Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Café Disaffecto

toonsday
**½

Daria, Jane and Quinn find themselves coerced into raising money for a new coffee house when the Lawndale cybercafé is robbed.

The review for "College Bored" can be read here.

In a moment where her sarcastic comments are taken literally, Daria (Tracy Grandstaff) finds herself inadvertently launching a campaign to create something she has zero interest in. Should Daria ever manage to harness this ability for her own uses, she could create the changes she believes the world needs, but, as it is, she lacks both the willpower and the interest.

Selling chocolate bars to raise funds for the project, Daria and Jane (Wendy Hoopes) find themselves confronted by a hypoglycemic with a deadly sweet tooth. After confessing that she's under doctor's orders to avoid chocolate, the woman (Amy Bennett) briefly passes out, and upon regaining consciousness offers to buy Daria's entire supply. Daria refuses to sell the woman any chocolate due to health concerns, and continues to deny the woman service even after she offers to pay twice the asking price. Normally, Daria's refusal to sell to someone likely would have been out of spite, but here she shows a genuine concern for a stranger's well-being, and it's good to see that, despite having an intense hatred of people, Daria still is unable to willingly allow them harm.

It's interesting that Mrs. Johanssen took the action to complain to the school about Daria and Jane's refusal to sell to her, but what's better is the fact that the principal listens to Daria's side of the story and agrees with her in the end. Rather than focusing on the tarnishing of the school's reputation, Principal Li (Nora Laudani) begrudgingly tells the girls that they did the right thing, thus instilling in them a small sliver of hope for humanity.

When Mrs. Johanssen initially passes out, Daria and Jane stand at the doorway doing nothing; they have a brief back and forth about the situation, trading pithy comments and sarcastic banter, and then state that they should be doing something, after which they continue to stare until Jane takes a picture of the unconscious body. It's difficult to sympathize with the protagonist when she is so nonchalant about someone's safety, especially in a medical emergency. Their actions here go far beyond the disaffected and cynical teens they're meant to embody and delve into a mildly sociopathic behavior.

In the brief montage of the kids selling things door to door, we see that each group of peddling a different ware; Daria and Jane are selling chocolate bars, Quinn (Hoopes) is selling long-distance phone cards, and Kevin (Marc Thompson) and Brittany (Janie Mertz) sell a variety of merchandise from wrapping paper to flower seeds. It's as if writer Glenn Eichler couldn't choose between his clichés and made an attempt to use all of them as a commentary on the situation, but it falls flat due to the lack of follow up on the joke. While it does lend to the sense of disorganization that Lawndale high is likely known for, it just doesn't work here because everyone ends up doing their own separate thing.

Mertz and Hoopes sometimes become ear-piercingly shrill as they play with Brittany and Quinn's voices, but the rest of the cast seem fairly comfortable with who they portray here. Thompson does a good job as Mr. O'Neill, hitting the right notes of admiration and desperation without becoming a parody of himself.

Directed by Eric Fogel, this episode seems to lose its way every now and then, with the robberies framing the episode remaining somewhat removed from the narrative without a reveal as to who the thief is. Brittany and Kevin go back and forth in terms of intelligence, and while it's realistic that one would know information the other doesn't and vice versa, it's a little much to believe that they're both so brain-dead that they share zero correct knowledge about the world around them. It's not an issue that both are portrayed as stupid, but it's a joke that seems to be wearing far too thin far too soon into the series. Quinn's ability to sell phone cards to men, preying on their loneliness and desire to be with her, makes absolute sense, and is used very effectively here.

Eichler's plot seems largely forced and unnatural here, with events occurring only to facilitate the next portion of the story. Eichler leans on a lot of tired jokes in this episode, from the unattractive Mrs. Johanssen, playing on both her weight and hygiene, to the constant running around that Daria's mother Helen (Hoopes) does, constantly missing meals to be in meetings that are never specified. Daria and Jane make no effort to sell to anyone after the confrontation with Mrs. Johanssen, their first customer of the day, and it is written this way only to deny them the participation credit and to force Daria into reading her story during opening night. Daria's story about Melody Powers, a spy working to end the cold war, is written quite well, and earns her the respect of many students who might not otherwise have taken notice of her, but it also leads to the closure of the new coffee house, making the entire episode somewhat fruitless.

Quinn's aptitude for sales and manipulation is likely to come in handy in the future, ensuring that she'll be able to get things that Daria's surly attitude might not always afford her. Daria also displays a talent for creative writing that I sincerely hope is explored later on in the series.

The review for "Malled" can be read here.

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