10-27-00

Hail,

Okay, season finale for Season two, "Write Where it Hurts." This was one of the most solid episodes of the season, even if a good chunk of it was spent in Daria's stories.
Speaking of which, it's nice that Daria's writing wasn't totally forgotten about. After the big deal made of it in "Cafe Disaffecto," there wasn't much mention of it at all second season, except in "Quinn the Brain."
The episode focused on Daria, of course, and gave us some good information about her family life, and what she's like it to be life. She does see marriage in her future, but not children, and she's hoping Quinn will settle down a bit (something that seems to be starting at the end of fourth season).

Summing up Season Two:
Ugh. This season was anchored on either end by respectable shows, but sagged drastically in the middle. This was a very clear reminder of why I stopped updating this site the first time, and no wonder. Between the reset buttons and the departure from established characters (in a bad way), this is certainly not a good follow up to first season.
Part of the problem is who's doing the writing, I think. During first season, five episodes were written by Glenn Eichler, and three by Anne Bernsetin. Second season was two and one, respectively. Glenn anchored the series (first and last episodes), but the low presence of series-established writers made itself painfully obvious (and is as good an explanation as any as to why everyone seemed to be out of character so often). I find myself hoping that most of those writers never get another chance at an episode, something I doubt is the case.

Wraith