8.5/10. So I have to admit, I wasn't feeling the love triangle thing at first. For one thing, it was done in a pretty hamfisted manner. Tom's Daria-focus and Jane's frustration were not subtle, and it's a pretty tired type of storyline to do in the first place. But once they got past Tom's presence (not that I have any beef with the character), the episode really picked up. Sometimes the best episodes of Daria are the ones where they just put various characters in a room and have them work out their problems. Those episodes tend to lean more toward drama than comedy (not that they're lacking in sarcastic quips and humorous character moments a la Trent championing his insight as a musician and ethereal transference), but there's something refreshingly real and adult in the way Jane and Daria hash things out, or in how Trent tells Daria that even if she didn't do anything wrong, she can't pretend she's not aware of it. It's complex. nuanced stuff, and as the show does at its best, "Fire!" digs deep into it without sacrificing the complexity or dumbing it down.
It wasn't all heavy stuff though! Quinn's adventures with the criminal/computer geek bell boy were good for a lot of laughs, especially her horror that he's the former and nonchalance that he's the latter. And Helen and Jake's relaxed state after the craziness of a fire at home, and eventual return to their stressed selves was good for a number of laughs as well. Canny exploration of interpersonal dynamics buoyed by silly but clever humor -- that's 'Daria' in a nutshell.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-01-10T04:42:05Z
8.5/10. So I have to admit, I wasn't feeling the love triangle thing at first. For one thing, it was done in a pretty hamfisted manner. Tom's Daria-focus and Jane's frustration were not subtle, and it's a pretty tired type of storyline to do in the first place. But once they got past Tom's presence (not that I have any beef with the character), the episode really picked up. Sometimes the best episodes of Daria are the ones where they just put various characters in a room and have them work out their problems. Those episodes tend to lean more toward drama than comedy (not that they're lacking in sarcastic quips and humorous character moments a la Trent championing his insight as a musician and ethereal transference), but there's something refreshingly real and adult in the way Jane and Daria hash things out, or in how Trent tells Daria that even if she didn't do anything wrong, she can't pretend she's not aware of it. It's complex. nuanced stuff, and as the show does at its best, "Fire!" digs deep into it without sacrificing the complexity or dumbing it down.
It wasn't all heavy stuff though! Quinn's adventures with the criminal/computer geek bell boy were good for a lot of laughs, especially her horror that he's the former and nonchalance that he's the latter. And Helen and Jake's relaxed state after the craziness of a fire at home, and eventual return to their stressed selves was good for a number of laughs as well. Canny exploration of interpersonal dynamics buoyed by silly but clever humor -- that's 'Daria' in a nutshell.