Tuesday, January 04, 2005
The More Things Change
Here's a review about a Daria episode...see if you can guess which one?
"I'm feeling a bit down at the moment, because this was the first episode
of Daria I've seen that I thought was almost unworthy of the series. I'll
try to write obliquely enough to avoid major spoilers for readers who
haven't seen this episode yet, but I must vent a little...
The premise was far removed from the realistic and moderately universal
themes that Daria usually deals with -- it was an obvious and contrived
setup that seemed much more like a network sitcom. And the dramatic
"twist" which called for Quinn to display a sudden outburst of sincerity
was entirely predictable...and entirely improbable under the
circumstances. I can well imagine Daria suffering an attack of
conscience, but setting it up that way didn't work -- we should have seen
it brought on by something else, something a bit less diagrammatic and
forced.
Don't even get me started on that dream sequence! Between this and the
similar event in "Quinn The Brain," is it possible that some story editing
signals got crossed somewhere along the way? Daria's dream would have
been a lot more shocking and disturbing if we hadn't seen something
similar just a few weeks before. (The image of Quinn in Daria's clothes
was also a wasted opportunity; that scene could have been played up a lot
more, and also could have made an interesting counterpoint.)
The episode wasn't a complete loss, of course: no 22 minutes (or whatever
the length of an episode is) spent listening to those wonderful voices
could ever be considered a waste of time. Daria's brilliant retort to
Kevin's line in front of the theatre about the vegetables was an utterly
classic line and will probably turn up on everyone's "most quotable"
lists. Mr. O'Neill was captured perfectly in all his patronizing creepy
sincerity. And Jake's response to his old home movies was very touching
-- that was the part of the episode which worked best for me.
Even Daria is entitled to a subpar episode every once in a while. They
can't all be "Cafe Disaffecto" or "The Misery Chick"...
Richard Bensam
Give up? This was posted on March 24, 1998 on alt.tv.daria. This was a review of "Monster", which first aired on March 23, 1998 (Episode 206). I wonder how RAB felt about Seasons 4 and 5.
# posted by James @ 4:41 PM 
