Spoilers: #303 review

Okay, this time I'm stealing someone else's spoiler space and hoping it works. SPOILER SPACE! / / / / / / / / / / / If you can read this, you're too close. / / / / / / / / If you're still reading this far you must be congratulated! / / / / / / /

Oh, God, where to begin... This whole episode was like... like... A FANFICTION! There! I said it! Blaugh! Yech! Blblblblblblbl!

[Yes, I know there are some good fanfics out there. You should know which kind I'm talking about, though.]

I have to say that as far as fantasy episodes go, I much preferred "The Musical" over DTAH. At least [address] had a creative segue (using SSW) and was halfway plausible (if not for songs, it would have fit into the official continuity). I'm not saying that fantasy episodes are a major no-no, I'd just appreciate an explanation or disclaimer at the beginning, like the aforementioned SSW segue, or when Phil Hartman introduced the episode of "Newsradio" that took place in space. Something like:

"Hi, I'm Daria and I play Daria on TV's 'Daria.' [Pause, blink] During the holidays, I've often been asked why I show no spirit. It is because I have none. The holiday spirits, in fact, are just as pissy as me. They also go to high school. And, yes, Elvis is alive. But as some of you may be wondering... well, the ones that are high and were just flicking through channels at this point... 'What if the holiday spirits *were* material?' So the geniuses at MTV have presented a real treat for you. It all happened in the This-never-really-happened Zone..."

If they continue to show an edited version of the theme song, they'd have might as well taken it out all together to do such a disclaimer. Not that I really mind a shorter theme; leaves more room for the actual episode. But in this one...

Well, at least there were a few good lines. Must look on the bright side.

QUINN: I need to take a shower. *** JANE: No Guy Fawkes Day? [Whine, whimper] *** JAMIE: Whoa. Drive. She must be in trouble. <IIRC>

I was also a little glad that the holidays had actual personalities. He wasn't really a stupid Cupid, just more of a goof.

What was really weird for me, and I suppose it was only for me, was to see the parallels of a couple of scenes from this story in comparison to my own holiday fanfic. I was surprised that in DTAH Jane hates having her family around. Daria also rapped up this episode with one of the same lines I used near the end of my story (aside from that I gave the line to Jake).

One thing I was really glad of, though, was to see Sandi as how she originally was: not a TOTAL bitch, but still shallow and a bit over-ruling (the second time Quinn was put on a fashion sabbatical). I find quite a lot of fanfic writers, and even a couple of official ones, to make her a bigger jerk than she really is. She IS a jerk, just not THAT big a one. She even slipped into shallow-mode a bit more than usual for a second before catching herself ("Babies are so cute. <Babble, babble>").

I THINK that's it. Overall, really, really weird. I was expecting that the end would reveal it to be a dream or it was just a story Daria was writing. If they're gonna continue this, I'd prefer just one a season.

I'm not TOO bitter, though. I at least did laugh at a couple of jokes despite a... creepy... plot.

--- John Berry

John Berry wrote:

Yes, I do. <g> When Trent joined the "Holiday" band, and they played at a prom, then it *really* went into the realm of "smells like bad fanfic." <g> And, yes, I'll admit to writing a clunker or two. But, hey, they're free, and I don't get paid to do it. So there. :P Besides, it's not really *my* toy (or any other writer's) to play with-- it's Susie and Glenn's toy, and they can do with it whatever they want, just as long as we get to watch. <g>

Yes! If they'd done that, I probably would've enjoyed it a little more. But then again, they probably assumed that the average Daria fan is smart enough to figure it out on their own. <g>

Oh, yes. Lots of good lines. Guy had some great ones: "Bollocks!" "Proms are for tossers!" and, uh, did I mention "Bollocks!"? <g>

The Zelda Fitzgerald Line was a good one, as was the "I get the feeling we'll be saying that about a lot of things as we get older" (You know, after the line about how everything is like HS, only worse-- it's true. I said that all through Law School-- and it's true, it IS like HS, only much, much worse. We even had a prom. No joke. But we called it "The Barristers' Ball." We even had metal lockers, and a dean just like Ms. Li. Spooky.)

Having Cupid turn on the Barry White-style voice and music was a hoot, too.

Oh, yeah... what turns any child's stomach (no matter how old) faster than the thought of his/her parents *doing it*! *shudders* <g>

<snip>

Yeah, I'll agree with that. I prefer the ones based in reality, m'self. But, hey, I still laughed my ass off a few times, and it made me forget just how sore I was after a very rough Aikido class, so it did the trick for me. Even if it wasn't very good compared to other Daria eps, it was a hell of a lot better than anything I've seen on network TV in the last year or so.

Am I the only one that felt that this could've easily been done as a "Sabrina" plot? (I only watched a few of those. Ick. Funny people (Caroline Rhea, Nick Bakay, TV's Frank is one of the writers) on the show, but too saccharine for my sour tastes, I guess. <g>) I was waiting for Daria to ask her Aunts for a spell, or something, or for a talking cat to show up. Ick. Come to think of it, you really could have recast the whole thing, and with only a few edits-- voila! A "Sabrina" ep. Grrr-oss.

It wasn't great. It wasn't good-Gawd-a'mighty awful, either. I laughed, I cried, I wondered what the hell the writers were ingesting, and where could I get some, I got the munchies. When it's rerun, I'll watch it. It ain't one of my faves, though, and it's fighting a few Unnamed eps for the bottom status.

*shrug*

Not that I want to stifle creativity-- I still believe that the folks should be allowed the freedom to take risks and screw up. I'll still watch the show, because it's still better than 99.99% of the other stuff on.

And, of course, now we know why there are no Daria "Holiday Specials." I bet that was the whole idea, anyway-- now they don't have to make one, even if the suits beg and plead. They can just say, "Oh, just run our generic holiday special ep." <g>

It's still better than "Cats." I will watch it again and again. <g>

rich.

Jane: All I want is to make beautiful things!

Hey! This is MY spoiler space from an earlier show!

We're thinking along the same lines. I just posted in another thread that DTAH played like a bad "Sabrina" episode.

I actually wouldn't mind a Daria holiday episode--IF it were done right. The "Simpsons" premiere episode was a Christmas special, and the Thanksgiving episode (where Bart ran away after being sent to his room for ruining Lisa's centerpiece) is in their Top 10 best episodes, IMO.

I think the Treehouse of Horror halloween episodes are incredible!

But they're in a different category. They're out of continuity, at least since about the third one, when they seriously started spoofing all manner of horror films. Previously they were somewhat within continuity; in one they were telling scary stories, in another they had nightmares from gulping down the Halloween candy so quickly. After that they just presented the horror spoofs. The Christmas and Thanksgiving episodes were very much in continuity.

"Depth Takes A Holiday" is, as far as I'm concerned, WAY out of continuity. Well, it's way out * somewhere *, at least.