10-22-00

Hail,

I don't know how to describe "Ill" except perhaps as Daria Lite. The episode wasn't exactly bad, it just seemed a lot like cotton candy: a lot of fluffy sugar and air. Aside from being an overly obvious fanservice to the Trent/Daria crowd, there just didn't seem to be any point to this episode.
Daria starts getting a rash when she's anxious about Trent. It rapidly develops, and although shown at the end of the show the Big Red Reset Button is used and it never shows up again. There doesn't seem to be any reason for her to get the rash during Mr. O'Neill's class, other than to lead into a scene with Quinn. She may consider Trent cuddly, but a tyrant? And she was drawing uncomplimentary pictures of Mr. O'Neill at the time, so she probably wasn't daydreaming about Trent.
The only thing that really stands out is the Mrs. Sullivan dream sequence, and then because it doesn't mesh with the rest of the show. There's not a single thing in the entire show that gives her any reason to doubt the good of intelligence, so the dream is simply out of place. It's like it was simply put in to fill time (well, the rest of the episode gave the same impression, but it's like they couldn't fill it out) and extend the Mrs. Sullivan joke.
This all makes it rather hard to form an opinion about the episode, since for the most part it just doesn't make any real impression. This is one of those "What did I just spend half an hour doing?" episodes. It wasn't really bad enough to be targeted with the obvious "fever dream" comment, but it nevertheless managed to live up to its name, in that the show did seem sick, a nasty flu perhaps, and just never really got the energy to go anywhere.

"Fair Enough" is where second season finally starts to recover. Unlike the previous episode, "Ill", this one does some nice character work, although mostly with the minor characters. It's a lot like "The Daria Hunter" in that respect, although this one covers Charles more, and it reinforces my opinion that Charles would be a very interesting character if he ever got his hormones under control. He and Mr. DeMartino basically make this episode.
Charles seems to genuinely like Jane and Daria, although this might just be because they're willing to respond to him with something other than physical violence. He may actually appreciate their cut-downs (read his answering machine messages in "The Daria Diaries") on their own level. If he wasn't running around after all the women, I'd suspect his "Ballad of the Misunderstood Minstrel" to be a bid for some sort of friendship between them, but for his current character this may be nothing more than a wounded-puppy attention getting ploy.
What could have used work this episode were the Helen/Linda confrontations. Two strong minded women going at each other hammer and tongs, okay, but Helen is a lawyer (and apparently a good one), she should be better able to handle these verbal conflicts.

Wraith

10-20-00

Hail,

It's been a little while since my last Rambling, since I've just been playing catch-up. Well, I've survived the Unholy Trinity ("Quinn the Brain", "The New Kid", and "Gifted") and am finally starting into the "new" episodes. From here on out, Rambling should really increase in frequency.

I'm still looking for image captures of the alter-egos, and/or someone willing to work out a tape trade for the episodes I don't have. I don't need them all at once or anything, and I'm perfectly willing to work out some sort of swap, but I just won't be able to catch all the details (like the titles of books Daria's reading, with "The New Kid" being a case in point) from what I have currently.

Wraith