Fair Enough is Enough

A Daria Rant

As all of you know, I am as big a fan of Daria as any one out there. However, there is something about the recently aired episode, Just Add Water (#312, aired in the U.S. on 11 August, 1999), that has me worried about the future of Daria. The thing that has me worried is the recent trend of recycling past ideas, including the near duplication of an entire episode. Mind you, it's not a large trend (the only other season three episode that this phenomenon jumps out at you is The Old and the Beautiful) and I'm sure that I can find something like this in nearly all season three episodes if I look hard enough. However, when something as blatant as Just Add Water occurs; there is a problem.

What is the point of all of this, you ask. Just Add Water in itself wasn't a terrible episode. Daria wasn't the central victim of the "plot" but that isn't a problem (Daria Dance Party proved that). There wasn't a whole lot of plot and most of the events didn't mesh together very well. This was balanced out by some of the laugh out loud moments. The problem is that it seemed to me (and I don't think I'm the only one) that Just Add Water was lifted wholesale from season two's Fair Enough (which itself was sort of a rehash of The Daria Hunter). The parallels are staggering; Miss Li makes participation in some school event mandatory; Mr. DeMartino goes more nuts than usual; the struggle for control of the fashion club is intensified and ... well you get the point. Even some very minor things like the ending that involved just Kevin and Brittany are too similar not to arouse suspicion.

Except for a few scenery changes, minor tweaks and new dialog, Just Add Water and Fair Enough are the same episode. With the few amount of episodes of Daria that are produced, it's a shame that an entire episode was more or less replicated. Dare I say it, but I would almost rather sit through stuff like Depth Takes a Holiday. At least it was a somewhat original idea. Or, if episodes must be redone, at least remake episodes better than Fair Enough which, by almost all accounts, was remarkably average.

In closing, here's to hoping that the next time this episode comes up as a possible idea for a "new" episode, someone with creative control promptly puts it in the trash... or has it rewritten.

Whatever.

Wednesday on the 10 spot - Daria takes a ride on a medieval boat ... email me .