politics or religion.)

I really loved that joke, because I used to read B.C. every day. It was funny, and the cartoonist (Johnny Hart?) only went into religious stuff on Easter and Christmas, when I can usually tolerate a bit of evangelism in the face of Christmas with Corporate America. But lately (started last Easter, with a joke that I found really put down every religion except Christianity), he's gone off the deep end with stuff like "The Big Guy" performing miracles hither and yon and people getting eaten by whales. No virgin births so far, but I fear it's not far off.:\

Len

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was anyone else reminded of The Daria Hunters, where the repeated line was "those paintball thingies HURT!" Have they done this in any other eps?

In article , crazy nutso writes:

"It really makes you think" from "The Misery Chick" "I'm like an artist, and this is how I express/screw myself" from "Monster"

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel Garcia Marquez

N.P.:"Loved By You"- S e v e n t h W a v e / P s i - F i

On 20 Jul 1999 07:52:47 GMT, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from [email] (Mike), and it said:

Though that last one wasn't really a repeated line, more of a legitimate running gag that might happen in real life. The first time was Quinn trying to put the best face on her makeup use. "I'm like an artist, and this is how I express myself." The second time was Jane making fun of her sayint that earlier (considering the fact that they had it on tape, they probably had it pretty well ingrained into their minds), "We're like artists, and this is how we express ourselves." The third time was Jane berating herself and Daria for only making Quinn more popular, "We're like artists... and this is how we screw ourselves."

Hmm... and I say to myself, "Thankyou, Captain Obvious."

Also, "Why didn't you get the same dress as everyone else?" from "I Don't." -D'mico

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I've made up a list of them which will be part of the next Daria Theory at my site (URL below). It should be finished by the end of this week. I think I got all of them.