Shark Bytes

ok, the show never technically 'jumped', but they were definitely approaching some sharky waters when trent was out and tom was in.. even my dad hated tom.. now what does that tell you...

Love this show.

My only two complains :

1 - Tom, what a pain in the ass really.

Ok, a Trent and Daria couple would have probably not worked, but why on earth this moron ?

2 - some episodes were damn boring, a few but hell, that's a fact.

Show never jumped. I will admit that there were a couple of forgettable episodes, but overall the series was strong. The last episode "Boxing Daria" was a solid strong way to finish. The "movie" "Is it College Yet" was pretty good. It was a nice way to wrap the series up.

Let's face it. Daria is a jerk. She is totally unlikeable except for her embarrassing, painful, hopeless unrequited love for the dashing rogue Trent. You can't hate someone who is in such a pitiful situation. I am convinced that all of Daria's problems were self-induced except for the fact that she couldn't make Trent love her. But that problem was so devastating that I totally rooted for her. But then for no logical reason she suddenly gets over Trent. You don't just get over something like that. And no one would get over someone at the exact moment when he started hinting that he may be open to a romance. It was just bad writing. And it really destroyed the one likable quality about Daria. So I think getting over Trent (I especially hated it that she decided that she couldn't date him because he was late turning in a portion of an English assignment. Jesus, get some priorities Daria. True Love is much, much more important than a grade on a single English assignment in your junior year of high school. And she got a good grade anyway so what the hell was the problem? I guess this makes me more angry than it should.) was the JTS moment. Of course, the nail in the coffin was Tom. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. And I think even if I didn't want to see Daria and Trent get together with all of my heart I would still hate Tom. He's just so boring. And wears a stupid turtleneck. And he isn't funny. And he never did anything useful or even slightly interesting once. And when Tom was in every episode and Trent rarely appeared the show was done.

"I’m another one of those older guys who stumbled across Daria while channel surfing in the late ‘90s and was immediately hooked."


Ah, tell me about it... had there BEEN any girls at my ever-so-English single-sex school, Daria is the sort I would have loved to have got closer to - the (imaginary) teenage girlfriend that the teenage me never got to court. Not that I'd have had a chance, sod it, as she would have been to hung up on Trent to notice anyone else, damn and drat him.


But for an Englishman in his thirties to find so much that was instantly familiar in a show set among teenagers in an American high school shows how universal the Daria show was - that even with an educational experience that was light years removed from the one portrayed here, there were still so many points of familiarity and memory that got the nostalgia glands working overtime.

Didn't American TV intend Daria Morgendorfer to be the misfit who is, like Meg in "Family Guy", equally alienated at school and getting a tough time for not fitting in with the banalities and mediocrities around her, as well as being continually embarrassed and upstaged by her family? To me, anyone with that amazing Titian hair and that sense of humour is a foxy chick, so you kind of failed there too, unless the bar is set so high that an averagely attractive female character fails to get past and is therefore rated "ugly"...

A classic of American animtion at its very very best. Not on TV at the moment in Britain, and I miss it!

Yep, it was when she got a freakin BOYFRIEND! (and a very dull one) If you remember the Bevis & Butthead Christmas special it was explained that Butthead ruined Daria's view of boys. Basically, she always thought too good for any boy - that was one of the flawed yet interesting parts of her character. Sure, she had a crush on Trent, but was much too smart to carry it into the real world.

Never ever jumped. Even if I agree about dozy old Tom. But that's surely what teenage girls do - fall for the wrong type of guy: and Tom was sooooo wrong for both Daria and Jane.
Stories were great and, for that time, I totally related to the characters - Daria especially. I have fond memories of the series and a few tapes recorded off the tv for posterity. Sigh. Might have to be getting them out this weekend....

I have to laugh at some of the pseudo-intellectuals on this board. "If you don't like the show, you're naive, unintelligent" blah blah blah. Get over yourselves. Has it ever occurred to you guys that different people have different tastes? Jeez.

Anyway, I would say that this show jumped with Tom. Now I know that characters experience growth and development, but did Daria's have to happen so suddenly and in such a trite and soapy fashion (falling in "love")? Furthermore, did it have to be with Jane's ex-boyfriend? I don't think so. That was completely unnecessary. Seriously, Daria's cynicism and bleak outlook are what made this show so interesting (it certainly wasn't the animation). If I wanted to watch a show about a boy-obsessed teenage girl I would have tuned in to any other high school based show on TV. If they wanted Daria to change as a character, it should have been something gradual that they eased the viewers into. You can't just abruptly change everything that makes a character interesting and chalk it up to "development". I have a different term for something like that: "shoddy writing".

i cant believe this show even had fans...seriously im surprised to see 14 pages of posts about this wreck of an idea. the show was terrible, worse even. the art was lazy and unattractive and the stories felt like they were written as an afterthought on a napkin during a dinner night out.

I liked this show. I was surprised Daria would be attracted to such an uninteresting guy, though.

never ever jumped

A so-so show spinning off from a great show. Weird. I just skipped Daria and watched B&BH until their show ended.

This show really started sucking when tom entered the picture...He's annoying and the whole love triangle was just stupid.

There were weak episodes now and again, but it never jumped not even close. For its time Daria was incredibly topical about Post-Gen X fads and a lot of the pop culture decadence around the turned of the millenium. Wisely instead of constantly hammering away at the time period, they shifted to more personal storylines slowly but surely. THe show was incredibly steady and had a great run.

Looking back on it all, yeah. Tom was likely the point when the show jumped. I mean, we all saw through the fact that though Daria was crushing on Trent and that Trent seemed to also be crushing on Daria that it would never work out. But to 1) Bring in a dime-a-dozen guy to be her love interest and 2) Set it all up to create a rift between two friends was too much like a bad soap opera script.