Daria: She's Like You, Except Actually Cool

Sometimes I wish I was born earlier. Like, at the end of the eighties. I really do like being [insert age here; I always forget], but I missed out on a lot of cool stuff. I feel like I should be older. Albeit with the same very low maturity level. Anyway.

One of the things I was too young for but totally would have dug had I been old enough was Daria, which just came out on DVD yesterday. I can appreciate it now, yes, but there's nothing like seeing something and liking it the first time it comes on. But I never got to experience that.

Copy pasta from Salon:

I've come to the same conclusion as many of the devotees who signed petitions and clamored on message boards for the series' DVD release: "Daria" could have only happened at that time, during that strange, transitional period after the grunge and gangsta rap of the early '90s and before the boy bands and teen queens stepped up to create a glittery pop landscape in the '00s. It spoke directly to those of us on the borderlands between generation X and Y, growing up with the shadows of Kurt Cobain, Tupac and Biggie looming large, who could relate to "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" and "Reality Bites" as well as "The Craft" and "10 Things I Hate About You," who could identify with the screaming discontentment of the 1990s but could also feel the lighter, more hopeful influence of the easygoing and revirginized 2000s.

On all of those things, I missed out. Not alive in the early 90s but barely able to spell at the beginning of the 00s. (Well, actually, that's a lie. I've always been a pretty awesome speller. Although in 2000 I thought that 2 plus 2 was 5, so.)

But enough about me! Let's talk about the show! This isn't supposed to be a borderline lamentation of being born in the wrong decade! Exclamation points!

Set in a mid-Atlantic suburb, the series revolves around Daria and her family, the Morgendorffers. The minutiae of modern life are filtered through Daria's caustic lens, providing moments of apt reflection about the nature of adulthood. At first glance, Daria Morgendorffer appears to be a strange icon to come from the same network that gleefully produced "The Hills," "Laguna Beach," "Jersey Shore" and "My Super Sweet 16." After all, Daria's deadpan delivery and constant cynicism don't exactly fit with the new programming, and her friends are far too multidimensional to be seen on the channel today. Between the eclectic artist Jane Lane and the archetypal high-achieving model minority Jodie Landon (and matching boyfriend Mack), Daria finds backup during the turbulent teen years -- especially while dealing with Beavis and Butt-head clones Kevin and Brittany -- and the machinations of the Lawndale's self-proclaimed fashion police and popular girl squad, the Fashion Club. The series' complex web of teen life is almost impossible to imagine in the demographic-obsessed media market that has emerged since, when so many personalities gracing MTV direct all their contemplative energy toward the nearest tanning bed.

Harsh! But true, really. It's hard for anyone who hasn't heard of the show before to really comprehend that it was on MTV. But MTV was actually a pretty cool place back in the day. Not that there wasn't still stuff on the channel to make fun of -- and Daria did just that.

Daria and Jane were the misanthropic voice of their generation. Their mumbles, grunts, rolled eyes, were all relatable to the average teen outcast. Am I being sarcastic? Slightly, but only because I think that as much as every kid who ever watched the show wanted to be Daria, they never could be; Daria was much cooler than the archetype she was supposed to be representing. In retrospect, it's slightly disheartening, but at the same time, it's fun to think that people like that really exist. She was the weirdo messiah, except not nearly as annoying as you might think she'd be.

So, for years after the show was cancelled, people who felt validated, reaffirmed, comforted by Daria petitioned for the show to be on DVD. And now, nearly ten years later, it finally is. And the nice thing is, Daria, despite its roots firmly planted in that aformentioned transition period, still is applicable today. Everyone goes through their Daria phase, whether or not they're actually anything like her at all. At some point or another, teenagers feel hateful towards the world, to each other, and that's where she comes in.

I think if the DVD was ever going to come out, now is a good time. The people who watched it in their teen years are old enough to watch it with a nostalgic twinkle in their eye but still young enough to be able to enjoy it without an air of pretension. And then there's people who are only now just coming into their "Daria years," people who are starting to feel like they're in the wrong place, people who resent everything, who can take something from the show.

This blog is getting particularly sappy, so let's end it here. Please buy Daria on DVD because it's well worth it. It's stinking hilarious but also nice and reflective towards the end.

And if you could buy me a copy, too, that would be nice. It's a little expensive. I'm young and jobless. I just took an AP exam. Thanks!

Buy it here. And read a nice little interview here.