"I'm too smart and too sensitive to live in a world like ours at a time like this with a sister like mine. Maybe I do miss out on stuff -- but this attitude is what works for me now."
From Freaks and Geeks to Friday Night Lights; from Beverly Hills, 90210 to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; from The Wonder Years to Smallville -- television shows exploring the trials and tribulations of high school are hardly in short supply. And the variety of approaches that such shows have taken are truly extraordinary, incorporating elements of everything from sci-fi to soap opera.
But for me, there is no show about high school that's quite like Daria.
Daria and Friends
(Such as they are)
The show centers on the title character, a seventeen-year-old high school student whose family has just recently moved to the town of Lawndale. Her family includes her mother, Helen, a workaholic attorney who nonetheless means it when she says that family comes first; and her father, Jake, a slightly-unbalanced but well-meaning consultant, who rarely understands his kids but is always there for them. And then there's Quinn, Daria's younger sister, a materialistic and Popular girl who becomes vice president of her new school's Fashion Club within the first week ... and who has more depth to her than anyone (least of all Daria) might always see. They are characters who contradict themselves, making them a fitting family for Daria herself -- as complex a character as you could ask for.
Filled with biting wit and sarcastic observations, Daria is known as a dorky "brain" at school. She's an outsider to most of her fellow students, and has few friends. Luckily, she's got one -- a best friend, Jane, who comes from her own quirky family and wants to be an artist.
Daria and Jane on a school field trip.
Heavy emphasis on the "field."
There's a lot of reasons to love Daria: she's a reader, a writer, and a person willing to think for herself. But it's also hard not to admire her for her quippy one-liners:
"Sometimes, your shallowness is so thorough, it's almost like depth."
"Do you think if you breathe on me, I might catch your enthusiasm?"
"My biggest fear right now is that I'll wake up and this conversation won't be a dream."
"I've been busy procrastinating all day."
"I don't like kids. I didn't even like kids when I was a kid."
"It never would've worked. I mean, unless I tried, or something."
"There is no moment in life that can't be improved with pizza."
"You're never going to make friends if you keep your nose buried in a book!"
"Let's hope."
Daria and her baby-sitting charges
But Daria isn't quite the cynic she makes herself out to be. She's not miserable or hard-hearted -- she just likes to think for herself. And she knows there's often a price for that -- including the undeniably tough position of not always feeling accepted. "I'm so defensive," she admits at one point, "That I actively work to make people dislike me, so I don't feel bad when they do." Her sarcasm is more of a shield than a sword -- though she's not afraid to wield such verbal weapons as needed when she finds a cause she believes in.
The show, which premiered in 1997 on MTV, ran for five seasons. Throughout its run, Daria faces challenges to her friendships, her relationships, and her own belief system. By the end of the series, Daria is not only graduated from high school and preparing for her first semester of college -- she'd also discovered that it might be okay to leave some of her cynicism behind.
She finds her answers in an unquestionably Daria-ish fashion, and without compromising the core of her wholly unique character. But her unique character is precisely what makes her so easy to relate to -- even after you've left high school behind.
-- Post by Ms. B
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