Product Description The people of Lawndale just don't get Daria Morgendorffer. She's cool with that. See, Daria was born alienated, and now she's just trying to make it through high school with as little human contact as possible. Popularity, friends, activities... whatever. Daria lacks enthusiasm, but she makes up for it with sarcasm. Includes all five seasons plus both movies. .com Turns out that Clarissa did not explain it all, like what a sick sad world it is, how much student life sucks, and how the notion that it is great to be young is a storybook fantasy. Daria, which aired on MTV between 1997 and 2002, does not paint a rosy picture, but this so-called outcast for whom suburban life "is one smart-ass joke" gave sardonic voice to the disaffected. "I'm not miserable," Daria states, "I'm just not like them." She's not kidding. Though she's referring to the "interesting idiots" she suffers none too gladly at Lawndale High School, she could well be talking about the women normally paraded on MTV, the hedonistic spring break partiers, serial daters, spoiled sweet sixteeners, and tabloid tarts like Tila Tequila. And then there's Daria, an animated (just barely) character who after five seasons and two movies (both included in this eight-disc set) managed to survive high school with her sense of self unbowed and uncompromised. Daria came a long way, baby. Before she got her own series, she was a recurring character on Beavis and Butt-head, a brainy foil for the two heavy metal imbeciles, whose pet name for her was "Diarrhea." Daria relocated her to Lawndale and introduced her self-absorbed yuppie parents and her airhead, popularity-obsessed younger sister. It also gave her a best friend and kindred misanthropic spirit, Jane Lane. Their deadpan and sarcastic banter has lost none of its incisive edge. The broadly drawn high school stereotypes--vapid cheerleaders, fashion-plate mean girls, corruptible administrators, empty-headed jocks--seem unworthy of their contempt. But the series really hit satiric pay dirt when it addressed "profound and fundamental moral issues of life," such as one episode in which Jane joins the track team out of spite, but becomes a track star, alienating Daria, who is not above enjoying some of the perks of Jane's newfound popularity. When all reverts back to, for want of a better word, normal, Daria remarks, "The system continues, you haven't redeemed yourself, and we're ostracized anyway… Hey, they really are preparing us for the real world." Daria comes to DVD with 99 percent of the original music changed due to rights issues, regrettable, but that shouldn't be a deal breaker, especially for those making Daria's acquaintance. The special features almost compensate. They include an animatic version of the pilot episode "Sealed with a Kick," a series retrospective featuring series creator Glenn Eichler and key members of the voice cast, Daria and Jane episode intros, and a Top Ten video countdown hosted by the duo (videos not included). --Donald Liebenson
D**N
Let me be direct....You're standing on....A GREAT SERIES & DVD
I was a moderate fan of Daria when the show aired in the late 90's/early 2000's. It wasn't that I didn't like the show (I actually liked it quite a bit), just remember it being a show I'd see from time to time and remember it being decent. Funny, good writing, just simply entertaining. When I heard it was coming out on DVD I didn't have to think twice. The memories of watching the show were good ones, so I ordered it the day it came out (and ended up only having to pay 28 bucks-NEW-and this included shipping). Well I can say after having watched the first few episodes of the Daria Series Collection that the show seems to have held up well.I guess if I could knock anything it might be the video quality. Grainy lines and bland reproduction are apparent in the episodes I've viewed, but this in no way takes away from the enjoyment of watching the episodes. Maybe I'm just spoiled in today's age of Blu-Ray. I'm not going to downgrade the DVD for not having the original music. Number one, everyone knows this that would be interested in this DVD. I wouldn't be telling you anything you didn't know. Additionally, inside the case there's a small note explaining why it isn't there (costly licensing). So nobody is trying to hide anything here. Number two-It's not that big of a deal. I'm frankly shocked everyone is so concerned about the original music being present. It's not like this is Beavis and Butthead where the music played a much more regularly present central role to the plot/action of the episodes. Personally, not being a person that remembered many of the episodes, the lack of original music so far has not taken away anything from my viewing experience. Guess I'm not sure what everyone's big problem with this is? If you like the music that much, go hop on ITunes??? Maybe buy some used CDs on Amazon???In the end, if you remember liking/watching Daria, there's no reason not to pick this up. It's affordable. All the episodes (including the movies) are there. The show has held up well.On a side note, I'm uncertain how people could have been reviewing this specific DVD collection in February of this year. It was released on May 12th (I believe) 2010. Maybe that's the most upsetting thing about this product-The Amazon Reviews. The point of a review is to review the product once you've used it, not to hype it or knock it, when the damn thing hasn't even been released. I don't care if you've seen all the episodes or not, until you use the actual product in question-DON'T REVIEW IT ON AMAZON!!!!!!!!!! It completely defeats the purpose of reviewing items.
J**E
"Much Better DVD's Disc, 2nd Time Around"
When I 1st purchase Daria DVD, in early 2000's. Some of the dvd discs, was scratch. Now there Awesome & playing Excellently so far & the Price is Right. "I Love watching Daria". My Kids(now in there 30's) starting me watching Daria, when it came on MTV. "Laughter is like Medicine", I take it almost Every Day.
A**L
Daria - A Complete Review of the Complete Series
I'll try and be as detailed as possible.1. The Packaging.The complete set comes in one DVD case. It's plastic, not cardboard. The DVDs themselves are attached to "pages" inside the DVD (similar to the Justice League and Superman complete series sets, if you're familiar with those. A lot of other DVD compilations have started using this format lately as well, so you might've seen it elsewhere). The DVDs are NOT dual-sided, thank goodness, so inadvertent scratching should be minimized. All in all, the packaging looks sturdy, and arrived in perfect condition from Amazon. Not a single disk was out of place.2. The Episodes.When you first load up a disk and get to the menu, you're presented with two options: Episodes and Play All. These are pretty self explanatory, however, it appears that if you want to see the Daria Day intros, you must go to the Episodes section and individually select the episode you want to watch, and you'll be presented with an option to watch the ep with the intro. Not every episode has an intro. Also: only the first episode on a disk has the complete credit sequence, all the rest just have the title card (as if they had been edited into a large TV marathon, which I think helps).Also, as most of you are already aware (especially the ones who downloaded some eps off of Amazon recently), most-if-not-all of the incidental, licensed music has been replaced with, as the initial press release said, "generic and scene-specific music." The music is SIMILAR thematically to the original tracks but, yanno, a hell of a lot cheaper. Those of you who taped every episode of Daria off the TV and watched them until the tapes broke, you're probably gonna be disappointed. However, if you love the SHOW (or if you're like me, and have only seen a handful of original eps), the loss of the music is really inconsequential. Also, the music they used IS appropriate to the scenes, so someone actually paid attention while dubbing this stuff in, and didn't just throw generic tracks in at every point where a licensed song used to be.One final musical note: every commercial bumper now has a sampling of the Splendora theme, and each credit sequence has a lyric-less version of the theme playing over it. This does KINDA get annoying after awhile, but really, you can ignore it. At least they actually kept the bumpers IN, y'know?In terms of episode quality, they all look GREAT. Everything is crisp and as clean as it could possibly look. The sound quality is nice and clear.Disk 1: Season 1 (Picture of Daria)Episodes 101 through 109Esteemsters; The Invitation; College Bored; Cafe Disaffecto; Malled; This Year's Model; The Lab Brat; Pinch Sitter; Too CuteDisk 1 also has three ads at the beginning for The Maxx, The State, and the three Mike Judge Beavis & Butt-head compilations. This seems to be the ONLY disk in the set with these ads, which is good. You can manually skip past these straight to the menu, but you cannot use the 'menu' function to jump past them.Disk 2: Seasons 1 & 2 (Picture of Jane)Episodes 110-113, 201-205The Big House; Road Worrier; The Teachings of Don Jake; The Misery Chick; Arts 'N Crass; The Daria Hunter; Quinn the Brain; I Don't; That Was Then, This Is DumbDisk 3: Seasons 2 & 3 (Pictures of Quinn & Trent)Episodes 206-213 and 301Monster; The New Kid; Gifted; Ill; Fair Enough; See Jane Run; Pierce Me; Write Where It Hurts; Through A Lens DarklyDisk 4: Season 3 (Pictures of Kevin & Brittany)Episodes 302-310The Old and the Beautiful; Depth Takes a Holiday; Daria Dance Party; The Lost Girls; It Happened One Nut; Daria!; Lane Miserables, Jake of Hearts; SpeedtrappedYes, Daria! (aka The Musical Episode) is included. All of the music should be intact, since it was created specifically for the show and doesn't used licensed tracks.Disk 5: Seasons 3 & 4 (Pictures of Helen & Jake)Episodes 311-313, 401-406The Lawndale File; Just Add Water; Jane's Addition; Partner's Complaint; Antisocial Climbers; A Tree Grows in Lawndale; Murder, She Snored; The F Word (aka "Fail"); I Loathe a ParadeDisk 6: Seasons 4 & 5 (Pictures of Stacy & Upchuck)Episodes 407-413, 501-502Of Human Bonding; Psycho Therapy; Mart of Darkness; Legends of the Mall; Groped by an Angel; Fire!; Dye! Dye! My Darling; Fizz Ed; Sappy AnniversaryDisk 7: Season 5 (Pictures of Jodie & Mack)Episodes 503-511Fat Like Me; Camp Fear; The Story of D; Lucky Strike; Art Burn; One J at a Time; Life in the Past Lane; Aunt Nauseam; Prize FightersDisk 8: Season 5 (Pictures of Mr. DeMartino & Ms. Li)Episodes 512 & 513Movies: Is It Fall Yet? & Is It College Yet?Special Features3. Final Thoughts.As mentioned elsewhere, the DVD comes with a special letter from Glenn Eichler, explaining the reasons why 99% of the music has been changed.Aside from the music issue (which, again, to me is a non-issue), this is the set we've all been waiting for. The episodes are INTACT (not the Noggin edits), pretty, and as funny as they were the first dozen or so times you watched them.Really, I implore you, if you've been waiting for Daria on DVD, don't let the music thing hold you back. You really DO want this set. It's not EXACTLY what you've been asking for, but it's within 99% of it, and in my opinion that is DEFINITELY worth it.
