Yet another great episode from this season. What I liked best about it was the way that it didn't shy from Daria's snark or insecurities, but showed her having real affection for her dad. The easy sitcom route would have been to have Daria worried about her wacky family embarassing her beau, but the fact that she was concerned about her dad's feelings in the face of Tom's pincers was sweet, and the twist that Jake's anti-squirrel crusade ended up uniting the assembled men at the table rather than turning him into a laughingstock was an amusing twist.
At the same time, the show has been doing a fair amount to show incremental but significant growth in Quinn. Daria intentionally and Helen inadvertently prompting her to not only commit to a boyfriend but play that commitment to the hilt was good for several laughs as Quinn's misguided attempts to emulate her sister went predictably awry. But they were also signs that Quinn is taking baby steps toward legitimately becoming a more mature person, that she wants her parents' respect and, as hard as it for her to believe, let alone admit, she envies Daria to some degree.
The best episodes of this show balance the snark and comedy with the emotional undercurrent and character development, and that was "One J at a Time" to a tee.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-01-20T22:35:27Z
Yet another great episode from this season. What I liked best about it was the way that it didn't shy from Daria's snark or insecurities, but showed her having real affection for her dad. The easy sitcom route would have been to have Daria worried about her wacky family embarassing her beau, but the fact that she was concerned about her dad's feelings in the face of Tom's pincers was sweet, and the twist that Jake's anti-squirrel crusade ended up uniting the assembled men at the table rather than turning him into a laughingstock was an amusing twist.
At the same time, the show has been doing a fair amount to show incremental but significant growth in Quinn. Daria intentionally and Helen inadvertently prompting her to not only commit to a boyfriend but play that commitment to the hilt was good for several laughs as Quinn's misguided attempts to emulate her sister went predictably awry. But they were also signs that Quinn is taking baby steps toward legitimately becoming a more mature person, that she wants her parents' respect and, as hard as it for her to believe, let alone admit, she envies Daria to some degree.
The best episodes of this show balance the snark and comedy with the emotional undercurrent and character development, and that was "One J at a Time" to a tee.