‘Daria’: The 5 Best, Sassiest Episodes of the MTV Classic
Daria, the MTV animated comedy that revolved around the smart, deliciously deadpan titular heroine, premiered 20 years ago this month, and while talking and writing about the Beavis & Butthead spinoff has always proven to be a fun dive into ‘90s pop culture, nothing beats simply tuning in.
Here, our five favorite episodes of the series — one from each season. The most noteworthy aspect of the installments: how much they still resonate.
“The Misery Chick”
Season 1
Original airdate: July 21, 1997
When former Lawndale High football star Tommy Sherman comes back to campus for the dedication of a goal post in his honor, he’s treated like a celebrity by everyone but Daria, who witnesses him insult the current student athletes who worship him, and try to get teen cheerleader Brittany to go back to his hotel room with him. Daria calls him on his boorish behavior when he blocks her locker, prompting him to call her the “misery chick” who will never be a winner like him. As he walks away, Daria complains he’s going to be treated like a hero for the rest of his life, to which her BFF Jane quips, “Maybe he won’t live that long.” Funny, until moments later, when Tommy is crushed by the very goal post that was to honor his high school stardom, thus setting off a great exploration of how awkward and confusing death — especially that of someone who isn’t such a nice person — can be. Daria feels bad about Sherman’s death, but has no problem acknowledging he was a jerk. Jane feels guilty about the joke she made, and goes so far as to avoid Daria — and judge her friend’s lack of sadness about Sherman’s death — while Brittany wonders if she should feel bad that she doesn’t feel worse about Sherman, and even teacher Mr. Quinn wants to know how Daria deals with the “dark side” all the time (yes, there is a Daria joke about “the Force” here).
Everyone, save Jane, goes to an annoyed Daria for advice on how to maneuver their feelings about Sherman’s death, and she assumes it’s because they think the “misery chick” peddles in unhappiness. Not so, says Jane, when she and Daria finally hash out their own feelings. “When they say, ‘You’re always unhappy, Daria,’ what they mean is, ‘You think, Daria. I can tell, because you don’t smile. Now this guy died, and it makes me think, and that hurts my little head and makes me stop smiling,’” Jane tells her. “’So, tell me how you cope with thinking all the time, Daria, until I can get back to my normal vegetable state.’”
And the reason Jane has been avoiding Daria? “Because I’ve been trying not to think,” Jane says. “About the way we were making jokes about him dying and then, boom, it happened. I don’t like it when I say people should die, and then they do. I don’t want that kind of responsibility. At least not until I’ve got a job in middle management.”
“Write Where It Hurts”
Season 2
Original airdate: August 3, 1998
Mr. O’Neill assigns Daria to write her own fictional tale about people she knows, but aside from a take on The Graduate that finds Jane interrupting Kevin and Brittany’s wedding to flee with the groom, she has nothing to show for her literary efforts but several balls of wadded up story rejects.
Her writers block bums Daria out, because she sees it as her failure to be able to write something that says something… about something. Her mother tries to help, and only ends up comparing Daria to Quinn, while those crumpled up sheets of paper continue to pile up around Daria.
Her mother, stung by Daria’s accusation that she knows so little about her daughter, tries one more time to help by suggesting Daria’s problem is that the thing she finds easiest is the truth… she has no problem writing about what she sees around her. “What’s hard for you is being honest about your wishes. About the way you think things should be, not the way they are,” her mom says. “You gloss over it with a cynical joke and nobody finds out what you really believe in. If you really want to be honest, be truthful about what you’d like to happen.”
Daria’s impressed — and touched that her mom actually does get her — and she writes a story about a future in which she and Quinn are grown, both with successful marriages, with Quinn as a good mother to four children, and Daria as a prize-winning opinion columnist. They visit their retired (and finally relaxed) parents and enjoy a game of cards, after Jake tells both of them they turned out exactly as he hoped they would.
Daria’s mom cries when she reads the story, and when Daria shares that news with Jane, Jane asks if she can read it. Daria says no…
“But you can read the one where you run away with Kevin,” she offers Jane.
“Through a Lens Darkly”
Season 3
Original airdate: February 24, 1999
Imagine Daria’s horror when she discovers this: She’s vain, just like all the other humans for whose vanity she has disdain.
During a driving lesson with her mom, Daria nearly hits a dog because her glasses impede her peripheral vision. Mrs. M suggests Daria try contact lenses, which Daria dismisses because she thinks her mother is trying to change her appearance. Jane says glasses are part of her “persona,” the one that doesn’t care how she looks or how other people feel about her appearance, but Daria’s favorite aunt, Amy, tells her she’s overthinking the situation. “Having contacts is no more vain than primping in the mirror. It just gives you different options about the way you look,” Aunt Amy says. “It wouldn’t change your personality, it wouldn’t change your values, and it would set your parents back a couple hundred bucks. So, I don’t see any downside at all.”
Daria’s in with that advice, and her first day at school as a contact lens wearer nets unsurprising results. The popular kids comment on her looks, and even her teachers don’t recognize her. But her worries about compromising and selling out take a backseat to her itchy eyes, which prompt her to ditch the lenses and rely on Jane to lead her around school. The next day, the lenses remain uncomfortable, but she doesn’t want to don her glasses again, either, so she flies blind… well, practically, spending most of the day bumping into people. When Jane finally realizes what’s going on, forcing Daria to admit she was too vain to wear her glasses that day, it falls to a surprising — make that shocking — source to make Daria feel better.
“I just want you to know I think it’s really brave of you to get those contact lenses and admit that you care about the way you look, even just a little,” cheerleader Brittany tells Daria. “Because knowing that a brain can be worried about her looks makes me feel not so shallow or something. Like, we’re not that different, just human, or whatever.”
“Dye! Dye! My Darling”
Season 4
Original airdate: August 2, 2000
It’s high school, so even when confirmed best friends like Daria and Jane are involved, boy drama can lead to serious heartbreak.
When Jane asks Daria to help her put tiger streaks in her hair, Daria begs off, citing her lack of interest in and experience with anything remotely beauty ritual related. Jane persists, however, and it seems she’s doing so with ulterior motives. She suspects Daria has feelings for Jane’s boyfriend Tom, and when Daria does indeed botch the dye job, Jane angrily accuses her friend of trying to make her look bad so she can steal Tom away, and Jane kicks her out of the Lane household, despite her denials of all Jane’s accusations.
Cooler, but still angsty, heads prevail, and Daria and Jane make up, but when Tom shows up at Daria’s house and kisses her, she kisses him back. Guilt stricken, she tells Jane about the kiss the next day, leading to a Tom and Jane breakup, and a Daria and Jane falling out.
Daria’s in unfamiliar territory, as both romance and betraying her closest friend have her terrified. Her dad and sister Quinn, mostly because of their own self-involved behavior, fail to offer her any helpful advice during her love triangle drama. But when one relationship you count on falters, even temporarily, sometimes another one is there to bring you the comfort you need, and in this instance, it comes courtesy of Daria’s mom. Mrs. Morgendorffer, who’s in the middle of stressful 18-hour workdays, not only leaves her office in the middle of the day to lend her daughter a shoulder, she offers heartfelt counsel. “It’s a lousy situation, Daria. But you didn’t set out to hurt anyone,” Helen says.
“Life sucks,” Daria responds.
Helen: “Yes. Sometimes. Often. But it still beats the alternative. Honey, things will work out. I don’t know how, but they will.”
Daria: “You don’t know how? What kind of parental wisdom is that?”
Helen: “Honest?”
“Boxing Daria”
Season 5
Original airdate: June 25, 2001
It’s fitting that this is the final regular episode of the series (the movie Is It College Yet? is the official finale for the show), as it finds our Daria dealing with a painful childhood memory that ultimately gives her an important insight into herself and her relationship with her parents.
When the Morgendorffers get a refrigerator, the box it comes in becomes an obsession for Daria. Unable to let it go in the garbage, she drags it into her room, and remembers a similar fridge box that was in her room as a small child. It was her safe space, she finally recalls, the place she would crawl into and read after she heard her parents having a loud argument about her. School officials were constantly calling Helen and Jake into meetings to discuss Daria’s unwillingness to interact with the other kids, and that issue only exacerbated an already stressful time in the family’s life, when Helen and Jake were dealing with unhappy job situations. Daria only remembers the fight was about her, caused by her, and when her parents confirm that, she walks out and drives off to go meet boyfriend Tom at his family’s vacation home.
A minor car accident ensues — Daria’s shaken, but uninjured — and after calling Jane to come meet her at a diner, Daria shares, she says, with the only person she really trusts (see: they eventually get their friendship back on track) that she ran away because she feels guilty about all the stress she has caused her parents throughout the years.
Returning home, Daria sits down with Helen and Jake again, and they assure her, they were never unhappy with her; they were upset because they thought she was unhappy. They expected a child with her intellect might have some socialization issues. “It was part of the deal,” Jake says. “It was the other side to you being so smart and perceptive.” Her parents also tell her they respect that she does things her own way, that it doesn’t make her a misfit, and Daria’s so touched she makes a little admission to them.
“I just want to say, it occurs to me that maybe I wasn’t the easiest child in the world to raise,” Daria says. “Perhaps I’m quite lucky to have you for parents.”
Daria is streaming at MTV.com.
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