‘I better rethink this becoming less introspective thing…’
Has there ever been a better television show than My So-Called Life? I think not.
In fact, reading Amelie Gillete’s recaps earlier today has completely derailed my plan for my afternoon. Instead of editing this thing that simply must be in tomorrow, I’ve been reading about MSCL, Buffy and LOST.
My So-Called Life is one of the few cult classics that I loved from the outset. I wasn’t a Buffy fan until the final year, I missed the first two (defining) episodes of LOST by being in Europe, I didn’t watch Arrested Development until the third season because I get bad reception on FOX, and my recent obsessions with Angel and Veronica Mars are just that - recent (and methinks, fleeting).
But ah, MSCL - I watched each and every episode (with one exception, below), and I think it’s fair to say that it pretty much defined my 8th grade experience. I sighed when Angela (Clare Danes) sighed, I mooned over Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto), and I yearned for Brian’s (Devon Gummersall) success in winning Angela’s affections.
I was one of the thousands who wrote letters to ABC begging them not to cancel it. Yet the 19 (more or less) perfect episodes are all we have to relish Clare Danes in flannel sack dresses. Between that and Kurt’s suicide, it’s lucky I made it to HS at all.
The one episode I missed was due to live coverage a plane crash one Thursday night in October. The audacity of a plane to crash during My So-Called Life! I honestly remember stomping around the basement, praying that they would at least cut back to the last half of the episode. Angela and Jordan had just, like, officially gotten together at the end of the previous episode!
And then they were broken up the week after.
I had to wait, I believe, until my junior year of college to find out what happened during Angela and Jordan’s brief and tempestuous official coupledom. (And, seriously, what a jerk!)
It was traumatic is all I’m saying. In all fairness, it was probably also traumatic for the people on the plane, though I can’t imagine they were experiencing the same degree of agnst..
There was a point to all this (and I do thank you for hanging in there after yesterday’s interminable post). I realized today that Angela might be the reason that I begin so many sentences - both when speaking and in my casual writing - that begin with “So…”
She does it a LOT. And so do I.
Sadly, there was no one at my HS with Jordan’s locker-leaning abilities. Oh, how the girls swoon over a manly, affected lean.
if you do one thing this summer/winter (because my brain is still confused by the necessity of legwarmers in July), get My So-Called Life out on DVD. And dye your hair Crimson Glow.
Just before I was about to hit post, I checked IMDB. Here’s the strangest fact ever: AJ Langer (Rayanne) married a English Lord, and will one day be Countess of Devon (which is bizarre since two actors on the show were named Devon. It’s a pretty small cast; it always seemed crazy, and now even weirder…).
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