Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-"Fair Enough"
MDRR 210 (2-23) "And now the review that you've all been waiting for... (Mike cringes and waits for Kyle to rip it apart, as he sees opposition to his campaign to name this episode the 'best ever' :)"
Heart Attack Watch- Jake is really coming into his own as a useful comedic character in the series. While most of his scenes aren't exactly plot advancing, he does add a comedic kick-start, despite being almost transparent (even Quinn is starting to realize not to go to him for advice, or at least to go at your own risk). He almost knows that he is inadequate, since he equates helping Quinn with just giving her money, instead of actually trying to help her. Quinn eventually got on stage what Jake did- snickers.
Blasts from the Past- Andrea had a line!!! She didn't appear on screen, but she had a line!!! Upchuck was devilishly in character for his limited role. Does anyone else think it was fitting that he was dressed as the jester at the fair? At least he got what was coming to him (a knee to the groin). Daria and Jane saw the day turn sinister when they were put in charge of the information booth and boy did they give out the information on medieval times.
Continuity of the Week- We get to see Sandi's brothers and mom again, which I honestly didn't expect. Helen is still trying to keep up with Linda and she always feels that she falls short. But did we really have to see them again? Mrs. Li still acts as if she wore either one of Hitler's underlings or the warden of a maximum-security prison. Mr. O'Niell and Miss Barch also continued their good fortune. It's is good to see that the writers haven't completely forgotten what has been established.
Fashion Club Blues- Tiffany is up to her old tactics- sucking up to Sandi or Quinn (whichever one she is talking to). But the real blues are with Staci, she seems to be falling out of favor with the fashion club gods and the worst part for her is that they don't even care. Sandi and Tiffany couldn't be bothered by Staci's 'petty problems' in her time of need. Sandi and Quinn's 'friendly' rivalry keeps right on going. They are barely being civil to each other as it is and it's only a matter of time before they try to claw each other's eyes out.
I must admit that I didn't react favorably when I realized that the premise of this episode was a medieval fair, but it wasn't beaten to death and wasn't the most detrimental part of this episode. My main gripe about this episode was that it was too disjointed, storywise. To me, "Fair Enough" seemed to be just a couple of completely different events that happened to take place over a short period of time with no real beginning, middle or end. It kind of reminds me of the end of one episode of "The Simpson's" where Marge asks Homer what the moral of the episode was and he says, "I dunno, it was just a bunch of stuff that happened," but I digress. There really wasn't much of conclusion, but there wasn't much of a plot either. All of the characters seemed to be in the same problem they were in during the episode at the end. This episode was too similar to "The Daria Hunter" for me- Daria and Jane are thrust into a series of stupid situations for no reason that they very easily could have avoided. The only thing that makes "Fair Enough" better is that there were many more independently funny moments (which "The Daria Hunter" lacked entirely). "Fair Enough" has its moments but really isn't that strong of an episode, my grade for this episode is B- (saved from a C by the food fight scenes and the part where Mack as a dragon got beat up).
Daria as a Whole, Title Character Syndrome- I know that Daria is the title character but why does everyone has to ask her opinion on everything. This has happened in just about every episode and as recently as "Gifted." I guess the best reason would be to set up her witty one-liners:)
Mike Quinn I can be reached through e-mail at: [email]