Well I’m a little uninspired feeling today, but I want to write something everyday, so today I’m gonna toss out a short pitch my oldest child and I discussed while letting our dogs run around the yard. We watched most of Daria together recently, although we still have about half the last season to work through - they hated the plotline with Daria, Tom, and Jane’s love triangle, and so we kind of lost momentum. That being saidm they still loved the show, as do I - otherwise why would I share it with my kid?
Anyways, they initially said they kinda hoped for a reboot of the show, but was worried it would not turn out well - and I agree. Even apart from whether the show itself was good, I think a reboot is unlikely to be successful for a few simple reasons. Namely, any audience for a potential reboot is almost guaranteed to be made up largely of Gen Xers and Millenials like me who watched it as young adults, teens, or kids. I watched it when I was a tween and honestly I would not really expect many people any younger than me to even have the faintest idea what it is. So if you are banking on returning fans, they’re gonna be Gen Xers or Millenials, and neither demographic is likely to be THAT into an animated comedy about high school students. The show needs to age with its existing fans, even if the hope is to attract a new audience of comparable age to its original.
So I made a counterpitch, it should not be a reboot, but a continuation series, with Daria some amount older. I could go through our whole conversation beat by beat, but instead I think it makes sense to just outline what we agreed was best, ultimately. If by some insane coincidence someone with the power to make this happen reads this and develops the series, story credit should go to both me and my kid, though, to be clear, we collaborated. Anyways, so basic idea, Daria is some amount older. She has had a successful career as a corporate lawyer, following in her mother’s footsteps, but is unhappy in her career, as she never thought she’d end up just like her mom, and never fulfilled her dreams of being a successful writer. She also ended up married to Tom (I honestly do not remember how the series leaves it - I think they break up and go off to different colleges? but even if so, they reconnected somehow and got married) but the marriage didn’t work and they divorce just before the start of the show, leaving Daria with custody of their teenage daughter, who has a personality much like Quinn from the first series, although updated somewhat for modern sensibilities.
Quinn and Trent also got together and got married and now have a teenage daughter (and possibly other kids, depending on the writer’s fancy) but they too are divorced, or at least are in the midst of a rocky patch, and Quinn leaves to get her groove back, leaving the kid or kids in Trent’s unreliable care. Jane, who has been living elsewhere being a successful artist, moves back to help out and reconnects with Daria, begging her to help out as well as neither she nor Trent have any idea how to parent a teenage girl. Trent and Quinn’s daughter is much like Daria was at her age.
As noted, Daria is unhappy in her job, and probably in the pilot, decides to quit and devote her time to being a writer. She could possibly also switch jobs to a writing professor at a community college to further that interest, although that also might be better saved for a later plotline and just start with her quitting her high powered lawyer job to focus on writing. Thus we are set up with Daria being unhappy in her professional life and overwhelmed in her personal life, with a good suite of returning characters and some new ones. The concept definitely would need bigger cast - fans I’m sure would want to see more returning characters from Lawndale High and what happened to them, and we also need to flesh out the inevitable highschool setting where Daria’s daughter and Quinn’s daughter attend, including definitely a young Jane analogue to be friends with Quinn’s daughter and probably a friend or a whole new fashion club to hang out with Daria’s daughter. For pure fanservice reasons, probably a decent amount should be children of legacy characters, although I think a mix would be best rather than just having it be Daria Gen 2 entirely. If we want to go weird and Marvel about it you could probably even toss in some cross-over lore links or characters with Beavis and Butthead or King of the Hill but that would really just be easter eggs and should not be prioritized over the shows integrity as its own thing.
Now, why this set up, in particular? I am sure most fans probably would want Daria to be happy and fulfilled in a reboot, and probably picture her as a successful author, and honestly very likely childless and independent, not divorced with a kid, or in a queer relationship with Jane. But if you give fans what they want, why have the show? If Daria is happy and successful, what are we even watching it for? There won’t be any conflict, no challenges for her to overcome. A show needs to be set in a pivotal part of her life where she is going through something that will present conflicts for the show to resolve. The easiest (not necessarily the only) way to do that is to make Daria unhappy where her life has went. Daria has always been a high achiever, and many high achievers end up locked in stressful jobs they don’t really like because thats what society expects of them. Thats exactly what happened to both of Daria’s parents, and while her mom coped with it and seemed mostly happy, her dad was miserable. Daria here would have followed her mom’s career path, but would be miserable like her dad, and that would drive her to make a change and follow her true dreams - which she had abandoned as unrealistic before, but which she can afford to pursue due to all that lawyer money.
Likewise, I feel Daria ended (apologies for not having watched it in a while so I may be slightly wrong, but this is my impression) without her fully embracing connection with others. She has Jane, and she dated Tom so has started opening up a bit, but she is still very misanthropic and closed. That character arc should continue in this new show, which is why Daria needs to be responsible for some kids. Having one of them be hers, but whom she cannot relate to, which ensure that she finds that chalkenging, and likewise, having a child she CAN relate to but that is NOT hers who she has been thrust into responsibility for against her will is another situation ripe for interesting conflicts, as Daria swings between connecting with the kid, resenting the responsibility she has been forced to assume, but also potentially butting heads with Trent and Quinn and Jane all of whom have more “right” to determine what is best for the kid than Daria does, but who maybe don’t understand the kid as well as Daria. Thats a compelling dynamic right there.
Finally, I think at some point, Daria and Jane should kiss, but that they should NOT start dating, not even briefly. Jane I think should probably be an out lesbian or bisexual at the point the show starts, but Daria should not be. This kiss should threaten to ruin their friendship, but after some drama, they both mutually decide to not let it, and stay friends rather than date. This can, however, open up the possibility of Daria dating other women, if the writers think that would be interesting, even if she ultimately decides she is straight, or she can cone to a great sexual awakening, or whatever. Lots of different possible paths there, but I do think Daria and Jane should not end up together before a theoretical series finale, if then. Again, this is because giving the fans what they want will remove any tension or conflict from the show. For a finale, sure, if you want to please fans, give them the pairings you want, but before that, you need conflict, and so having Daria and Jane not be together - possibly not even really be friends anymore at the start of the show - provides that, as does them kissing but not getting together. I don’t have strong feelings about their ultimate fate, I’m fine with them being together or ending up happy with other people, or single, but until the end of the show, they should be dating other people, allowing for both plenty of conflict and drama but also for occasional teases that they might get together, even if the writers do not intend to go there in the end. To be clear though, I am not talking about queer baiting - if either Jane or Daria is not written as a lesbian or bisexual in the new show, then no kiss should occur at all, and I do think Daria exploring dating women could be an interesting arc no matter what she ultimately decides is best for her, but the teasing is about their dynamic and relationship specifically, not their sexualities.
So, yeah, that is my pitch. I think it would be a believable place for Daria to be in, with plenty of good ground to write new and interesting plotlines while still giving fans enough fanservice that they have reason to watch the new show. Since it likely would have both high school and adult plotlines, it should appeal both to its original, now older audience, and possibly capture some new young fans, including likely the kids of those now older fans, like my oldest child. Balls in your court, weird TV executive reading a newly started blog by a nobody.
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