TV Done Right blog hop - 90’s throwback because I can…

When Deb set up this blog hop, the TV addict than I am go very excited. I wanted to talk about Orphan Black. I wanted to rave back Sleeping Hollow. I wanted to praise Columbo. I wanted to wink at Downton Abbey… But then I saw Claire Danes as Angela Chase on my TV screen and… My So Called Life and Daria won. Hear, hear to the 90’s and their awkward teenagers!

Most people know Claire Danes because of her role in Homeland and Temple Grandin, but for me she will always be Angela Chase in My So Called Life. The show only lasted a season 1994 – 1995 before being cancelled. Nothing was wrong with it except the fact that maybe the viewers (abc network) weren’t ready for a show like this one 20 years ago. Hint: Dawson’s Creek in 1998, Gilmore Girls in 2000, One Tree Hill in 2003, all WB shows. 

I am so misunderstood...

The show revolves around Angela Chase and her frequent inner monologues about her everyday angsts as a 15 years old teenager. Unlike many shows before and after, not only Angela is really 15 but she also looks 15, making all the 14 to17 years old girls like me back then identifying with her. Her parents don’t live in LA and her friends don’t drive cars to go to school. No, she’s just a girl who takes the bus, wears regular clothes most likely bought at Target or somewhere like that and dyes her hair in her bathroom. I was a teenager in French speaking Africa and we could all relate. Can any teenagers relate to a show from the past 5 years? Any vampires in your small town lately? Any Pretty Little Liars? Should even mention 90210?

Angela is in love, his name is Jordan Catalano, a name and a face I will remember until the day I died. Jordan is played beautifully by Jared Leto, so well I really believed that he was one of those hot but dumb boys we all have in our schools. The long hair, the dreamy eyes, his band “The Frozen Embryos”, the baggy clothes… Angela, we all fell in love Jordan Catalano. But Jordan doesn’t known that Angela exists, he’s just too cool (or stupid) for that. So with her new friends Ryanne and Rickie, she sneaks into a party where he might be.  I’ve done that once or twice…

When she finally gets to be with Jordan, it should be happy ever after but no, then came the pressure of sex with one of my favorite lines from Jordan “It's accepted! It's what you're supposed to do! Unless you're like...abnormal?” So they break up. Jordan ends up sleeping with her best friend Ryanne. Bad, very bad! But Jordan being Jordan Catalano, has another boy, Brian or Cyrano, writing a letter to Angela to win her back. And it worked, because at 15, we tend to overlook the fact that a boy that has been held back TWICE and needs constant tutoring, may not be able to write you such an eloquent love letter… or maybe not?

But that’s not all. The Chase family, Patti and Graham, were fantastic and had their own issues. Patti is working for her father and Graham works there too but he really wants to be a chef and tries to open a restaurant with a young nice looking female partner.

Ryanne Graff, first introduced as the life of the party for her clothing choice and quirkiness, was really a teenager with substance abuse, alcohol and pills. When she has an accidental overdose in her apartment with only Angela and Ricky there, Patti Chase is the one who saved her. She knew exactly what to do. Yes, Ryanne is troubled and by the end of the season/series wasn’t in good term with Angela but you can’t help but loving her. 

Her protector and friend Rickie Vasquez, a gay teenager (in 1994! Take that Glee), has his own set of problems with his family. He’s physically abused and ends up sleeping on the streets before being taken in by the Chase and then his teacher. Finally, you have Brian Krikow and Sharon Cherski, they both knows Angela since childhood but when Angela becomes friends with Ryanne and Rickie, she and Sharon grow apart. Brian or Cyrano is in love with Angela and is her next-door neighbor, he’s cute but he’s no Jordan Catalano.

There you have it, this all happened within 19 episodes. It’s been twenty years and we’re still thinking about this great show. 

Now let’s head out and meet Daria Morgendorffer. She’s too smart and opinionated for her own good. Her mother, a lawyer works too much and lives on the phone. Her father has his own start-up and it’s not going too well. Her sister Quinn pretends that she doesn’t know her outside of their home and vice versa. Daria is an MTV animated series and a satire on teenagers’ lives in the 90’s:

·                     The stupid cheerleader with the even stupider jock.

·                     The overworked but unpaid teachers.

·                     The headmistress always trying to make some money.

·                     The change in family dynamic with a hard working mother and more layback father.

·                     “The Fashion Club” and the need to be popular.

Daria has it all. I was so sad to see the show go when she graduated from high school. But since then, it inspires so many artists.

Daria and Jane Montreal Edition!

Even what would they look like now?

In many ways Daria and Angela are similar, both outsider, both in love with a hot dumb boy in a band (in this one Jane’s older brother Trent) and both having an eccentric best friend. However, Daria stole Jane’s boyfriend in this one.

I don’t know if teenagers today can relate to this show to but they should listen to You’re Standing on My Neck, the theme song. It is so 90’s!

Thank you for reading my 90’s Throwback… Who’s next? Erin!