Originally posted at the DL May 2015
I have to be direct.
Season 3, aka "I guess I am just human or whatever".
Well, some disclaimer is needed. There's several episodes this season that are strongly detached from anything resembling reality, which while good for humor completely clashes with the show at large (Depth Takes a Holiday, Daria!, and The Lawndale File.) The overall tone of the episodes leads me to think these are direct and very barbed piss takes at MTV execs. "Oh, so we need a Holiday episode? Oh, we'll do your Holiday episode." For the record, Jake gets all the actual good songs.
Lane Miserables is also at odds with the rest of the season, but not the show as a whole. So I'm not really considering it as part of the rest of the writeup, anyways.
The remaining 9 episodes go back to my first statement though. While season 1 plots were largely about establishing the Morgandorfer household, and season 2 focused on Daria's relationship with the world and especially her classmates, season 3 is about putting Daria in regular teenager situations and letting her Daria-ness simply write the episode from there. It's less focused on character development than either previous season, instead seeming content to take the characters in their mid-development state and have them experience normal life situations for a change. Basically everyone's at a sort of equilibrium, forced to acknowledge their shortcomings but not yet forced to overcome them.
Best Episode: Daria Dance Party. In a season largely defined by relative normalcy, I find myself drawn to the episode that's basically "normal but with personality along the edges".
Weakest Episode: The Lawndale File. When you subtract the semi-topical in 1999 (2000?) cultural references it's just a bland episode with no narrative drive beyond outrageously trumped up paranoia.
Rating: 7/10. The stasis most of the cast is in is a bit disappointing, but the funny steps up the game a bit to make up the gap.
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