"You're so beautiful, it hurts to look at you."
"So when Rayanne Graff told me my hair was holding me back, I had to listen. 'Cause she wasn't just talking about my hair. She was talking about my life."
Exams are over, and I finally got my mom to watch My So-Called Life with me. She's resisted for years. But now she's seen the pilot, and I know that she is charmed. Mwahaha!
Seriously, this is one of the more "real" shows I've seen, and definitely the most real of the teen dramas. I've heard it referred to as both a classic and deconstruction of the genre, and it really is. There's angst, but it's not particularly melodramatic. Angela's parents are fully-realized characters. The dialogue is brilliant, partly because it utilizes awkward pauses and reliance on the terms "like" and "or something". There's subtlety in characterization. The cool, ridiculously good-looking Jordan Catalano possesses rather limited conversational skills. Angela is intelligent and introspective, but is often self-involved. But that's okay, because she actually seems like a teenager.
It also makes excellent use of the voiceover. Angela is growing up, and continually making observations and analyses about life, identity, social interaction, etc. She can be an unreliable narrator, not out of an attempt at manipulation so much as selective obliviousness or not seeing past her own point of view. And she can change her mind or mood within a paragraph. It's just so nicely done.
So yes. LOVE.
Exams are over, and I finally got my mom to watch My So-Called Life with me. She's resisted for years. But now she's seen the pilot, and I know that she is charmed. Mwahaha!
Seriously, this is one of the more "real" shows I've seen, and definitely the most real of the teen dramas. I've heard it referred to as both a classic and deconstruction of the genre, and it really is. There's angst, but it's not particularly melodramatic. Angela's parents are fully-realized characters. The dialogue is brilliant, partly because it utilizes awkward pauses and reliance on the terms "like" and "or something". There's subtlety in characterization. The cool, ridiculously good-looking Jordan Catalano possesses rather limited conversational skills. Angela is intelligent and introspective, but is often self-involved. But that's okay, because she actually seems like a teenager.
It also makes excellent use of the voiceover. Angela is growing up, and continually making observations and analyses about life, identity, social interaction, etc. She can be an unreliable narrator, not out of an attempt at manipulation so much as selective obliviousness or not seeing past her own point of view. And she can change her mind or mood within a paragraph. It's just so nicely done.
So yes. LOVE.