Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: My So-Called Life ::
by William the Bloody
Go, now. Go!
Angela Chase is 15 years old and at the start of this latest year of high school she has started hanging out with Rayanne Graffe, one mess of a person who gets poor grades, drinks alcohol, but is fun and out going. This comes as a shock to Sharon Cherski, Angela's best friend since childhood, who suddenly finds herself being snubbed in the halls for no reason. Rayanne convinces Angela to dye her hair an outrageous shade of red and to start going out with her to crazy clubs and parties. But all of the clubs and parties in the world don't even hold a candle to older and extremely handsome, left back multiple times Jordan Catalano, the object of Angela's fantasies. Angela gets so desperate for Jordan to merely acknowledge her existence that she finds herself doing and saying things she'd never imagine herself doing, like cutting classes, going to drunken parties, and even buying a fake ID just to have something to talk to him about. Caught up in all of this is of course Angela's family who have no idea who their daughter has suddenly turned into and her old friends who want to know what they did for her to no longer be on speaking terms with them. Everything plays out over the 19 episode existence of this series in a way that feels very honest and true.
The Good: I can't even start. This program has so many things going for it, it is ridiculous. First of all, Angela, Brian (her neighbour of the same age), and many others actually being portrayed by actors who are actually teenagers, or at the very least 20 years and under. It was such a breath of fresh air to see teens playing teens, and it couldn't help but add to the show's feeling of realness. And speaking of realness, this series has it in spades. Right off in the first episode, the moment we see a classroom situation, I saw it and remembered that that was EXACTLY what high school was like. Most of the students not paying attention, some with their heads down on their desks, others passing notes, looking bored, while the one or two of the more studious pay steadfast attention and answer all the teacher's questions. All of the characters themselves had a genuine feeling that most teen dramas lack, and I'm not just talking about Angela and her friends, I mean everyone including her parents, teachers and ancillary characters all have something going on with them other than how they relate directly to Angela. Her parents have their own jobs, lives and friends, her little sister Danielle constantly craves attention and fights her way out of Angela's shadow, Rayanne's friend Ricky is constantly struggling to finds himself and be comfortable with who he is, and even the dreamy Jordan Catalano has a struggle between doing what his friends want and doing what he thinks he wants to try on his own. There are many strong "layers" to this show beyond the characters, like excellent writing and direction. Every episode tackles a certain topic such as episode 5, "The Zit" where a list circulates rating the sophomore girls ("best boobs", "most slut potential"), and Angela looks at herself hypercritically when she isn't on it but her friends are, and everything she is feeling is embodied simply in her big zit on her chin. But in that episode the subject matter is tackled also in the English class reading assignment of Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and Angela's mother urging her to join in a mother-daughter fashion show. It all comes together so beautifully with the clever writing and often subtle visuals. And the gorgeous capper on it all is Angela's inner monologue with snippets like: "Sometimes it seems like we're all living in some kind of prison. And the crime is how much we hate ourselves. It's good to get really dressed up once in a while. And admit the truth: that when you really look closely? People are so strange and so complicated that they're actually... beautiful. Possibly even me." While her words are strong and poignant they still feel... genuine. Also, I must applaud the show for the character of Ricky, Rayanne's gay friend. This series was from 1994 and I know having a gay character wasn't really "okay" yet for American TV. They do sort of dance around the issue at first (though it is obvious through context clues, such as him wearing eyeliner and frequently using the girl's bathroom at school... duh), but they do feature his crush on a boy in more than one episode and in the last one, they actually say it out loud. Kudos.
The Bad: While I will give high praise to this show for its effective use of "layers" to bring home a point, I have to say that the X-mas episode, "So-Called Angels" took it waaaay too far. Nearly every X-mas cliché in the book is used here, up to and including a dead homeless girl's ghost watching over Ricky when he winds up homeless himself for X-mas. And you know what? Jordan Catalano was a loser. Good looking? Yes. But that was it. Oh wait, he was in a band (can't forget the +5 charisma for that). He was dumb as a post though and it always makes me frustrated when a smart girl gets all mooney over an idiot just because he's really, really good looking. Plus he kind of treated her like crap more than a little bit. (but I suppose one could argue that this all adds to the show's "realism" as many people make poor choices for relationships in their teen years) Also, in some of the dialogue, the use of the word "like" feels forced and awkward.
So many teen based shows feel like (to me) that they were written by people don't seem to remember what it was really like to be a teenager at all. They have conjured some sort of idealized fantasy of beautiful, confident and rich teens who go to fancy high schools with swimming pools and drive their own new cars. Also, these teens are played by 26 year olds. That isn't how I remember it. I remember it all how this smart, funny, and spot-on program shows it (though for me, mostly through the eyes of neighbor-boy Brian Krakow). For a teen drama that feels honest and real, you really can't miss with My So-Called Life.
A+
