Slog - Comments on It Hurts to Look at This

Comment by josh

josh — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:24:13 -0800

you're being a little too hard on quarterlife. it's not great, but maybe it will grow up into something better. after all, they are still in their first "episode".

(the negotiations with nbc started pre-wga strike)

Comment by Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:40:16 -0800

I have no desire to see 'quarterlife', and every desire to buy the MSCL box set. Still one of my favorite shows ever, and a pretty great soundtrack CD to boot.

I still love Willow, however.

Comment by Jason B

Jason B — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:44:11 -0800

I love MSCL. Great review. Although Claire Danes is a homewrecker (love you Mary Louise Parker!), she is remarkable in MSCL. Remarkable I say!

Comment by Gitai

Gitai — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:57:41 -0800

Ah, memories. I was the same age as her character, a closeted gay boy, and that show was so meaningful to me, particularly the Ricky stuff. It always bothered me that people skipped classes and ran out of classes without consequence, but otherwise, I just loved that show so much.

Comment by Nat

Nat — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:41:23 -0800

If you think Willow was tame, you probably stopped watching before she flayed all the skin off that guy above the waist. Don't fuck with Willow.

Comment by Out of demographic

Out of demographic — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:46:46 -0800

Among the greatest television shows ever. Probably cheapened by being rerun nonstop on MTV networks for several years, but the original ABC run was mostly genius.

Comment by kid icarus

kid icarus — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:57:25 -0800

Definitely going on the Netflix. I'm still reeling from rewatching Freaks & Geeks recently, which owes a lot to MSCL.

Comment by Dianna

Dianna — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:31:03 -0800

How dumb am I? I never even thought of Netflixing MSCL.....I loved that show then and I still do now. But this quarterlife thing is sort of annoying. I know this happens all the time, but I hate falling so nicely into the target demographic. Like, that stupid show with the chick from that 70's show....the guy is supposed to have been gone for 10 years (left right after highschool) and has now come back to a small town. All they do is play goo goo dolls and Gin Blossums in an effort to suck nostalga right out of us.

Comment by stinkbug

stinkbug — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:09:15 -0800

While Ms. Danes was very crushworthy and the last scene is one of my favorite/saddest TV moments and the while season was pretty enjoyable, I always hated how it got high marks for addressing certain teen-related issues when Degrassi tackled similar issues much better in the years preceeding MSCL. The Degrassi High set came out a few months ago (and Jr High came out last year) and it's also worthy of a review or analysis. Caitlin trumps Angela until the end of time.

(You also didn't mention the nice packaging that the MSCL set is in.)

Comment by Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:09:58 -0800

Hey, I like your review, and agree with you on Rickie vs. Willow. (For me, that's a little hard to separate with my overall disappointment with the later seasons of Buffy.)

And a big fat WORD on the bizarre experience of watching the commentaries and realizing you know the show better than the commentators do. (Even Winnie Holzman, who in the beginning of the "Self Esteem" commentary refers repeatedly to "Mr. Kaminsky.")

If you're interested, I wrote my own 600-word review of the show, occasioned by the new DVD set, here:
http://www.socialistworker.org/2007-2/654/654_09_SoCalled.shtml