Daria: The Most Realistic High School on TV

I hate teen dramas. HATE THEM. With a fiery passion. To paraphrase the film Scott Pilgrim “If Teen Dramas had a face I would punch it.” Most teenage dramas fall under the category of what I like to call “pretty people with problems.” Not a single one of these shows ever bore any resemblance to what I felt high school was like. Except for Daria. Ironically the show that I felt best-captured reality was a cartoon.

For those unfamiliar with the show, Daria was a spinoff of Beavis and Butthead that aired on MTV in the mid and late nineties. The main concept of the show revolved around titular teenager Daria Morgendorfer who moved to the small suburb of Lawndale with her family; Daria’s workaholic mother Helen, her addle brained yet eager to succeed father Jake, and her fashioned obsessed sister Quinn who usually pretends Daria is some sort of cousin or complete stranger living in her home.

From the very first episode, it is obvious that Daria does not fit in with the other students at her school. She is far smarter than most of them and has little to no interest in the social activities that the rest are obsessed with. Welcome to exactly how I felt in high school. While I may not have actually BEEN smarter than many of my fellow classmates, I certainly felt it. And as such I did not want to interact with many of them. So for me, Daria was very much my peer.

But it is more than just the way Daria interacts with the world around her. It is also the other characters that populate her world. Her parents are self-absorbed and usually do not have time for her problems, a feeling that many teenagers have about their parents. Her best friend and her sibling seem to have an easier time being social than she does. Her teachers are both impressed by her intelligence and yet frustrated by knowing she is smarter than they are while hating the job they feel trapped in (I knew way too many teachers like that).

Even though Daria is a cartoon, the show rarely takes advantage of this fact and show anything outrageously over the top or cartoonish. Everything about the premise and episodes is grounded completely in reality. There are a few episodes with dream sequences and one bizarre episode where Daria goes to a HS for teenage Holidays (yes, Holidays, embodiments of Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick’s day, etc.) but those were the rare exceptions. For the most part, the bizarre imagery shown in the show was usually just a reflection of the character’s inner thoughts, which for most people can usually be pretty bizarre. So even when the show is imaginary, it still seems more real than most shows on television.

And in a bizarre twist for a teenage drama, Daria is portrayed as growing throughout the course of the series. That is, she becomes a more accepting character, gains a boyfriend, and even receives the acknowledgement from her sister that she is in fact her sister. The cracks in her sarcastic armor break and expand. She’s still the character we love, but with a slightly less bleak outlook on things, which in many ways is why so many people love the character. While we identify with her negativity, we hope things will work out for her.

Like High School, Daria came to an end, making way for such important MTV shows like Road Rules vs. Real World Challenge (and one day, Jersey Shore). While I wish the show had gone on forever, a part of me dreads to think how the show would change as its audience changed and the drive for ratings would force Daria into new and wackier situations. Right now, the show is timeless. All though it aired more than a decade ago, I’m sure high school students today could see a similarity between this show and their academic life.

Avatar: The Last Environmentalist

If you’re not familiar with the shows Avatar: The Last Airbender or its spinoff The Legend of Korra, you are missing out on a really entertaining animated kids show.  Avatar centered on a world where there are four nations, each based around one of the four elements. And in this world certain citizens in each nation can manipulate the particular element of their nation. Except for the Avatar who is a special individual who can manipulate all four elements. But more than just being a fun show about people with magic powers, it is a show with a strong environmental message at its core.

The core conflict of The Last Airbender (the show, not the terrible M. Night Shyamalan adaptation) is that the Fire Nation has decided to declare war upon all the other nations. This conflict is initiated by wiping out all the citizens in the Air Nation (who are traditional portrayed as nomadic monks) since that is where the next Avatar is supposed to be born (the Avatar role is based on reincarnation, with each Avatar being reborn into a different nation in a never ending cycle).

It is within the Fire Nation that the environmental message of the show is best portrayed. The Fire Nation seem to be the only industrious civilization in the Avatar society. As I said, the Air Nomads are peaceful and meditative. The Earth Nation seems to be based mostly around an Agricultural Economy. And the Northern and Southern Water Tribes are made up primarily of hunter-gatherers. The Fire Nation is the only people who develop complex machinery and weapons of war.  And they are the bad guys.

People who use machinery are bad in the world of Avatar. This theme is carried over into the sequel series, The Legend of Korra. Korra is the next Avatar after Aang (the main character in The Last Airbender). Apparently during the period in between the two series, Aang and his friends have united the four nations into one unified republic where all benders (people who can manipulate elements) and non-benders can live together in harmony.  This is where the new conflict of the series arises. Members of the non-bending population feel as if they are being oppressed by the bending minority. The ruling council of the capital city is made up entirely of benders. And so a cult like terrorist group begins to grow among the population.

Once again, it is machines that become the tools of the enemy. Since the targets of these attacks can all control water, fire, earth or air, with specialists who can even control metal and electricity, the normal population has to compensate somehow. The answer of course is technology. Planes, tanks, tazers, all manner of weapons that can counteract the abilities of any bender the Equalists (the name the cult uses for themselves) encounter. The good guys, primarily, do not use any weapons at all, relying primarily on their natural born abilities. Military forces of the Republic are all bender based.

The Avatar (in several incarnations) has always described a philosophy of balance with and reference for nature. When people go against the way the world is and try to change things and alter it for their own selfish wants, there is a negative effect on the world. The very nature of technology is manipulating the natural world in ways it was not meant to be used. While there are a few exceptions in the series where technology is used for good (Sakka, Aang’s non-bending companion is an inventor; Asami, Korra’s romantic rival and friend, is a mechanical genius) but primarily the technological inventions in the Avatar world is all used for evil. In the history of the real world, so many technological innovators forewarned the terrible abuses that their inventions could be used for.

Negative Portrayals of Comic Shops

Since the tender age of ten I have been reading comic books. I stumbled into the hobby as just a passing school fad that never passed. It wasn’t until several years later that I began frequenting comic book shops, initially just frequenting newsstands for my occasional comic fix. Of course once I discovered comic book shops I became a regular frequenter of them, seeking out a local shop regardless of what my geographical location happened to be. And while I have been to many comic shops, they never seem to resemble the stereotypical portrayals they receive in film and television.

Particularly what I find puzzling about the portrayals of comic stores in films and television are they people they depict both running the shops and the clientele (aka myself). The inspiration for this blog entry came while I was watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory. The characters on this show are shown regularly hanging out in their local shop. From the first appearance of the comic shop on this show, the writers of the show have populated the store with an assortment of odd and socially awkward individuals (one such individual referred to only as “Captain Sweatpants”).

Now I understand that the crux of The Big Bang Theory is that the main characters are all nerds. And of course nerds all love comic books (I’ve found this is only true in fiction). But just because the main characters are socially awkward (especially Sheldon) does not mean that all people who inhabit their world must be awkward as well. When they initially introduced the character of Stuart, the owner of the shop, they portrayed him as both a talented artist and even a romantic rival to Leonard for the affections of Penny. Sadly all future appearances of the character made him seem either pathetic, desperate, and also living a life of poverty.

Though as pathetic as the character of Stuart may have become, he was still a far cry from the character who inspired me to write this entry, Doug. In the episode Season Five episode The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition, Leonard and Sheldon come into the store to find not Stuart behind the counter but someone else. Not surprising at all. Most stores probably have more than one employee. The problem is this only other employee (whom we have never seen before) appears to be mentally retarded. I know it is not politically correct to use that term, but sadly it is the only description that fits. He is a grown man with the mental faculties of a small child. Apparently the implication is that since Stuart is so awkward and pathetic, anyone who is his subordinate must be just a complete wreck.

Another problem I have with the depiction of comic shops, particularly in this show, is that they seem to imply that women never go to comic book shops. Or if they do, seeing one there is like spotting a unicorn. This makes no sense to me at all. Not only have I seen many women in comic book shops, but nearly every shop I have bought from over the years has had a woman working behind the counter. And usually very attractive ones at that. And knowledgeable too. I consider myself a scholar of the sequential arts and many of these women know far more about comics than I ever could.

Nor are the proprietors of comic shops the snobbish gatekeepers like sometimes they are portrayed. Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons being the perfect example of that. Kicking people out of their stores, mocking people who are less knowledgeable about comics and sci-fi than they are, this is just simply not the case. Most of the shop owners I have known have been friendly and welcoming to all. And of course they would be. It’s just good business sense.  Who wants to frequent a shop where you’re treated like scum (yes, I’m sure we can all name a few horrific customer experience)?

In truth, the negative portrayals of comic shops are just a further extension of the mocking of geek culture in general. For many the comic book shop is a temple to geek culture. Regardless of how mainstream geeks become in media and entertainment, there will always be a negative stigma towards the original fans of comics, sci-fi and all other manners of entertainment that falls within the geek umbrella.

It Really Is A Small World

There is not a person of my generation nor any child living today who has not been somewhat raised on Disney films. The first movie I ever saw in a theatre was a Disney film and I recall my household having untold shelves full of Disney films. Even as an adult I still enjoy the animated films produced by Disney. But being an adult I have realized that Disney films were exposing me to other cultures far more than I ever realized.

Now there is a complaint among lots of people that Disney is actually trying to remove a sense of cultural identity around the world. Instead of celebrating different peoples and cultures, the movies, shows and toys are actually bringing all cultures under a unified Disney umbrella. Some citizens have an easier time recognizing Mickey, Minnie and Goofy than they do recognizing their own elected officials.  Which is understandable since apparently Donald Duck mumbles his incoherent speech in every language that has cable television.

But in reality, Disney has made an attempt to try and reach different areas of the world. Taking the entire animated library of Disney films and it covers a large swath of the globe. Most of the classic Disney films appear to take place in Europe, with clear English and French influences portrayed in the tales. Fitting since those are the cultures that produced the original fairy tales.

Cinderella is supposed to be Russian originally, which fits in with the names of the stepsisters and the military style outfits of the royals. Beauty and the Beast is clearly French, going so far as to give characters French accents. Snow White appears to have a German influence, which honors the original origins of the tale. Pinocchio is Italian, keeping the Italian names of its characters. Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan perfectly showing British life. Nearly all of Europe gets a shout out.

It wasn’t until Disney’s renaissance in the late nineties that an attempt to stretch to other parts of the globe. The Rescuers made an attempt to tell a story in America, but then the Rescuers Down Under gave Disney audiences a trip all the way to Australia. The Lion King took audiences to the planes of Africa. Mulan told a fairy tale from China, a culture with a rich history of myths that had not been mined by Disney before. Aladdin gave us a fun tale from the Middle East. Even South America was explored briefly in The Emperor’s New Groove and the far north explored in Brother Bear. And who can watch Lilo & Stitch without thinking of living in Hawaii.

There have also been attempts to explore cultures past with stories like Pocahontas and Hercules (a mythological figure, but still an important cultural figure in myth and legend). Dinosaur even tries to show what life was like on prehistoric earth (something more scientifically accurate than what children were exposed to from watching The Flinstones).

I’m sure it won’t be long until Disney has made a film about every culture on earth after a while. I know they have a Japanese style film in the works and there are always more stories to be told in the places they have already visited. The world is a big place and there is enough inspiration for stories to keep Disney cranking out animated films for all the future generations to come.