May 18, 2001

Hail,

Quick update while I still can... there's a new Daria episode on Monday. Quinn is going to try to pick a steady boyfriend, and Tom is going to brave the dangers of a family dinner with the Morgendorffers.

Wraith

May 15, 2001

Hail,

Okay, my hosting company has been doing a transition to new servers, and they royally messed it up. I've been without ssw.net e-mail for almost a full week, so if you've sent me anything during that time I haven't received it. Sadly, this is the first time since then I've actually had FTP access, so this is the first I could make mention of it. Doesn't look like the mail will be functioning properly until the 20th to 24th.

To anyone looking for web hosting... don't use Digiweb/Interliant.

Wraith

April 17, 2001

Hail,

Okay, I've finally got DSL back and my e-mail straightened out. I'll be putting up a number of updates over the next few days, so keep an eye out.

Wraith

April 1, 2001

Hail,

Despite the date, this is not an April Fool's joke. Just wanted to post a note about what's going on over at my end of things.
As you may (or may not) know, Northpoint went out of business recently. I got my DSL through them, so when AT&T cut everyone off (AT&T having purchased Northpoint's equipment) last weekend I found out pretty quickly.
This by itself wouldn't be too bad except for a couple things. First was my attempted install of dial-up networking services in Win95, which fragged my system. I've fixed that much now, but I still need to do something about a dial-up connection (posting this through work).
Second, my e-mail replies are going to be a bit delayed. I'm stuck with web-based mail for a few days, so some older e-mails aren't going to be getting responses for a bit, and I've got some updates coming that should be taken care of some time this week. There's also been some problem with the e-mail server I've been using, as I've had reports of sent-but-never-delivered-and-no-error-messaged e-mails, so if I haven't responded it could be for either reason. Give it a week and if you haven't heard back you may want to resend the mail.

Wraith

March 28, 2001

Hail,

That was a bit of a surprise, no? Peter Elwell's other efforts have been rather less than spectacular, but now he's got the best episode of the season (so far). Now, we do know that Glenn touches to a greater or lesser degree almost every script that goes out, but there's no way of telling just how much influence that had here.
The plot itself is pretty weak -- the school would at least nominally have adult teaching, even if the student is doing all the work -- but the episode is funny enough that it doesn't matter (unlike "Fizz Ed").

This was one of the very rare working ensemble episodes. Most of the regulars were show to one degree or another, and almost none of it felt wasted. My biggest problem with the episode is a character one, namely Jake. The Inspector Clouseau reference fits him too well. The way he's been acting recently, I really do not understand what Helen ever saw in him. He's a giant, emotionally unbalanced goofball. I understand that he needed to be ignorant to give Quinn a chance to make her big realization, but Jake has been way overplayed in this direction. It's getting to the point where I'm going to have to start complaining about male-bashing again, even with Tom around.

I'll touch on some of the other minor appearances next. Joey, Jeffy and Jamie were used well, very in character without spending the whole episode panting after Quinn. Jodie and Mack got a couple lines, giving us a short glimpse at their relationship. Charles showed up without getting into face-slapping territory, which is unusual. Brittany got a couple good lines and was used more-or-less as usual. Kevin is proving himself dumber with each passing minute. They only got a few lines each, but they were still in danger of being overused. Kevin is very much a one-joke pony.
The new substitutes were, sadly, not that far off. I'm not sure Mrs. Stoller would willingly be a scab, but all things considered she probably wasn't aware there was a strike on. The people marching around outside when she came to work would have been a hint, but then again, those are damn big first graders. Mr. Edwards was, thankfully, only there briefly. For someone so paranoid, Ms. Li sure makes weird hiring decisions. I guess he was willing to work for cheap. Extremely cheap.

Which brings up teachers. Mrs. Bennett wasn't in the episode much, but was shown running as a go-between for Ms. Li. We've seen her in conference with Ms. Li before, and it seems like she and Angela have some sort of special relationship going. Even if they aren't exactly best-friends, Mrs. Bennett seems to be the only person Ms. Li is willing to confide in, at least as far as school business goes.
Mrs. Barch and Ms. Defoe were their usual selves. It is interesting to see that Mr. DeMartino is the local union rep, but I guess the other male teachers wouldn't trust the job to Mrs. Barch. Which probably makes union meetings more violent than normal.
Mr. O'Neill actually had some chemistry with Trent. Timothy's usual good-natured bumbling actually paid off for once, even if his rhymes weren't up to Trent's standard.
Mr. DeMartino finally pulls one over on Ms. Li. He's proven he can out-stubborn one of the best. Which is an improvement over his old, sewing-circle self.
Ms. Li forces the teachers to strike by trying to get them to accept a new coffee machine instead of a pay raise. Yeah, that's her. She hires replacements cut-rate. Okay. Hiring a nearly-pedophile is a almost too much for even her, but she has a history of doing things first and then worrying about lawsuits later. Forcing a student to fill in the gap is the weakest part of the plot, but it's handled well enough that it doesn't really matter.

Jane and Trent weren't really major players this episode. Too many other people getting some screen time to leave much room for anything but the main plot. However, as far as they are used they are used well.

Helen and Jake are used briefly. I've already state my complaint about Jake, but Helen was handled well. Her half-listening-to-Quinn scene in the kitchen was great, especially Daria's reaction to it.

Tom even gets a cameo and, wonder of wonders, he and Daria don't have a big fight. If this is what their relationship is normally like there's hope for those two yet.

Then we've got the Fashion Club. Tiffany is either as dumb as she appears or is putting on a very good act. It would be interesting to find out that she's using her gormelessness as a mask to fend off obnoxious males. I sincerely doubt this is the case, but it's fun to speculate anyway. She continues to get good lines, and at least she's picked up the tempo a bit.
Stacy was a bit more confident than usual this episode. Lingering effects from "Fat Like Me" most likely, which is great to see. Hope it continues for the rest of the season.
Sandi's totally losing her grip on the Fashion Club now. She has no big threats held in reserve to use on Quinn, and she now knows Quinn has one over her. So does Tiffany and Stacy and the rest of the class.

I'm actually going to cover Daria before Quinn this time around. Daria and Jane's interaction this episode was great, just like they used to be. I guess Jane really is over the Tom thing by now. Hopefully the way Daria was acting around Tom this episode is the way their relationship normally is. She seems just as comfortable around him as she is around Jane. Even if he really was looking forward to that fur bikini.
She doesn't really have anything to do with the teachers this episode. Some of her usual classroom sniping that befuddles and already fuddled Mrs. Stoller is about it. She doesn't even offer much resistance to Ms. Li's harebrained scheme. The Good and Evil scene was a bit too sitcommy for my tastes, but it was handled decently, if predictably.
Daria's interaction with her family this episode was great. Helen was rather predictable, and Daria didn't really have much to do with Jake. The Daria/Quinn interaction was, obviously, the highlight of the episode, and will be covered later.
Now we have Daira-the-teacher. It's not a possibility that's been explored before, although "Write Where it Hurts" showed that she wasn't totally offended by the idea. She could very well end up a college lit teacher, that's something I can easily see her doing. I just can't imagine her as a high-school teacher; she could never stand the teacher's ed classes for the four years it takes to get a degree. Unless she wants to teach in New Jersey, that is, in which case an actual degree would work just as well. Anyway, she manages to make the best of a bad (and odd) situation. Her grading scheme was interesting as well, but it'd never fly in a public school.

Quinn is really the center of this episode. She starts the episode just as we've come to know her, and worried about having Daria near her in case it hurts her popularity. Then she gets totally flustered when Daria gives her a compliment and gets very worried about living up to Daria's standard. This is a first for on-screen for her, but it's likely mostly because Daria is now in a position of authority over her. Then Quinn realizes that some of her brain cells have indeed survived the constant hairspray assaults and her fluffragette companions. This is something that she started to figure out on "Is It Fall Yet?" but it took until now to really get through to her. At this rate she will be able to get into Pepper Hill, but she doesn't have much time to make up for the rest of her school career, so she can't count on much better.
The denouement comes when Quinn risks her popularity and admits to being Daria's sister. After she's countered Sandi's threat. This is the first real character growth we've seen this season, and boy did she need it. The friendly bickering with Daria at the end was a nice touch, and very much different in tone than most of what they've done.

Overall, this is the first great episode we've seen since third season's "Lane Miserables".

Wraith