Daria
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Daria is an American animated sitcom created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn for MTV. The series focuses on Daria Morgendorffer, a smart, acerbic, and somewhat misanthropic teenage girl who observes the world around her. This show is a spin-off of Beavis and Butthead, another MTV show.
Why It Gladfully Stands On Your Neck
- The theme song is pretty catchy and it has a decent message. It already captures Daria's personality and the atmosphere of the entire show in general.
- The chemistry between Daria and Jane is pretty great.
- It was the one show that stood out from MTV's usual shtick (music videos, airheads etc.).
- Witty, intelligent humor.
- Many of the characters are quirky and likable, such as Daria Morgendorffer, Jane Lane, Jodie Landon, Quinn Morgendorffer, Trent Lane, Helen Morgendorffer, Jake Morgendorffer, Kevin Thompson, Brittany Taylor and Amy Barksdale.
- How Daria delivers her lines is hilarious, especially in Seasons 1 to 3.
- Daria became so popular in Beavis and Butt-Head that she got her own spin-off show. How cool is that?
- It teaches great morals that are related to growing up.
- We see the world through the eyes of a sarcastic teenage girl who doesn't care, which is a very unique concept.
- The show gives a view on every that is wrong with society, which is a smart idea for a show and well executed in this show.
- Hilariously realistic situations that viewers can relate to.
- One of the most mature teen angsty shows of its time.
- Unbelievably well-written episodes:
- Boxing Daria (arguably the best episode in the entire series)
- Arts 'N Crass (also counts as the best)
- Pierce Me
- Pinch Sitter
- Road Worrier
- I Don't
- Quinn the Brain
- The Invitation
- Through a Lens Darkly
- Esteemsters (which started the series on a high note)
- Lane Miserables
- Write Where It Hurts
- Impressive and fitting voice acting from a choice of voice actors.
- For a monotone, carefree teenage outcast, Daria is one of the funniest characters on MTV. She could make one crack by just smiling.
- Captured what the 90s were really like. If one wanted to know what it was like being a teen from the 90s instead of now, they could just watch at least one episode from this show.
- Looks at the stereotypes at school in a different way to other shows. It also looks at everything that's wrong with school in a logical way.
- It spawned two great made-for-television movies: Is It Fall Yet? and Is It College Yet?.
- Like most adult cartoons of its time, Daria still remained an iconic show for more than 20 years.
- This is how a spin-off can be done right.
Bad Qualities
- Even for 90s cartoon standards, the animation could still be better despite season 2 being animated by Rough Draft Studios. Luckily it was improved in Season 4.
- Some of the characters' designs can be off-putting.
- Anthony DeMartino might be the worst offender, likely due to his bulging eye, which is just creepy and gross to look at.
- It's been argued that the show went downhill in the later seasons (though not too severely) when Daria got a boyfriend, Tom Sloane (initially Jane's boyfriend), who was a bit unlikable.
- First of all, Tom is kind of a Gary Stu who is way too smart despite being the same age as Daria and Jane. He can be very egotistical and careless, and rather than comfort Daria when she is not feeling good after she realizes she's made a mistake, he criticizes her constantly, to the point of sometimes even patronizing her.
- Secondly, he mostly served as a plot device for seasons 4 and 5.
- Not to mention, it can seem very awkward to see Daria dating Tom after he was Jane's boyfriend.
- On the bright side, however, he was actually useful even if he was kind of a plot device, and he made the show seem even more realistic. He also contributed to Daria's development and helped her mature throughout the fifth season.
- Some unlikable characters, such as Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer III, Sandi Griffin and the aforementioned Tom Sloane.
- Tommy Sherman and Nathan are unlikable characters too. Thankfully, they're one-shot characters.
- Background design isn't that great to look at sometimes.
- Daria sometimes turned into a typical teen romance drama in some episodes, which is not what it's supposed to be about.
- Some episodes can be boring or mediocre, such as:
- Depth Takes a Holiday (arguably the worst episode in the entire series)
- Partner's Complaint
- Daria!
- Life In The Past Lane
- Prize Fighters
- Fizz Ed
- While not terrible, "Dye! Dye! My Darling" was a very controversial episode, mainly due to Tom kissing Daria while he was still dating Jane.
- The beginning of the theme song can be very ear-piercing to people.
- Despite having a great message, some people may think of the theme tune as lazy just because of the overall tone.
- It spawned an awful game called Daria's Inferno in 2000.
Reception
Daria premiered to positive reviews, with John J. O'Connor of The New York Times writing in March 1997, "As far as MTV and Beavis and Butt-Head are concerned, Daria is an indispensable blast of fresh air." Daria continued to receive positive reviews during the course of its run and was one of MTV's highest rated shows, with the network's manager Van Toffler viewing the character as "a good spokesperson for MTV, intelligent but subversive".
Trivia
- Although Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead, where Daria was a recurring character) agreed to release the character to allow her to appear in the spin-off, he had no involvement in the production of Daria.
- No other characters from Beavis and Butthead appeared in Daria. Usually this would be a flaw in spin-offs, but they were trying to go for a whole different style of humor and they felt like any sort of reference to the original show would ruin it.
- Daria's theme song is "You're Standing on My Neck", written and performed by Splendora.