My So-Called Life: Episode 1

Once upon a time, there was this show called "My so-called life." I didn't watch it when it originally aired because I was two years old. Now I am 20 years old and have heard great things about the show, so I've finally watched the first episode. The show is a "teen-drama" from the 90's about a girl in high school who is bored with her life. The premise is fairly similar to Freaks & Geeks, which is one of my favorite shows. However, Freaks & Geeks aired in '99 and took place in the '80s. My So-Called Life was shot, and as far as I can tell, takes place in the early 90's. Watching this show nearly 20 years after it aired, it feels like a period piece, exploiting 90's fashion and lingo. But it isn't, people really did wear half-shirts and say things like "Wicked" back then.
Netflix had guessed I would give the show 4.2 stars out of 5. I thought for sure I would like the show, but early on in the first episode I thought the main character was really annoying and complain-y. It was obvious that you were supposed to like her and feel her pain of her boring life in boring high school. I was never a huge fan of high school. I thought it was fairly boring for the most part, but I also don't think it was borintersting (made up word) enough to make a tv show about it. I'm all about melancholy in my teen dramas, but this just seemed to be way too invested in that idea. As I watched the rest of the episode, I found a lot of things I really liked and decided I really liked this show.
Claire Danes plays Angela, a sophomore who is totally bored with her life as an A student (it's never mentioned that she's an A student, but there is one scene where she's hanging out in the bathroom with her new, cool friends and the bell rings and she runs off). She starts hanging out Rayanne Graff, because she "thought it would be fun." And oh is she in for a treat. Rayanne and her gay friend, Rickie, help Angela dye her hair. When she meets her mom with the new hair and her new friends her mom is thrown for a loop. From then on she and her mom continue to butt heads. That is one thing I really like about this show. The relationships between Angela and her mom and Angela and her dad are fantastic. I'm really looking forward to seeing their relationships progress. (note: This show only lasted one season, and I know that.) There is one scene in which her dad catches Angela coming out of the shower with a towel, and her dad is flabbergasted. Her narration explains that her dad feels awkward about "her breasts," as she puts it. She explains that she and her dad used to be very close. Angela, Rayanne and Rickie go to this club because Angela's crush is going to be there. As they're waiting to get in, Rayanne and Angela get drunk. These two guys start hitting on the girls, but one of them decides they're too young, while the other guy throws Rayanne against a truck and molests her. Angela says in her narration that something was finally happening, but "it was too actual." Angela pulls the guy off her. Some cops come up and put the girls in a patrol car and drive them home. As Angela's getting into the car Jordan, Angela's crush, sees her and says "Hey, I know that girl" to his friends. Angela smiles because she thought she was invisible to him. When Angela gets home her neighbor, Brian, who is kind of a friend, helps her out of the car. They walk around the corner and see Angela's dad with a women who isn't his wife. Angela is so surprised. She stumbles backward. She starts running down the sidewalk and falls down a few times. Brain helps her up. They talk about her crush on Jordan briefly and Brian is obviously jealous. Angela goes home and apologizes to her mom about her hair "and everything." She falls asleep in her mother's arms and it's very nice.
So, this show is pretty good, or at least the first episode is. I'll continue to watch it, I may even post reviews and recaps of each episode if I feel so inclined. Who knows? I don't.