Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-#303 (3-30), " Depth Takes a Holiday"

Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-#303 (3-30), " Depth Takes a Holiday"

Spoilers Space for #303 (If you don't want to know, then don't scroll!)

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Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-"Depth Takes a Holiday"

MDRR #303 (3-30)- I not making any guarantees but I'll try to be brief, I don't want to think too much about this episode.

It's Only A Dream- I was half expecting "Depth Takes a Holiday" to end with Daria waking up and saying, "Wow, it was only a dream. I guess I shouldn't have eaten at Good Time Chinese Restaurant, or at least not order the nog." This episode seemed to switch from a real pace to a dream-like pace relatively fast. At times, it moved lightning quick with speedy changes of direction and at other times slowed down to a more realistic pace. It was like this episode couldn't decide whether it was a dream or not. In reality, the whole thing was a bad dream that should probably be forgotten.

I Can't Deal With This! - It seems that Jake and Helen have finally gotten the spice into their marriage. The subplot, involving Quinn's crusade to prevent any younger siblings, was the most 'real' part of this episode. It fits perfectly into her character- she wants to be the most 'popular' person in her family and she knows that a baby would at least be the center of attention for a while. Her method of attack was also appropriate for her. She weaseled herself in the middle of the situation she wanted to change. True to form, she ended up so bored of spending time with her parents that she ended up talking to herself and eventually gave up all together.

Miscellaneous Witty One Liners- There were many one liners in "Depth Takes a Holiday" that seemed to comment (probably unintentionally) about the quality of the show, itself. I just thought it would be a good idea to go through some of these, especially since nothing else about this episode jumps out at me as being particularly important (in other words, I ran out of worthy things to write about). Just a word of warning, I changed some of them for "Another Lame Attempt at Humor(TM)."

1) The opening Sick Sad World segment seemed to be a reference to the fact that because of the odd scheduling of Daria, this episode couldn't absolutely be shown at any holiday time (although it wasn't too far from St. Patrick's Day).

2) Jane utters the phrase "none of this makes any sense." Do you think they knew that this was probably what most of us were thinking while watching this episode?

3) The "Soccer Riot!" line was one of the few things that was actually funny. It's not really self referential, but it was one of the only highlights of the episode for me.

4) Being a "monk in a nunnery" doesn't sound too bad anymore, after watching this episode.

5) I actually went to the trouble of looking up the word bollix (which is the only word in my dictionary that is pronounced that way- can anyone with closed captioning confirm this) and it is a transitive verb that means 'to make a mess of.' Sounds like it applies here.

6) Finally, The Holidays song lyrics, with some modification, pretty much sums up my opinion of this episode. Everyone all together now: "I'm watching this episode and it sucks!"

<Warning: Possibly Entering the Rant Zone (if we're not already there)>

The writers of this episode decided to break from the usual Daria format of reality based action to a more cartoon-ish, anything goes style for this episode. In my opinion, that is not the direction this series should go in, if it does then Daria would just be another lame Simpson's wannabe. "Depth Takes a Holiday" may not have looked as bad if it wasn't shown so close to "Daria!" which was similarly a non-reality based episode. However, that can't be used as an excuse for this episode. I can find no redeeming qualities in this episode, whatsoever. There were times that I did laugh. However, most of these laughs were tentative and almost in an "I can't believe that they actually made this episode" sort of tone. I'm not saying that episodes like this are inherently bad, it just seems that they've "gone to the fantasy well" one too many times with this episode. I can almost see the brainstorming session for the episodes of season three. It's two AM, the staff has decided on twelve ideas for plots of episodes after almost a whole day of looking for ideas and they're having trouble coming up with a thirteenth. Just when they are about to give up, a stoned intern walks in says "Hey, I just saw some guy named Xmas with his girl, Halloween." One of the staffers, in a tired hazed says, "that sounds like a good idea- people as holidays." The rest, as we say, is history. It was definitely an original idea that, more than likely, looked much better on paper than it did on the screen. I hope that this will be the last episode of this ilk for this season.

The Bottom Line- It appears that depth wasn't the only thing that was on vacation.

Grade: F (Unfortunately, the big red F stamp makes its first appearance)

<Now Leaving The Rant Zone>

Daria as a Whole, Under the Spell- Daria said 'Trent.' No surprise there. They're building to something.

Next Week- Jane's in another on of those 'sinister' places but she does control the dance.

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

Missed a review? Check Outpost Daria http://systech.simplenet.com/daria/

Mike Quinn [email] "...the race is long, and in the end it's only with yourself..."

In article , Mike Quinn wrote:

Really? This subplot made no ense to me ... Quinn's step from 'her parents are being amorous' to 'her parents are trying to have a baby' seemed peculiar to me. On the other hand, when I was growing up I was used to displays of affection between my folks, so maybe I am atypical (I certainly am compared to people on TV-land).

Nice try, but misguided. The word is "bollacks" which translates as "balls".

I enjoyed the episode myself, although I agree that it's proximity to "Daria!" is worrying. I don't want fantasy episodes to become a trend.

In article ,

I didn't particularly like the subplot, I was just pointing out that it was somewhat of a contrast from the wacky stuff going on in the main plot.

the

Give me points for trying ;)

Agreed. _

Mike Quinn [email] "...the race is long, and in the end it's only with yourself..."

Certainly your parents were not like the Morgandorffers. The interaction between Jake and Helen is typically limited to him ranting and her trying to calm him down, or her giving orders and him obeying. Every once in a while they show a little affection, but it doesn't last long. Quinn's interpretation of the reason for their love-a-thon is reasonable for Quinn.

She tends to be either totally clueless or extremely accurate when it comes to other people. I've always been in the 'Quinn's an idiot' camp, which would be reason enough for her to come up with the notion she did. Proceeding on the "Quinn is highly intelligent' assumption still allows us to explain Quinn's reaction.

Jake and Helen rarely show much affection. If they start acting that way suddenly, there's probably a reason for it, and wanting another child is one possibility. There are a number of reasons they might want to do so. Jake and Helen both lead empty and rather unfulfilling lives. Their children are becoming increasingly independent. Their relationship with each other is in poor shape. These are all bad reasons to want children (in my opinion), but they are fairly common reasons to have children.

There's another possible reason for Quinn's behavior. Quinn likes to be the center of attention, and to be able to manipulate people. Her fear of a baby may be a cover for something more basic. She doesn't want Jake and Helen to be affectionate. This will take their attention away from her and make them more resistant to her usual tactics. They hardly even noticed she was there while they were involved with each other.

Finally, regardless of whether or not Jake and Helen were trying to have a baby, if they continued their romantic revival long enough, there's a good chance that they would either decide to have another child, or have one by accident. If Quinn's intelligent, she can figure this out for herself.

All in all, I think this episode paints Quinn in an unfavorable light. If she's acting from intelligent motivations, she's really quite a horrible little brat, sabotaging her parents' happiness for her own benefit. Of course, this isn't really a surprise. Stupidity is the only thing that could excuse many of her actions. Or youth, I suppose. Unenlightened self interest is fairly common among fourteen year olds.

Eric Stevenson observed:

Heh, considering how hedonistic Quinn is and how many dates she goes on, if she isn't well aware of this possibility by now it won't be *Helen* who'll be having the baby ...

Ding! Hand that man the kewpie doll. Quinn is so self-centered that it would never even occur to her that her parents' happiness should even be a consideration to her if *her* equanimity is at all threatened by their actions. And yes, this does show her in a pretty unfavorable light.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

In article ,

[...schnipp...]

Erm...

'Bollocks' is a British English swear word, meaning 'testicles'. Likewise, 'Wanker' and 'Tosser' are both slang for 'one who masturbates.'

All of these are considered pretty damn rude; You *are* pretty likely to get decked if you go around saying them to people in Britain.

I find it funny that a show that had to equivocate 'goddammit' a few episodes ago is thowing around swear words so easily. When/if this episode is shown in Britain, they'll have to cut or beep out the swearing if they want to keep it at the PG level. (British TV tends to be more tolerant of swearing than US TV, but cartoons are always considered 'for kids'.)

My Quick Review: Not dreadful, but not brilliant either. A poor idea saved by some good moments and funny one liners. I quite liked Daria and Jane's low-key reaction to the fantastic elements. Also the way it became the 'generic holiday special'. I would probably have thought better of it if we hadn't already seen 'Daria!' this season. One 'unusual' episode per season is probably all I can tolerate.

Most annoying thing: It's not Guy Fawkes *Day*, it's Guy Fawkes *Night*. The repeated uses kept grating on my ears. Couldn't they have checked it with at least one British person? (And it's not really a holiday, just a celebration. Nowdays, most people seem to use it to celebrate the fact that parliament *nearly* got blown to smithereens ~400 years ago.)

On Fri, 12 Mar 1999 16:45:41 GMT, [email] wrote:

The thing is, they're writing from an American viewpoint. Around here, the only "swear" words are the four letter variety. British swearing is considered a humerous character adition, especially considering British English is, around here, (ESPECIALLY on the west coast) at an equal level of relevence as Australian English, which readily and unconcernadly uses the word, "Bloody," among others. I didn't even know these words were considered rude in Britain until I came here.

In article ,

[Not really spoilers anymore...]

[Bollocks, Wanker & Tosser...]

Oh sure, I realise that. It's just that for me, it's strangely startling to suddenly hear a 'bad word' in the middle of a programme that doesn't normally rise to anything worse than 'dammit'.

Consider it the equivalent of hearing Mack suddenly telling Kevin to 'Fuck off!' :)

True. I didn't hate this episode, but if they start doing this on a regular basis, I'll probably lose interest in the show. I can't take a steady diet of clever (or otherwise) nonsense.

I can think of a few possible benefits to this episode, although none are related to any 'in show' issues. First, an occasional episode like this might serve to keep people from taking the show too seriously. After all, it is just a cartoon. Second, making the show a little sillier might make it more popular, which would (presumably) make it last longer. If a couple of shows like this keep Daria around another season, I'll be satisfied.

Better break out your English-to-English dictionary. :) The word in question "bollocks", which is British for "testicles". It's also often used like most Americans use the word "bullshit", as in:

"Depth Takes a Holiday was the best Daria episode ever!"

"That's bollocks!"

Zach Keene

In article ,

the

That definitly makes more sense in the context of the episode. I was probably too upset with this ep to care whether my facts were straight (and too interested in getting in a cheap shot) :)

Mike Quinn [email] "...the race is long, and in the end it's only with yourself..."

is > the only word in my dictionary that is pronounced that way- can anyone with

Shut your festering gob, ya tit! Your type makes me puke! You vacuous toffee-nosed malodorous pervert! I ought to square up an' punt you in the yarbles. Great bolshy yarblockos to thee and thine, you eunuch jelly thou! And bollocks to your little dog too.

LOL this cracked me up.

In article , [email] (Adam) wrote:

Monty Python quote, I believe.

Nothing comes to mind on this one, though they sound familiar. Is the first line another Python quote?

Clockwork Orange?

Wizard of Oz, more or less, obviously.

that's bollocks. as in testicles, i believe. british slang. the reference was to the character looking a bit like sid vicious, the bass player for the sex pistols. they had an album called "never mind the bollocks, here's the sex pistols" Saerah Saerah