Caira

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Red episode names indicate favorites.

101 - Esteemsters	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
102 - The Invitation	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
103 - College Bored	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
104 - Cafe Disaffecto	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
105 - Malled	Lacklustre, should have been better considering the target material. That said, it's not in the league of, say, Of Human Bonding or other such stinkers.
106 - This Year's Model	The whole is less than the sum of the parts. The target for the satire is perfect, Claude and Romanica are funny, Ms Li is funny, Kevin and Brittany haven't started to grate too much yet and are funny, the mercenaries are bloody hilarious... but it all stitches together about as well my mother's sewing. Not bad, but not one I'd take with me to a desert island. (There'd be less room for food, for a start...)
107 - The Lab Brat	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
108 - Pinch Sitter	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
109 - Too Cute	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
110 - The Big House	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
111 - Road Worrier	Funny, solid plotting, and the 'shippers would take any excuse anyway.
112 - The Teachings of Don Jake	Next to TMC and The Invitation, one of my favourite S1 eps. Some brilliant lines, Jake's eyeballs, Jane's grandma, glitter berries, and... "she'll have to call you back."
113 - The Misery Chick	A.J.>A glimpse into Daria's personality. If there was any doubt where she was coming from in S1, you see it here, she is who she is and nothing will change that... True, but also note the Tennyson discussion and the fact that this is the first episode where D&J really argue over anything. In hindsight, this had the first signs of actual char-dev in the series. (I was going to say continuity but that's something that we really didn't see much of. Ever.
201 - Arts 'N Crass	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
202 - The Daria Hunter	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
203 - Quinn the Brain	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
204 - I Don't	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
205 - That was Then, This is Dumb	Refer Malled. Ethan was kinda amusing though.
206 - Monster	Monster: I remember really enjoying this ep, and I don't remember why. Lousy non-functional video recorder... Umm... it was okay. It was OKAY, all right!? Are you happy?!? HUH?!?
207 - The New Kid	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
208 - Gifted	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
209 - Ill	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
210 - Fair Enough	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
211 - See Jane Run	Nice Jane episode. May be one of the early examples that whole bitch-Daria tangent that apparently marred S5 but that's hardly Ms Romberg's fault.
212 - Pierce Me	The shipper ep to end all shipper eps. Ha! If only... Not as well-plotted as TRW. Blah. Talking toilet bit was cool though, if only because of all the times Lew's fic wound up quoting it.
213 - Write Where It Hurts	This should have been spread over more than one episode. Yeah, yeah, touching Helen-Daria moment, yada, yada, but it's in the same episode as Daria chewing off Helen like we haven't seen her since The Lab Brat. Not bad, even in this company, but sorry, folks, I'm not buying. Kara Wild>Note to Caira: IMO, the bonding between Daria and Helen wasn't limited to this episode: it started in "Arts N Crass" and was felt in other Season Two episodes, like "Monster." Happily conceded --- I still think the buildup could have been done better, and An'C struck me more as a tiger conveniently falling into the path of a shark, but that doesn't apply to "Monster" or "Ill", say --- but WWIH specifically moved too quickly for me to really believe what was happening. Even a "two weeks later" screen after Act Two would have helped. Maybe my experiences're weird, but I can't see anyone getting over that kind of big fight so fast.
301 - Through A Lens Darkly	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
302 - The Old And The Beautiful	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
303 - Depth Takes A Holiday	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
304 - Daria Dance Party	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
305 - The Lost Girls	The major objections to this ep seem to be (1) Val's sheer obnoxiousness and (2) Daria's inaction in the face of (1). Big whoop. I didn't find Val annoying at all --- personal opinion, yadda yadda --- and Daria's inaction merely served to further the episode's point. Not necessarily a good thing, but the more horrors from Val we saw the more pathetically funny things got.
306 - It Happened One Nut	Stuff happened", eh? Not to be rude, but that could cover most Daria episodes. This episode specifically, however, covered the Stupid Job, an element of the high school life portrayed on the show that an Australian like myself can actually relate to. You don't learn responsibility or valuable life lessons by getting a job like this, you learn that repeatedly humiliated gets you money. Oh, wait a second... Not as bad as advertised, I think people were expecting Daria to grow up or something and were disappointed when this wasn't char-dev. Go figure.
307 - Daria!	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
308 - Lane Miserables	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
309 - Jake of Hearts	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
310 - Speedtrapped	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
311 - The Lawndale File	Best weird-s__t episode besides The Episode That Shall Not Be Named By People Without A Sense Of Humour (kidding, kidding). Funny as hell. Can anyone else see Kevin in politics? And the resolution... see sig. "There's always a logical explanation if you're prepared to stretch credibility far enough." Robert Rankin
312 - Just Add Water	Follow Daria and Jane's lead and catch some Z's. Even so, this isn't that bad. No, really...
313 - Jane's Addition	Plot weaknesses (why did the project need music? Why did it have to be original?) and of course we have the roots of the Daria/Tom romance. Heh. That, and neither subplot did anything for me.
401 - Partner's Complaint	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
402 - Antisocial Climbers	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
403 - A Tree Grows In Lawndale	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
404 - Murder, She Snored	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
405 - The 'F' Word	Feel free to employ a few. Like ATGIL, this isn't as bad as its reputation, but that's not saying much. Another S4 balloon.
406 - I Loathe A Parade	I Loathe A Parade: A tightly-plotted episode which incidentally showed us that there might be the beginnings of "something" between Daria and Tom, a "something" we saw the end of in Fire/DDMD/ILAP. Unfortunately, the writers appear to not have watched enough Sesame Street, where they'd have learned that stories need to have a middle as well. Plus there was the line about Daria "needing to laugh out loud at the ridiculous horror of all this." Uhm, isn't that what she did --- or smirk, at any rate --- anyway? Still, back when you first saw it, this rocked, especially after so many hollow S4 eps. Hell, even Daniel Suni gave it a good grade.
407 - Of Human Bonding	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
408 - Psycho Therapy	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
409 - Mart Of Darkness	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
410 - Legends Of The Mall	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
411 - Groped By An Angel	Its sole redeeming feature was that it affirmed the possibility of there being more than one or two dimensions to that Quinn character. Otherwise, a complete waste. Some shots at organised religion... well, they did go astray, didn't they? Plus there was Daria and Quinn's little after-school-special moment near the end. Especially considering what would happen if you took Daria's advice to its logical conclusion... I'm not sure if that's damn subtle humour on the part of the writers, or just stupidity. Probably the latter.
412 - Fire!	Okay, I'll (breiefly) reiterate a few of the usual arguments against this ep: 1. The serious Daria plot and less serious Quinn plot don't mesh too well. 2. Romance BAD! Satire GOOD! (At least in the case of _Daria_. Unless someone can dig up some Lost S4 Ep which deals adequately with Daria and Tom's evolving relationship between now and ILAP.) 3. Daria's apparent ignorance of the irony and abnormality of her situation --- or, as Kara Wild put it, "why didn't she ever stop and say, 'Hold on a second, when did my life become _Dawson's Creek_?'" All I can add to these is that the writers perhaps weren't as clueless about #3 as we all thought. Notice the title of this episode --- "Fire!". Notice the title of the Paula Cole album which has the _Dawson's Creek_ theme song on it --- "This Fire". It's a conspiracy, I tell you...
413 - Dye! Dye! My Darling	Shut your eyes and you can pretend that Glenn's guest-writing on Dawson's Creek. Well, at least it's all consistent plot-wise. Inspired some fanfic I'll never have time to write. There were some jokes in here, weren't there?
MOVIE - Is it Fall Yet?	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
501 - Fizz Ed	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
502 - Sappy Anniversary	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
503 - Fat Like Me	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
504 - Camp Fear	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
505 - The Story of D	Review on hold until Martin finishes the transcript, hell freezes over or the ABC broadcasts season five (in which case Satan will be in the market for snow tyres anyway).
506 - Lucky Strike	It's one of the great fanfic clich�s, seeing it revealed properly that Daria is not, in fact, Quinn's cousin/au pair/niece/stepmother's jailed brother's illegitimate daughter or whatever but in fact her blood sister. But this time the show's writers did it better than any fic author (pity that couldn't happen more often!) Of course, this tends to lead people to overlook the other good things about this ep --- all the plots blend perfectly, and they're all worthwhile on their own. The teachers on strike, the scabs, Jake's model railway... okay, maybe that last one went a bit overboard. But still. Brilliant ep.
507 - Art Burn	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
508 - One J at a Time	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
509 - Life in the Past Lane	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
510 - Aunt Nauseam	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx
511 - Prize Fighters	Martin, SUSU, how much do I need to pay you guys to finish the transcripts?
512 - My Night at Daria's	Okay, am I the only one who'd like to see Daniel Suni review this ep--- no, strike that. I'd like to see him go over the script with two different-coloured highlighter pens, indicating the bits he did and didn't like and noting the many changes in opinion in mid-scene. Oh, my point? This episode, from a strict S1 interp, is about 50% parody of the treatment of teenage sex in the media and society at large, and 50% what the other half parodies. Not bad, certainly it could have been a lot worse, but... well, Daria's revenge on Quinn seemed a bit too nasty to me, remembering Monster and GBAA. That, and Daria would look terrible in heels.
513 - Boxing Daria	What WWIH should have been. Best char-dev ep ever. Rocks from start to finish. And lost more mindless praise with no specific justification. Get the point? Plus great Mike Y. fanfic.
MOVIE - Is it College Yet?	12345678912xxxxxxxxxxxx

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