Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Lab Brat

toonsday
***

Daria is paired with Kevin for a class assignment and tries to find ways to keep him distracted in order to get herself a passing grade. 

The review for "This Year's Model" can be read here.

Daria (Tracy Grandstaff) has tried to keep herself fairly closed off from her fellow students, and while she is constantly forced back into the fray with them, this is the first instance wherein she is trapped working with one of them. While her previous interactions with Brittany (Janie Mertz) and Kevin (Marc Thompson) have been fairly copacetic, this is the first time that her experience with them is largely unpleasant.

Helen (Wendy Hoopes) is so wrapped up in the appearance of being a good mother, in what it means to keep up a strong front to the world regarding her persona, that she's unable to actually recognize negative criticism or the fact that she's being somewhat neglectful of her family through her constant attention. Daria explains to Helen the nature of her experiment, citing one of Helen's actions as an example of negative reinforcement, and continuing on to say that the repeating of Helen's behavior is likely to close Daria off from her even more. Naturally, Helen then repeats herself, perpetuating everything Daria has said, and continues to believe that she has taken a genuine interest in her daughter's life without understanding that she herself is the problem.

In the closing moments of the episode, Kevin comes up to Daria and starts talking about how much fun he had spending time at her house during the week, and continues to state that he'd be interested in having some really cool girls come to his party. For a brief second there is a glimmer of hope in Daria's eyes as he talks about his party, a moment where she hopes that Kevin thinks she's cool enough to invite to his party, and instead he asks her to ask her sister Quinn (Hoopes.) This scene really humanizes Daria, showing that she really would like to be liked by her peers, that she does want to be included and accepted in some way, even if she has no genuine interest in their activities outside of school. Daria certainly has no dreams of being a cheerleader, or shopping with her sister, but she would like to be seen as something more than an outcast.

Daria very purposely excludes Kevin from his inclusion on the project, essentially setting him up for failure. It would be understandable if she had tried to let him help and only after having taken enough of his idiocy cut him out of things, but she starts off the week by distracting him and continues the entire project without him, even when he expresses a desire to help. Daria seems vindictive here for no reason, and while she has before shown a lack of academic morality as she completed other people's assignments, it would have been nice for her to have shown some kind of concern for the person meant to be her partner here.

Chuck (Thompson) is sleazy beyond belief as he blackmails Brittany into doing his chores through his possession of pictures of her having sex in a car. Chuck faces no consequences for his actions beyond a failing grade, but Brittany shares the same fate despite being the victim of his abuse. Considering the passion with which Ms. Barch (Ashley Albert) hates men, it would have made sense for Brittany to have gone to her with the issue, forcing her to take action against Chuck, potentially having him expelled with a possibility of legal action from Brittany's family. Instead the issue is dropped form the narrative completely and both Chuck and Brittany act as though the pictures had never existed, and the entire storyline is revolting on a number of levels.

Hoopes continues to do a great job differentiating Helen, Quinn and Jane, and Thompson does the same for both Kevin and Chuck. While Mertz's portrayal of Brittany is still a little screechy at times, it has been toned down quite a bit and is much less distracting when she enters a scene.

This episode, directed by Chris Prynoski, has an interesting mix of emotional expression; while there are many subtle moments between the characters, such as the silent exchange between Daria and Jodie (Jessica Cydnee Jackson,) but every time the characters appear onscreen and aren't being directly interacted with they become immobile. The moments where the characters freeze in their action would be far less distracting were it kept in the background of the shots, but often they are in the foreground, drawing focus away from the actual action when they act as little beyond wallpaper.

Peggy Nicoll writes this episode with a good understanding of how oblivious her characters really can be, truly highlighting the fact that Daria remains the only person in Lawndale capable of understanding the world around her. Quinn states repeatedly throughout the episode that boys pursue her relentlessly and then spends the rest of the episode trying to convince Kevin to date her, unaware that he remains uninterested in her; Brittany, likewise, is convinced that it is Daria trying to steal Kevin away, and repeatedly threatens Daria, claiming that Kevin could never be interested in her, when, in fact, he isn't. As the story winds down, Ms. Barch gives Daria an A on her assignment and awards Kevin a D for his lack of knowledge on the subject, where she gives both Chuck and Brittany failing grades; had she allowed Chuck to speak, I imagine that he and Brittany would have earned the same grades, an A and a D, but their failures are a point to punish Chuck as he is the villain of the piece, and it doesn't sit quite as Nicoll might have imagined.

There are some very obvious cracks in Brittany and Kevin's relationship here which may pan out in the future, and Quinn's crush on Kevin might also come into play at the same time. The most interesting plot point might be Daria's desire to be liked by her peers, though Kevin's rejection of her might only serve to close her off all the more.

The review for "Pinch Sitter" can be read here.

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