Episode #301 "Through A Lens, Darkly" (SPOILERS AHOY)

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After sitting through the horror that was Episode #307 (My friend Michael Swanigan actually turned it off 5 minutes in) TAL,D is balm for this Daria fan's bruised soul.

This turned on the laughs right away, with the absolutely nightmarish situation of Daria taking driving lessons from her tightly-wound mom. I suppose it could be worse...it could be Jake "Gah! Gah! Dammit!" Morgendorffer trying to teach her. But Helen is suitably skin-crawlingly nervous.

I had personal reasons for liking this episode...I got SERIOUS pressure from my own Mom to get contacts as a girl. Unlike Daria, I never got out of the optometrist's office with contacts...I could never get around the reflexive aversion to Putting Foreign Object In Eye. And to all the grrls still harboring concerns about "men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses"...I am happily married (for going on 12 years) and my Richie never objected to the glasses. If I was male or lesbian I would be attracted to someone like Daria with or without glasses...she is pretty, folks, even with the frames. It doesn't take something lame like her switcheroo in "Quinn The Brain" or the contacts to make me notice that she is an attractive young woman in spite of the camouflage she wears.

Some good zingers here, and also any episode with Aunt Amy in it (All hail!!!) is definitely worth a Siskel Memorial Thumbs Up.

It is interesting to note that Daria is apparently not the reject she thinks she is. Jodie seems to be a close part of her circle now, although she's too busy to hang with her and Jane as much as she wants to. And Brittany...wow. She's definitely showing a little more dimension now, and I am not talking about the Double D's. It would be nice to see more of this kind of character development on her...the surprise of seeing Brittany as Master Tactitian in "The Daria Hunter" was a good one, but her incredibly appropriate words in this one show a new side of her completely rooted in the reality of the show.

And that's where I am going to sum this up. TAL,D is a great contrast to the hideous discontinuity of Daria!. The best Daria episodes are rooted in REALITY: the reality of Daria's life, or the realities between her ears. I don't have much hope for the other fantasy-oriented episode on the way...that sounds as much a misfire as [address]! was. Call me a selfish fan who doesn't want to see "her" show mucked about by too much deviation from the formula by the talented Daria writing team, but I really think that there is enough fodder for great episodes in Daria's reality to have to reach and stretch towards high-concept "Simpsons" style stuff. In fact, it was the high-concept stuff that destroyed "The Simpsons" for me, and I don't think I am alone in this.

I'd definately say this ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack, though...funny as this was, it's not in the league of "Write Where It Hurts," "See Jane Run," "The Misery Chick," or "Road Worrier."

Take care,
--.\\<-H--

In article ,

Mac:

Still don't get your intense dislike for "D!", but I won't argue that today. :)

Heh. Daria got off easy. ;) I'll send her my mom for driving lessons... One hand on the wheel, and screeching "Look out for that tree!" when said tree is alone in a field 30 yards from the road. But that's another whole set of issues. :)

I wear contacts and glasses alternately, a week or so at a time. Ironically enough, my contacts were bugging the crap out of me on Wednesday, and I took them out that afternoon, not even considering the foreshadowing that was taking place. ;)

I'm always amused when I meet someone while wearing contacts, and then see them again a month or so later with glasses on. "I didn't know you wore glasses!" Right. 'Cause I didn't tell you. 'Cause it's not a big deal. And 'cause it doesn't change who I am. So there.

I think we'll be seeing much more of Aunt Amy here real soon. She's got a good relationship with Daria, and if there's anyone in Daria's life that she'd want to be like as an adult, it's her Aunt Amy. (Notice she still calls her Aunt Amy, even after Amy's told her "Just Amy."? Is that respect I see?) If you want to take the Star Wars-style "Heroic Journey" metaphor to it, Aunt Amy would be Yoda... the older, wiser mentor. (There! My recommended daily serving of over- analysis!)

Jane was -really- firing off the zingers in this one, wasn't she? She cracked my wife (only a casual viewer) up twice.

Well, the sun shines on a dog's @$ every now and then. ;) Brit can walk into a profound statement once in a while, and not even realize it. What was good to see, though, was that Daria was willing to -listen- to her friends.

I see your point here (believe it or not!), but I want to kind of take you out of yourself for a minute and pretend you're MTV's target audience watching the show for the first time. If -all- the episodes were "WWIH" and "TaLD," it'd seem a bit preachy, I think. These were meaty episodes. I've watched them time and again, and I'm still getting the finer points of the story down. But every now and then, you have to let the characters go off and be funny for an episode, if for no other reason than the sheer variety of it.

BTW, I loved "[address]", but like you, I'm not at -all- sure about the holiday ep.

Yeah, I'd agree. I think the story could have been tighter (WHY didn't Daria carry her frames with her?), and it seemed to wander a bit at the beginning looking around for a plot. Not the best, but still Damn Good TV.

Chris Majors Keeper of The Daria FAQ: http://www.auburn.net/~cwmajors/dariafaq.htm

Actually probably more like Obi Wan Kenobi. Obi Wan was the older warrior, like Luke. He even reminded Yoda he had once been "difficult" as a young man like Luke was being.

Aunt Amy IS a lot like Daria, as seen by her brutal honesty. Helen is a typical woman (much like my mother) in the way she has of acting all nice to someone she hates (consider her "that's wonderful!" voice while drawing the star crossed lovers thing), but ends up having to let it out. Amy is honest, much to the anger of Helen and her sister ("Why do you say such things?" "Out loud?")

Dagny misery chick, cynic, general loony

Visit the Parsley Firefly http://members.aol.com/Eccles9697

"One must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you." Friedrich Nietzsche

without glasses...she is pretty, folks, even with the frames. << Michelle Klein-Hass

And she has a great personality. She's also honest, strong-willed, intelligent, and moral.

My fiancee has a similarly sarcastic sense of humor, and some of Daria's other characteristics (both positive and negative). Incidentally, she's also a Daria fan.

If Daria were real, and I weren't already engaged to a wonderful girl, I'd marry Daria in an instant.

the contacts to make me notice that she is an attractive young woman in spite of the camouflage she wears. <<

Camouflage is exactly what it is. Daria is scared of expressing her sexuality. She also feels that any attempt to be attractive is somehow phony.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

Michelle Klein-Hass wrote in message ...

Mac:

I disagree. I think DARIA! was wonderful. But everyone to their own opinion.

...

Yes, I agree. Daria is pretty. I've thought so from the first episode I saw, glasses or no glasses. She has a nicely shaped face and I especially like her hair, dark, soft, always neatly combed, and the cute bifurcated bangs. Except for her outfit and that "I smell you-know-what" expression she wears she's lovely.

I'd revised that line (I think it came from Dorothy Parker) to "Men don't make passes at girls with fat asses." I kind of thought that fairly clever but then some time later that very joke appeared on that Cybil Shepherd TV show so I'll have to revise my opinion on the cleverness of that line. Besides there ARE guys who will make such passes. Maybe that just illustrates that the old saw is true, that there really is someone out there for each person. Gives me cause for some optimism anyway.

Daria showed she wasn't a reject in "Ill" when all her "friends" showed up to see her at the hospital. No one was more surprised than Daria to discover how many people cared about her. Brittany has the makings of a very complex character. She tried from the first, in the episode "The Invitation," to be a friend to Daria to the extent that that was possible for a popular girl to befriend a non-popular girl. Brittany really is a nice person who is trapped by the limits of popularity. She's honest except when she's "fighting for her man." She could really be a good friend to Daria and Brittany could do a great deal of good for Daria if only Daria would let her. While Brittany is trapped within the circle of popularity, Daria is trapped by her own self-image as an unattractive unpopular. Of course as we've already determined, Daria is in reality neither unattractive nor unpopular. How long will it take her to realize this? The extention from this to real life is: how much of our own self-images are not based in reality? How much more attractive and popular might each of us actually be than we imagine?

I really don't understand this contempt for "Daria!" the musical. From the context of what was being attempted it was quite good. It wasn't really a bad musical, as musicals go, and it wasn't really a bad Daria episode. I enjoyed it. So they went out on a limb and tried something different and [I think] it worked out...

If you always do things the same way you'll never do them any better. I'm willing to grant the Daria creative staff the latitude to stretch a little, to try out new things. That's how we got Daria in the first place.

Bob

On Thu, 25 Feb 1999 12:20:43 -0800, [email] (Michelle Klein-Hass) wrote:

Yes. I had this exact same thought. I wondered what kind of therapy it would take for Daria to get over that. Then a perverse pleasure came over me wondering if Jake would get to teach Quinn hehehehe

I will let you all know that I am one of the many guys who find glasses enhance the beauty of a woman. Single female Daria fans who are in their 20's and 30's who wear glasses take note =)

Yes. Men. Let us worship the perfection of womanhood that is Aunt Amy =)

Better than it turning into South Park. Although I wouldn't have a problem with them doing a parody of it =)

Brent