The Show
Before receiving this box set for review, I hadn’t seen the series in nearly a decade, but it didn’t take long to re-acquaint myself with the regular cast of characters. At the center of these is of course, Daria. Intelligent, reserved, witty, and sarcastic, Daria is completely content with being unpopular in school. Despite trying to ‘fly under the radar,’ Daria often becomes involved in some kind of social situation but her calm demeanor and attitude always manage to get her back to her mellow comfort zone, unscathed. Her best friend Jane, that she meets in the first episode, is similar to Daria — unpopular, yet smart and generally pessimistic, or perhaps realistic, you might say. Over the course of five seasons, these two share many conversations.
Then there’s Daria’s younger sister, Quinn, and Jane’s older brother, Trent. Quinn is literally the opposite of Daria — dumb, popular, and sought by high school boys. Her biggest concern in life is making sure she is popular and that she has nothing to do with anything that isn’t popular. Trent, probably my favorite character besides Mr. Demartino, is guitarist in his own band (Mystikal Spirit). He helps Jane and Daria out sometimes by driving them or just by not being a jerk like so many people in Daria’s life are. Daria has a crush on Trent, something he can never know (but Jane knows).
Jake and Helen are Daria and Quinn’s parents. They have a major presence in the show and viewers will see plenty of examples of how out of touch they are with their kids. Jake’s temper is epic and the source of some good humor. Then there is also Kevin, the quarterback for the football team that is as clueless as Brittany, his blonde cheerleader girlfriend. Finally, my personal favorite, Mr. Demartino, the history teacher with a fiery attitude whose blood pressure never ceases to rise. The voice acting and animation on his part, as well as his dialogue, makes for plenty of comedy.
Each episode focuses on another day in the life of Daria as she works her way through high school, dealing with all of the stress and situations that are typical of a high schooler. It’s funny, but not surprising, to think about how the character types portrayed in Daria are still very much applicable today. While a lot has changed in high school since the heyday of this show, so very much of it’s the same. I think that’s one reason this show may find a whole new audience and fan base now that this DVD set is released.
The Set
The Daria Series DVD set is well packaged in a sturdy case with simple, but effective box art — not unlike Daria’s personality. Inside of the DVD case are eight discs held securely on four plastic holders that turn like the pages of a book. The front cover insert is a yellow piece of paper with a note from show creator, Glenn Eichler. In his note, he explains that all of the licensed music used in the show during its broadcast days has been replaced with different music. The reason? The sheer cost of licensing. It’s a real shame that the show cannot be presented in its original form, but I can’t fault Glenn or MTV/Paramount for not paying a tremendous amount for the licensing fees to re-use the music. That said, the quality of the show is still great, and only the most hardcore fans will care about the lack of the original music.
Other than that unusual caveat, the presentation of the show on these eight discs is great. Each disc has a colorful, nicely put together menu that plays the theme song of the show. The label on each disc depicts different characters from the show, too. Each disc has about eight episodes, except for Disc 8 which includes the final two episodes, both movies, and the special features. The two movies, “Is It Fall Yet?” and “Is It College Yet?” are wisely included here.
As far as the image and sound quality go, they’re very good. What you have here is an animated TV show from the late 90s, so expect a full screen presentation and a competent Dolby audio track. Technically, the show looks and sounds just fine, no complaints.
There are several special features. These include:
-Pilot Episode, “Sealed With A Kick” – Animated in simple black and white, this episode has Daria tricking Kevin into thinking she likes him, but only after he smugly tells her that he’s convinced she does.
-Mystik Spirit Music Video, “Freakin Friends” – An animated music video of Trent’s band playing “Freakin Friends.”
-Daria Day Intros – A collection of intros that can also be played at the outset of some episodes.
-Top Ten Video Countdown Hosted by Daria & Jane – At some point during the run on MTV, Daria and Jane were featured in an MTV Top Ten countdown. This particular countdown features animated music videos, but these are skipped in the feature, probably due to licensing costs.
-Never-Before-Seen Mystik Spiral Spin-off Script – How about a spin-off of a spin-off? It almost happened before MTV Animation closed its doors. The idea was for a TV show about Trent and his band. This feature is a PDF of a script that was being drafted for the show.
-Cast & Crew Interviews – About six minutes of recent interviews with several cast and crew of the show. The main voice actors all chime in as well as Glenn Eichler. The actors talk about their characters and little else is really said — it’s a brief feature, but worth a watch.
That’s what you can expect out of this impressive Daria box set. Let’s get to the summary…
