Daria: Adieu le lycée

Being a semi-fan of the MTV days' Daria and a mega-fan of the reruns (I didn't know what I was missing!), I sought out the two made-for-TV Daria movies and was not disappointed.

In this one, the series was given a great Finale, although I wished it hadn't ended at all. High school students planning for college and the changes it brings speaks to a great deal of Daria's audience. I always love to see the development of the characters, particularly Daria, Jane and Quinn, and this film continued to do so. I don't know of any other series that started off with a bunch of whimsical characters but somehow ended with histories and backgrounds to those characters and why many of them act and think the way they do (especially Quinn and Daria). While some thought-provoking events occur, there are also the highly amusing antics we've all come to expect (Brittney and Kevin, the future of the Fashion Club!!).

While "Is it Fall Yet?" was funnier, "Is it College Yet?" opened many windows into the characters and their thoughts, and still managed to highly entertain. 10/10.

There are very few original programmes on MTV that I can be encouraged to watch, and even fewer that actually reward the effort; to be precise, apart from "House of Style" - the Crawford Years, of course - the only one is "Daria." (Sorry fans of "The Osbournes," but reality TV is not my thing.)

Basically a feature-length final episode of the show, "Is It College Yet?" follows the ever-introspective Miss Morgendorffer and her friends and enemies as graduation and college near. Having not managed to see the show for a while thanks to MTV UK's idiotic scheduling (although bless Channel 5 for showing it terrestrially), it was a surprise to see that Daria had actually managed to get herself a boyfriend (and yet Quinn hadn't? Oh well).

In this opus things come to a head between her and Tom while she's pitching to go to Raft as opposed to the "better" Bramwell; Quinn gets a summer job at a restaurant and launches a drinking problem that plays a bit too much like a bad After School Special for comfort; Jane is unsure about going to college and pursuing her dreams as an artist; Jody doesn't want to go to a place where she'll be seen as the token black; and one of the characters (not Quinn) turns out to not be moving on from school, a subplot which really would have benefitted from a bit more depth... as opposed to the thread dealing with the lovelife of Mr. O'Neill, which would have benefitted from not being there at all.

The movie is a bit of a stretch in a 90-minute slot, and there are some elements (like Sandy losing her voice and the aforementioned O'Neill problem) that practically scream "padding," but Daria, Jane, Trent and the rest are as sparky as ever, and the movie does manage to wrap up the series in a fairly satisfactory fashion. "Is It College Yet?" isn't the show at its best, but it was always a gem in MTV's lineup, and the departure of "Daria" means more room for "Celebrity Deathmatch," "The Real World," "Videoclash," "Essential Insert-Name-Of-Rubbish-Pop-Star-Here"...

"Daria" 1997-2002. A "My So-Called Life" in a world of "Saved by the Bell"s.

Out of the two Daria movies, I much prefer this one. It has the same characters we all know and love, but now they have a much richer history to draw from. There is plenty of development here that is really engaging to follow as they move onto the next step of their lives.

When it was announced last year that 'Daria' was coming to an end, I have to admit I was disappointed. Then, when MTV aired the season five finale "Boxing Daria," I could only wonder how the 'Daria' crew could top it in the series finale. Unfortunately (?), they could not. However, the crew _did_ manage to put together a send-off that was very good, though not perfect.

The inevitable plot about graduation is the the main focus here, and remains interesting throughout. However, the secondary plots range from intriguing to not very good at all. I'm not going to go into great detail, but a few of my favorite situations were Quinn & Lindy's and Jane's. The most uninteresting (and one that could've been bettered with more exploration) were those with Brittany and Kevin. But even there we the viewers are thrown a few [small] redeeming bones. The best thing about these stories is that they weren't clearly wrapped up, leaving it up to the viewers to decide what happens. In a time where so many storylines are wrapped in neatly tied packages, this is quite a nice thing.

So, although this movie isn't as good as the best 'Daria,' it was still wholly entertaining through and through. It's sad that it's all over, but as creator Glenn Eichler said, they wanted to (and did) go out on a high note. Easy B+/8 material here, but it has the advantage of being a part of 'Daria'...9/10.

I have a confession. Even though I am an adult and parent of a teen, I watched all the Daria TV shows and movies when they first aired. Apparently, this show aimed at teens is something I could still enjoy--even though I am an old fuddy-duddy! Recently I bought copies of the two Daria movies. I would have bought the entire show, but so far they have not been released! How MTV could do that or allow the shows to have been rebroadcast a few years ago on Noggin (chopped up in many cases as well as only showing about half the episodes) is beyond me.

Towards the end of the series, MTV released two made for TV movies. The first, IS IT FALL YET? was probably the funniest of the two, while IS IT COLLEGE YET? was much more angst-filled due to the characters on the show's pending graduation. Even the usually self-assured Daria is worried about life after high school--which is ironic, as she hated almost every minute spent at Lawndale High! I also think I liked this movie less because it meant an end to the wonderful series--a show that was far better than the Luke-warm reception it received. I think a lot of this was because Daria was on MTV and because the network moved the show around a lot on the lineup. The reason being on MTV probably hurt the show was because by the late 1990s, MTV was no longer a music video channel, but began producing near-pornographic "reality" shows that frankly were stupid and vacuous--appealing to audiences that probably wouldn't appreciate DARIA (since there was no sex or naked teens "hot tubbing"). People liking Daria were in most cases the type people who would have hated the rest of the MTV lineup.

When you watch IS IT COLLEGE YET? there are a few things you should first know. First, don't watch it for the quality of the animation, since it's terrible. Instead, the show excelled because of the brilliant and insightful writing. Second, unless you have watched the TV show, much of what occurs in this movie probably won't make much sense. Still, if you are a fan, then this is a must-see.