How long was my so called life on
I also preferred Beverly Hills, , even though I knew it was garbage. I miss you, Generation Y! Rewatching these 19 episodes was a freaking roller-coaster! One thing that maybe always held me back on the show was that I never saw myself in any of the characters — even if I know that High School Dan probably exhibited more Brian Krakow Devon Gummersall behaviors than I would ever admit. On first viewing, did you see reflections of your own high-school experience here?
This probably also explains my general aversion to teen content until I hit my 30s, when I no longer expected to see myself in these stories. Angela is too normcore for me, Rayanne A. Like you, Dan, I think the character I was probably closest to in high school was emotionally stunted and negging prodigy Brian, whose counterpart likely spends more time on the darker corners of Reddit than anyone should.
In perhaps one of the previews of prestige TV that you were alluding to, I really did appreciate that storylines and character arcs often took several episodes to resolve. The way Angela comes to like Jordan as a friend, for example, is different from the way Brian warms to him, which are different from what Rickie sees in him, et cetera. Does that add to your enjoyment of the series, or detract from it? Fienberg: Had the show survived, it absolutely would have had to deal with the fact — this is not an opinion, but a fact — that Angela and Jordan are a garbage couple, which I think the show recognizes.
If Jordan was never really going to be a long-term romantic solution for Angela, that leaves Brian, and the last shot of the finale lingering on him seems to confirm that. But Brian is a creepy stalker! But you asked about the show as time capsule. There are so many After-School Special elements here. Rayanne is drinking again! Did you? It used to be that network TV shows—dramas, but especially sitcoms—assumed an oppositional relationship between teenagers and adults: One would rebel against the other, and vice versa, through the trajectories of social Darwinism.
There are some moments, certainly, of painfully awkward miscommunication between the generations, as in:. And there are also moments, just as there are between the teenagers themselves, of people talking past each other. Brian, in particular, is a serial past-talker. My So-Called Life , in that spirit, treats high school not as a place or even as a stage of life, but as a state of mind—from which one never fully escapes.
Slights and betrayals are carried from one person to the next. Even when Angela is doing the narrating, though, My So-Called Life lingers on each person—Rayanne, Ricky, Jordan, parents, friends of parents, teachers—and pays each one the respect of empathy. My So-Called Life was, before it was fully fashionable to be, fundamentally generous. Snuffy Walden—who also orchestrated the sonic stylings of The West Wing , and Roseanne , and thirtysomething , among many others—is perfectly suited to the tone of the show.
The music is appropriately ponderous yet still subtle, and it swells whenever a particularly emotional moment is coming—a kind of psychic form of onomatopoeia. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. Creator Winnie Holzman. Top credits Creator Winnie Holzman. See more at IMDbPro. Episodes Browse episodes.
Top Top-rated. Clip Trailer My So-Called Life. Photos Top cast Edit. Langer Rayanne Graff as Rayanne Graff. May Quigley Mrs. Lerner as Mrs. Stanley DeSantis Mr. Demitri as Mr. Demitri …. Winnie Holzman. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. You know how it feels. Did you know Edit. Trivia Rickie Vasquez was the first openly gay teenager to appear on American network television.
Goofs Many sudden changes of clothes.