Mike's Delayed Reaction Review, 1-10 "The Big House"

MDRR 1-10

Dazed and Confused- Jake isn't up to his usual level of sharpness in this episode. He falls for Quinn's stupid explanations of the 'misunderstanding' of the words 'love' and 'date.' Also he was having trouble with the whole rules thing. He also went too far with his role as judge(what is an accouterment?). He proclaimed 'don't you know how many rules you've broken?' but couldn't tell how many or which ones. Who else said that? Maybe it was Jefferson.

Hockey Hell- Mr. DiMartino was at least very determined to come ahead against Rock and Roll Randy and his cohorts. I wouldn't be surprised if the heart attack we learned about was his only one(I'm kind of surprised that he was allowed to play, but he probably didn't tell his doctor). I thought it was a bit odd that he took a drag on a cigarette after working out. He did exit the game early but it wasn't his heart, bummer.

Family Court- The family court thing was 'geeky'(or looked that way) at best. I agree with Quinn here, they were getting punished anyway. Why did Jake and Helen even bother? The 'trial,' if you can call it that, was a formality at best(plus bureaucratic) and Quinn and Daria had no chance of winning. By the way, what exactly were the 'charges?' Daria didn't get busted for anything.

Silver Lining- The family court thing did have one positive outcome for Daria, there is virtually no chance of her ever getting grounded again. So it wasn't a total loss. Daria got Helen and Jake to realize that grounding her would take too much effort on their part. She is 'dull' sometimes, but imaginative enough to make Kevin think he was attracted by a magnetic implant in her skull.

This is the episode that got me hooked on Daria and is definitely my favorite of the first season. It was cleverly done and very amusing. The hockey subplot fit well enough in the main plot for me. "The Big House" showed how the Morgendorffers relate to one another at home and how Daria tries to get away from the rest of them. Plus that escape plan was devious and well thought out. A

On Mon, 02 Nov 1998 13:59:34 GMT, [email] wrote:

Jake ain't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer to begin with. Like father, like youngest daughter. :-) (Helen normally wouldn't have been fooled by Quinn's lame excuses, either, but she's a lawyer, trained not to act unless she has proof... and she had no proof.)

Daria and Quinn were both busted for coming home late. Quinn had the additional charge of lying to her parents to go out on a date.

Takes after momma. Helen may not be Harriet Nelson when it comes to parenting, but no one would ever accuse her of being dumb... and, as "Write Where it Hurts" proved, she can match Daria's sarcasm blow for blow ("It's a funny thing, Daria... you give birth to someone, you just get an urge to keep tabs on them.").

Martin (to send E-mail, remove the "nospam" from my E-mail address) ---- Quinn: You kids know where Grandma's TV is. Go watch something educational. SSW: "Breast implants for chickens???" Quinn & Daria: Not that!!! ---- Visit Outpost Daria! http://www.concentric.net/~systech/daria

This brings up an interensting question... Just whose side of the family did Daria's intelligence come from? I suppose it was Helen's (Aunt Amy) but it was probably something recessive from Daria's grandparents.

~po

A wise man once said "Nothing is better than an unnecessary pair of sunglasses at night." At least, I hope to one day become a wise man.

On 3 Nov 1998 13:15:44 GMT, [email] (CrtoonDude) wrote:

I'd say it was from the Barksdale clan. Daria definitely gets her looks from Helen, which is very noticable when Daria doesn't wear her glasses (re: "That Was Then, This is Dumb"). And Helen definitely isn't stupid, she's just clueless when it comes to parenting due to not putting any real effort into it. Daria definitely gets her attitude from Amy. :-)

Martin (to send E-mail, remove the "nospam" from my E-mail address) ---- Quinn: You kids know where Grandma's TV is. Go watch something educational. SSW: "Breast implants for chickens???" Quinn & Daria: Not that!!! ---- Visit Outpost Daria! http://www.concentric.net/~systech/daria

I disagree that Jake isn't intelligent. He's fairly smart, he married Helen didn't he? He's mostly just kind of screwed up. In fact this also dovetails with my argument that Quinn isn't really dumb either. I don't think you could really say there are ANY dumb people in the Morgendorffer household. They're all intelligent. They just have different interests and different motivations. This isn't the Simpsons.

Bob

CrtoonDude wrote in message ...

did

was

Yes, I somewhat agree with you on this, it seems to me she tries to hide what intelligence she has in order to stay popular, which is pretty realistic...

Yeah, I guess... he's over-emotional and "he's got issues" as my friend's brother would say... but not an idiot, even if he's sometimes "out of it" (not paying attention)

Dagny

Visit The Parsley Firefly http://members.aol.com/Eccles9697 Monty Python, Spike Milligan, Marx Brothers, and more...

"You got a light, mac?... No, but I got a dark brown overcoat"- Viv Stanshall

And did anyone else notice the bottles o' drugs in Jake's medicine cabinet in _The Daria Database_? Some of them had small print, i. e. Can cloud ability to think, may contribute to memory loss, and 2 bottles that say "Do not take while on other medication." Maybe not only is he affected, but also "drugged up," as it were.

Demeter471 wrote:

That's what I thought. He is constntly out of it. He worries a lot - he's probably a total hypochondriac.

In article ,

Jake just doesn't listen. He has enough problems without having to learn more. Notice, he often takes Daria's side on certain issues, for as long as Helen will let him. I wouldn't call him especially bright, though...remeber his Homer Simpson-esque Pentagon building fiasco? "Stupid five-sided building!!!"

[email] wrote:

How about "Operator, gimme the number for 911!" Homer did that exact same thing in one Simpsons episode.

In article , "endless, nameless" wrote:

"Simpsons" but Jake is Jake and needs to remain that way.

In article ,

Agreed, Quinn hides her 'natural' intelligence just like Daria hides her 'natural' beauty. I geuss they sort of have some common ground there.

I would bet that Jake, as a child, had some sort of attention deficit problems in school. He's not dumb, but he is a 'space cadet.'

In article , [email] wrote:

what

This is a parallel I like. It makes a lot of sense, and it reminds me of my favorite book, Lord of the Flies.

(not

I bet he was a good student gone awry in JHS or around that age.

[email] wrote in message ...

Helen

(not

problems

Jake's kind of interesting in this respect. Just when you think he's not paying attention he comes out with some of the most amazing insights. One minute he's babbling on about pene alapesto, the next he's defending Daria's poster. You don't know quite whether he's an idiot or whether he's brilliant. I prefer to think the later, partly because I think that way myself sometimes.

Even more interesting is Jake's relationship with his girls--all of them. Helen's assertive but Jake's able to connect with her sensual side. Lucky him. Daria's kind of emotionally disconnected, but Jake's able to interact with her in some really touching, emotional, father/daughter moments. Daddy's girl. It almost brings a tear to my eye--almost. To Quinn, of course, Dad's mostly just a cash drawer but Jake makes the effort to give her whatever she needs. Jake's willing and able to give whatever is required of him to each of the females in his life. There are a lot of men who could easily do worse than to emulate Jake. And in spite of his mercurial temperament Jake has never raised a hand to any of his "girls." That Jake has been able to achieve this level of awareness in view of his troubled childhood is even more amazing. Jake's an alright guy.

Bob

[email] wrote in message ...

More interesting than the drag on the cigarette was that he was able to light it while hanging from his gravity boots...and the flame on his lighter points down instead of up! Even a gas flame would curl skyward at the tip.

anything.

I think that was entirely the point. Quinn and Daria were being punished for no other reason than just because Jake, or most probably Helen, thought it would be a good idea hand out some "discipline." The family court idea was probably from Helen too. Some lawyers seem to think that legal proceedings are the best way to handle all problems instead of realizing, like the rest of us, that these procedures are the WORST way to handle problems and should only be taken as a last resort.

implant

That implant story, and Jodie and Jane's visit to the house, are yet another illustration that Daria isn't quite as unpopular as she imagines. She has friends who care enough about her to be concerned. Even the clueless Kevin was concerned. That's uncharacteristic for a popular jock. They normally don't even acknowledge the existence of an unpopular person at all. Kevin is willing to acknowledge Daria's existence, he just isn't willing to risk his popularity by getting too friendly.

Which leads to the question: Who is more honorable, the unpopular person who has nothing to lose or the popular person who risks their popularity by reaching out to an unpopular person? In this Jodie takes the prize. She's popular, but she has been willing to reach out to Daria on numerous occasions. Her overtures aren't conditional or intermittent like those of some of the other popular people. She's probably the most admirable character on the show, aside from our heroine of course.

Bob