Daria

[miriam_e]

Yesterday I had to travel into town. I ventured into the big shopping center and looked over the DVDs to see if there is anything worth buying.

I found "Runaways" -- the story of Joan Jett and Cherie Curry and the girls' rock group The Runaways. Great music, cool story. Normally I don't buy DVDs I haven't already seen, either as downloads or rentals, however I was glad I did this time.

But the really exciting catch was the complete set of "Daria" cartoons -- all 5 seasons plus the two movies and the intros to the Daria Day showings. There are also various extras, such as interviews.

I love this show. Who in their right mind would try making something like this? -- an animated comedy about a "brainy chick" who speaks in almost a monotone and uses sarcasm to deal with being overly intelligent and well-read in a school where people seem obsessed with superficiality. Her best friend is an independently-thinking artist who similarly has no time for fashion or the "normal" things we're all told we should want.

For a long time the only way you could see this series was either on TV (it has been screening pretty-much continuously in many countries around the world, such is its success) or to download all the episodes via filesharing on the net. As I don't have TV the latter is how I have been able to see the show. I was one of the thousands of people who signed a petition to get the show released on DVD. Daria's makers were, however, pessimistic about the chances of the DVD set seeing the light of day because licensing the music that forms much of the soundtrack was a legal nightmare. Well, they seem to have finally found a way forward (I think they omitted all the popular music from the background).

So. Yay!!! Daria!!!

Comments

[greylock]

I liked Daria. I think most folks did.
It wasn't always great, and I never saw too many episodes, but it was consistently impressive.

[miriam_e]

It certainly was an impressive body of work.

I hope somebody makes something else along those lines in the future -- not another Daria, of course, but something even better. No doubt they will. I used to think that genius is a constant, but in recent years I've come to realise that it is outpacing the mediocre. (Good news for our future.)

There were some plans, a while back, to make a live-action Daria movie. That could be really good or really bad.

[greylock]

Looking at the Wiki I had no idea Daria was a spin-off of Beavis and Butt-head, or that Daria appeared as a recurring character.

I am stunned.

[miriam_e]

Yes, when I first found that out I was stunned too. I despise "Beavis and Butthead".

When you said the "Wiki" at first I thought you meant Outpost Daria. I used to go there to read some Daria stories when I wanted more, but had watched the shows too many times. :) You were probably referring to Wikipedia though.

[greylock]

I despise "Beavis and Butthead" and "Ren and Stimpy".
I was not a stoner in the 1990s.

I don't think there's a co-incidence there.

Yes, Wikipedia. :)