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.

I totally loved this show. It's full of crazy characters (Daria's dad in particular) and hilarious stereotypes (who sadly reoccur with frightening frequency in real life). Plus it's the second show to be spun-off from Beavis and Butthead (King of the Hill being the first). It's weird to think of them all existing in the same world.

What separates Daria from other popular animation such as The Simpson's or Family Guy is the character interaction. In some places Daria almost feels like a drama, giving it a touch more integrity.

She's a tough girl to love. Daria basically has no faith in anything but her own judgment. It's makes a little bit hard to get close to her but she is a proud outsider in a mad world.

This DVD features the last (extended) episode of Daria making it to college and what happens once her High School life is over. There are two bonus episodes (Boxing Daria and Lucky Strike) included. The DVD is in 1.33:1 as drawn, the colors are bright and clear as is the Dolby 2.0 soundtrack.

This film, with IIFY preceding it, is by far the best made-for-cable movie I've ever seen. It does not help that I'm a devoted Daria junkie either. This piece really does send off the Daria legacy with all the class, humor, intelligence and respect the series always deserved but sometimes never received. I recommend that all Daria fans buy this on VHS or the expanded DVD form.

Final Score: an eternally-sarcastic 8/10.