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| 101 - Esteemsters |
It was a great premiere episode, introducing us to Daria, Jane, Quinn, Mr. O'Neill, Mr. DeMartino, Kevin, & Brittany -- all at the earliest (and in some cases, only) stages of development.
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| 102 - The Invitation |
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| 103 - College Bored |
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| 104 - Cafe Disaffecto |
The first episode where Daria reads a Melody Powers story, and the first appearance of the lady who loves chocolate. A good episode.
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| 105 - Malled |
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| 106 - This Year's Model |
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| 107 - The Lab Brat |
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| 108 - Pinch Sitter |
Pinch Sitter" was definitely a great episode. Daria was convinced by Quinn to babysit for the Gupty kids, and it turned out to be Daria's worst nightmare -- nauseatingly sweet kids, made that way by parents who had to be even more nauseatingly sweet than the kids were (hey, the parents had more time to develop that overly sweet style). Fortunately, when Daria called in Jane, Jane took charage and soon they made the kids more rebellious & less sweet. And best of all, Daria was able to use the experience for a paper in DeMartino's class! Too bad the "brainwashing" wore off by the time of "I Loathe a Parade".
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| 109 - Too Cute |
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| 110 - The Big House |
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| 111 - Road Worrier |
I liked "The Road Worrier". It had Daria in a rare position (especially for Season 1): stifling her well-developed sarcasm for a guy she likes! However, in a trend that develops over the seasons, Daria's fears prove unnecessary, as Trent appreciates her sarcasm and she is able to bond with Trent pretty nicely. Daria just has to get through some minor (but hilarious) mishaps to get a chance to bond with Trent.
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| 112 - The Teachings of Don Jake |
"The Teachings of Don Jake" had several good points to it. First, as
Mike Quinn once said, the A and B plots were very well connected. Second, we get
to hear from Jake some of the trauma he faced when he was younger -- a
controlling father and a horrible corporal. Third, there's the glitter berries,
which proceed to drive all but Daria temporarily crazy (thanks to the simple
fact that Daria never ate the berries).
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| 113 - The Misery Chick |
The Misery Chick" is a very good episode. We see Daria in a most unaccustomed position -- being "popular", in a way. Of course, it's not for the usual reasons -- everyone wants advice on how to deal with Tommy Sherman's death, and Daria is considered "the misery chick" because she rarely smiles. Meanwhile, Jane's avoiding Daria partly out of guilt (they had joked that maybe Sherman would die), and partly because she doesn't want to think too much about death. It's neat to see Trent not be oblivious as well. Oh, and I cheered a bit when Daria told Sherman off after she (and we) saw how big a jerk he is.
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| 201 - Arts 'N Crass" |
It had Daria & Jane constantly frustrated, only to come out on top at the end. It also showed the essential nature of both Ms. Li and Mr. O'Neill, and had a good message in the poster -- you shouldn't want to be pretty enough that you become bulimic or anorexic.
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| 202 - The Daria Hunter |
I put this ahead of "The Old and the Beautiful" because I liked seeing Brittany use military strategy, and liked seeing the beginning of Ms. Barch and Mr. O'Neill's relationship.
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| 203 - Quinn the Brain |
It was the beginning of Quinn's development of some depth in the series -- or at least, the beginning of an attempt to appear deep. Doesn't matter much, it's progress.
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| 204 - I Don't |
The first episode with Aunts Amy & Rita makes this episode a good one. And I wonder if Quinn really understood that the minister was trying to come on to her? I know I figured it out pretty quickly.
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| 205 - That was Then, This is Dumb |
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| 206 - Monster |
Here we see that Quinn has at least enough intelligence to know that she oftentimes acts shallow because being shallow is (at least at this point) what she does best. Episodes like this indicate that in some ways, her self-esteem is rather low, despite her popularity. She's probably competitive, but she can't compete with Daria in the brains department, so she takes the looks route.
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| 207 - The New Kid |
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| 208 - Gifted |
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| 209 - Ill |
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| 210 - Fair Enough |
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| 211 - See Jane Run |
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| 212 - Pierce Me |
I liked "Pierce Me" well enough,
since it showed that Daria was vulnerable to doing stupid things for a guy she
really appreciates -- i.e., she's human, after all. And I'm like Daria in the
reason why I never had any piercings -- I'm not fond of the pain that comes from
piercing. Still, it's not my favorite episode.
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| 213 - Write Where It Hurts |
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| 301 - Through A Lens Darkly |
My pick by a small margin is "Through a Lens Darkly". It had Daria (as she has done throughout the series) gradually come to realize she shouldn't be so hard on herself (in this case, for being a bit vain). But it gave the lesson better than "Partner's Complaint".
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| 302 - The Old And The Beautiful |
It was just boring to me.
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| 303 - Depth Takes A Holiday |
I actually liked the episode, though not as much as FLM. It was a neat take on holiday specials of other shows, and I laughed quite a bit during the show. That's why the fact that so many people dislike this show so strongly completely floors me.
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| 304 - Daria Dance Party |
True, it didn't feature Daria or Jane prominently, but it was one of the best ensemble episodes (if not the best one) out there. One of the most interesting things I saw was a flashback to the young Sandi where her mother tells her that volunteering means "Use me". Maybe it's no wonder that Sandi tries to use others -- so she can't be used herself.
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| 305 - The Lost Girls |
Val's very annoying. Enough said.
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306 - It Happened One Nut |
A weak and rather uninteresting episode, although the fact that Trent manages to avoid embarrassing Daria further is neat.
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| 307 - Daria! |
Why? Two reasons. One, I like musicals, so a musical Daria episode is definitely intriguing. Second, I loved seeing Jake's "Gah-gah-damnit!" song, with the beginning parody of Speed Racer.
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| 308 - Lane Miserables |
Here we see the rest of the Lane family, and they definitely make the Morgendoffers seem less dysfuctional. I'm willing to bet Amanda & Vincent Lane's lassiez-faire parenting style is indirectly responsible for the difficulties the oldest Lane children faced. Children need attention & boundaries, and if they don't get either, they wind up like the oldest Lane children. Also, we see the first big blow to Daria's idealized view of Trent, or the first big blow to "the Crush", as so many people call it. Trent's a nice guy, but he's too much of a slacker, and Daria begins to see it clearly for the first time. However, Eichler's realistic enough to realize that crushes aren't destroyed overnight, so he allows the Crush to return -- but it will never be the same again.
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| 309 - Jake of Hearts |
it was an okay episode, but not one of my favorites -- in fact, there's not much I remember about the episode. "Mart of Darkness" was definitely not a great episode either, but it struck a chord with me. When I was about 3 years old, a child psychologist was trying to test me -- by asking me to put some raisins in a jar. Instead, I ate the raisins. The child psychologist complained to my father, who basically said, "What did you expect?" Indeed, she should've figured that raisins weren't the best thing to give a 3-year old girl as part of a test -- marbles would've been a better choice, as I seriously doubt I would've tried to eat them. Another interesting aspect of this episode is the fact that Jane definitely is guilty of thinking that Tom ought to know that the gummi bears were for her art project if she didn't even put them near her sculpture -- similar to the flaw in the child psychologist's reasoning when I was a kid.
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| 310 - Speedtrapped |
This episode is definitely a very good one. One can definitely feel for Daria here -- she's just gotten her license when Jane asks her to bail Mystik Spiral out of jail in a town where the group's performing, and then Quinn tags along, leading to an encounter with a smooth-talking cowboy talking Quinn out of the money Daria was bringing along to help Jane out! Fortunately, Daria & Quinn find out that they can be a good team as they get money from other cowboys! Here we definitely see signs that Daria & Quinn are moving toward being more like each other than they were in Season 1.
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| 311 - The Lawndale File |
"The Lawndale Files" was also an episode I liked. We see a lot of mistakes that happened because someone overheard a comment but misunderstood the meaning of it (the use of the word "alien" is a good example), or seeing something really strange going on and jumping to a wrong conclusion (Quinn's dressing up in a black turtleneck, and Trent's song being the primary examples). This provides us with quite a few hilarious situations, like when Upchuck, Kevin, Brittany, Jodie, Mack, & Mr. O'Neill converge in the woods, and they each have different reasons for being there!
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| 312 - Just Add Water |
"Just Add Water" is the
worst of the 12's, without a doubt. It's a filler episode, which isn't terrible
but isn't great either. Worse, the premise is just simply uninteresting for me.
Perhaps it's saving grace for me is the fact that it has a couple of parodies of
Titanic in there. One of the worst Daria episodes that I've ever watched, in
short.
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| 313 - Jane's Addition |
It's the episode where we first meet Tom Sloane, and where the nail's hammered into the coffin of Daria's crush on Trent. Here, we see that Daria's so dependent on Jane socially that she becomes too protective when Jane takes an interest in another guy (even if the guy's not a jerk). And here we (and Daria) see clearly why Trent's not the right guy for Daria -- he's not reliable enough. All this provides tension, and makes it a very good episode.
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| 401 - Partner's Complaint |
It wasn't a bad episode, but it was just a little bit less than the other three.
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| 402 - Antisocial Climbers |
It was an okay episode, and the best of those that were very similar to each other that I'd seen ("Just Add Water" and "The Daria Hunter" being the other two ones I saw). But it wasn't the greatest.
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| 403 - A Tree Grows In Lawndale |
It was a mess of an episode.
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| 404 - Murder, She Snored |
A neat dream episode, where we get to see Daria's opinions of at least some of her fellow schoolmates. Though I wonder why she'd have Jane be one of the murderers in her dream sequence.
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| 405 - The 'F' Word |
We do get to see some interesting examples of people failing in various ways, some of the ways rather surprising indeed. And we get to see a new Jane, though she quickly returns to the old Jane. The only problem is that there was too much extraneous material crowding out the issues dealing with Jane's brush with conformity.
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| 406 - I Loathe A Parade |
ILAP is the episode which hinted at a future "love triangle", and in its own right had a lot of great moments.
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| 407 - Of Human Bonding |
It definitely wasn't bad, but it wasn't as interesting as the other two episodes I saw.
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| 408 - Psycho Therapy |
We see the Morgendoffers learning quite a bit about themselves -- as much as they can, that is. We also see that Daria has a good understanding of all the flaws of her family, herself included. And then we see more problems with Jane & Tom. In this & the other two episodes which focus on Jane & Tom's misunderstandings (ILAP & "Mart of Darkness"), we see that the main reason for these problems is that Jane seems to make the mistake of thinking that Tom is going to know things that he can't possibly know (more on that when I do my remarks on MOD).
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| 409 - Mart Of Darkness |
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| 410 - Legends Of The Mall |
A good "filler" episode, neat fun but without much content. Still, that's not always such a bad thing, as this episode shows. I would probably say that of the stories-within-the-story, "Metal Mouth" is the best, but none of the stories were terrible. Basically, pleasant fun.
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| 411 - Groped By An Angel |
Groped by an Angel" wasn't a terrible episode, but a little too much time might have been spent on incidental issues which could've been better spent on the main issue of the story. At least we see Quinn trying to develop spirituality, even if she goes about it the wrong way (as she often does in various ways during the series). After all, even if Quinn had a guardian angel, it's not necessarily at her beck and call during minor mishaps -- it'll probably be more likely to show up when she really needs help.
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| 412 - Fire! |
I liked "Fire!" It was the real beginning of the "love triangle",
and therefore put Daria & Jane in a position like almost none they've ever
experienced before. I think Daria was trying to deny that she was attracted to
Tom throughout the episode, and I can understand why. First of all, he's Jane's
boyfriend, and Jane's her best friend. Second, Daria's never had a boyfriend (I
don't think either Ted or Trent count), and she's very picky when it comes to
close relationships. However, Trent's right in saying that she has to face
what's going on around her and within herself as well. As for Jane, her
jealousy's understandable as well, but very unfortunate. All around, the
episode's pretty dramatic and sets the scene for further trouble, which we see
in "Dye! Dye! My Darling". The only weak part is possibly the scenes with Quinn
and her "stalker" bellboy friend, Bobby.
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413 - Dye! Dye! My Darling |
The first episode I ever saw of Daria. For that reason alone, the episode is very high on my list of favorite Daria episodes. But it's high on my list for more than just that reason. Here we see a most unusual situation amongst high-school sitcom girls -- Daria actually wants to keep her friendship with Jane, so much so that she denies being attracted to Tom (a denial that's probably not true). For a contrast, I can point out Betty & Veronica from the Archie comics. And this episode is noteworthy for one other thing -- Daria's first kiss, and the consequences of that first kiss on her relationship with Jane (and Jane's relationship with Tom). It also inspired my first effort into the realm of Daria fanfiction -- "Inner Demons". In short, a great episode.
I'm going with "Dye! Dye! My Darling" because it inspired my fanfic "Inner Demons", because it's the first Daria episode I ever saw, and because I like Tom. |
| MOVIE - Is it Fall Yet? |
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| 501 - Fizz Ed |
It was okay, at best, though the scene where Ms. Li goes beserk and smashes those soda cans was hilarious! She asked for trouble, if you ask me.
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| 502 - Sappy Anniversary |
Quinn's advice about how to tell if a guy's paying attention to you or not is just like her, and it triggers doubts within Daria's mind as to whether Tom's taking her for granted. It was a relief to see that her doubts were off base. I also liked seeing Jake's efforts at getting into a dot.com corporation go bad, as one might expect.
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| 503 - Fat Like Me |
It had so many great points. It showed that Quinn does care for Sandi after all. It had Daria and Jane meddle in the Fashion Club's affairs. It had Stacy get a backbone -- surely enough for someone to rate it highly. And it spelled the beginning of the end of Sandi's reign of tyranny.
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| 504 - Camp Fear |
Could've shown a bit more about Daria and Quinn's camping experience than it did. A rather weak episode, overall.
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| 505 - The Story of D |
I could definitely sympathize with Daria when her story got rejected. As a writer of several fanfics (one of them being a Daria fanfic), I liked seeing Daria try to publish one of her stories. My suggestion to her would be that she try to write a Melody Powers story for the magazine. They might like it. Oh, and I liked seeing Helen freak out over the idea of Tom and Daria being alone together, since I knew that they wouldn't be having sex.
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| 506 - Lucky Strike |
We see further development of Quinn's brain, we see Daria take a brief turn as a teacher, and we see Quinn finally admit that Daria's her sister, confirming that Sandi's tyranny is at an end!
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| 507 - Art Burn |
I loved seeing what Stacy did with the caricature.
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| 508 - One J at a Time |
One J at a Time" is a pretty good episode, actually. We see that Quinn's maturing enough that now she's beginning to want to be mature, and that fear of being immature is what leads her to try to get a steady boyfriend. Her problem here is that she doesn't really know how to keep a steady relationship, quite possibly because she's just not ready for a steady relationship. Daria has a different problem -- Helen wants Daria to invite Tom over for supper, but Daria's understandably afraid that Jake will make a fool out of himself. However, Daria's fears prove to be less founded than she might've thought, as Jake is able to bond with both Tom & Jeffy. Also, as someone who's raced on go-kart tracks, I thought the final sequence with the go-karts was cool.
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| 509 - Life in the Past Lane |
I loved seeing Stacy show Sandi up, and for once Stacy was only acting when she cried! As for Jane's actions in the episode, I think she's done things she might otherwise not do for cute guys before -- there was Evan in "See Jane Run" (I hope this is part of the upcoming marathon, as I want to see this episode), and unless my reading of the summary's wrong, she allowed him to talk her into joining the track team. Maybe Tom and Daria were being selfish when they didn't even try to take part in the open-air nostalgia fest, but I don't think they were the only ones at fault here. Nathan definitely didn't make them feel comfortable when the "gang" arrived, and I don't think Daria's the type of girl to mix with people she doesn't feel comfortable with if she can help it. Anyway, the main reason why I prefer this one is because I haven't seen TC or "Ill", and because of the Stacy part of the plot.
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| 510 - Aunt Nauseam |
The return of Aunt Amy & Aunt Rita is a good one, and it creates good continuity with "The Story of D", where we learned of marital problems between Rita's daughter, Erin, & Brian. We see that compared to the Barksdale sisters, Daria & Quinn are normal -- Helen, Rita, & even Amy get into the most silly fights ever, as Daria & Quinn show them. It's interesting to see the reactions of Quinn and Daria to the arguing in their household before Daria calls in Aunt Amy. The only bad point is possibly the "B" plot with Stacy & Tiffany having similar dresses. Oh, and Daria's actions toward Tom while her mother and Aunt Rita are arguing aren't great either, but fortunately she makes up for them at the end.
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| 511 - Prize Fighters |
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| 512 - My Night at Daria's |
This is definitely one of the best "Daria and Tom relationship"
episodes out there, imho. First, we see the problems that can occur with rumors
and gossip. Quinn thinks Daria and Tom slept together, and spreads the story
around, and of course rumors get wilder as they're told. Second, we see Daria
grappling with the problem of intimacy, something that is part of the reason why
she oftentimes pushes people away from her. Third, we see a realistic portrayal
of how an intelligent girl can pressure herself to try something she's really
not ready to handle. Fourth, we see that you can have intimacy without
necessarily having sex. And fifth, we even get to hear a little bit about
whether other characters have had sex or not. Unsurprisingly, Kevin &
Brittany have had sex, and it appears that Jodie & Mack have had sex as
well, while Jane never slept with Tom (and most likely, not with anybody
else).
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| 513 - Boxing Daria |
Here Eichler shows us a plausible picture of how Daria became the way she is today. We also get a great look at Daria actually questioning some of her assumptions about earlier actions. Had she been wrong all this time when she thought that her family was driving her crazy? Was she the one who was torturing them? The answer is, she's just so different from the crowd that her family drove her crazy sometimes, and she drove her family crazy sometimes. Hopefully, this little insight will help her be a little more tolerant without causing her to sacrifice too much of what makes her unique.
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| MOVIE - Is it College Yet? |
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