ABC
Just about every episode ofMy So - call Lifeopened with the same ecstatic ikon : Claire Danes , the show ’s then - teenage maven , racing into frame , her beaming face haloed by a red streak of fresh dyed hair . This was the opening slam of the hatchway deferred payment , an elegantly assembled montage of import plucked from the series and set to the tuneful alt - rock noodling of W. G. Snuffy Walden ’s original theme . But there ’s a whole world of emotion in just those first couple of second , that expressive sprint through the parking lot . It was the show in toy : a fuzz of feeling as beautiful and ephemeral as adolescence itself .
Ephemerality is one key toMy So - Called Life ’s eternal cult legacy . Premiering on ABC in former summertime of 1994 , the show lasted for a single acclaimed , modestly rated season . Three decades afterward ( this preceding weekend marked the thirtieth anniversary of its premiere ) , it persist perchance the ultimate lamented casualty of connection shortsightedness . Tragically abridge down in the flush of its prime - clip lifespan , it pronto took on the repute of something too sensitive and overbold for TV — a teenage dramatic play ahead of its metre and unsung during the same . You watch it today and still ca n’t conceive anyone would n’t need more of it .
ABC
Set in a fictional suburb of Pittsburgh , the show follows Angela Chase , a teen navigating the pitfall of high school , friendship , hormones , peer imperativeness , and more . Creator Winnie Holzman , who had work onThe Wonder Years(another smart show about growing up ) and who would go on to writeWicked , observed genuine classrooms to get a sensory faculty of how real Thomas Kid talked and interacted . That research gaveMy So - Called Lifea saccade of naturalism . shun both the soapy artificiality ofBeverly Hills , 90210and the equally phony wholesomeness of ABC ’s own Afterschool Specials , Holzman tried to describe teenage life as it was — exciting , yes , but also dreadful , unsatisfying , and embarrassing , depend on the day .
Danes was really 15 — and really in high-pitched schoolhouse — when she scored the lead role . She delivers one of the most remarkably open and unaffected child performances ever , effortlessly catch all the heightened emotions of youth , when joy and heartache are always a whispering ( or a fake pas ) apart . Angela ’s voice - over yarn , which Holzman primitively wrote as literal diary ledger entry , strikes a unadulterated counterweight between naivete and a certain nascent wisdom . She ’s a smart kid who ’s confused in the way everyone is at that age . In the pilot , she confesses green-eyed monster for Anne Frank in one hint ( because what teen daughter would n’t daydream about being cooped up with their crush ? ) , and shares a disarming insight about the burden of identity in the next .
No one onMy So - Called Lifewas a stereotype . Not Rayanne Graff ( A. J. Langer ) , the impulsive , secretly insecure coolheaded kid Angela is drawn to at the start of sophomore class . Not pretty , democratic Sharon Cherski ( Devon Odessa ) , the former BFF our heroine abruptly drifts off from for reason neither all understand . Not Brian Krakow ( Devon Gummersall ) , the studious neighbour who transparently conceals his unspoken infatuation with Angela behind a masquerade of defensive thorniness . Not even Jordan Catalano , Angela ’s smoldering , but often uncaring compaction , played by a immature Jared Leto . Today , it ’s fun to joke that this emotionally circumscribe dreamboat is the skinny Leto came to playing himself on - filmdom , but there ’s a grounds the performance made him a lead . He gave Jordan just enough glimmer of hidden depth to keep us wondering , like Angela , if there was more to him .
And who could blank out Rickie Vasquez ( Wilson Cruz ) , Rayanne ’s sensitive and endlessly concerned bestie ? By the final episode ofMy So - CalledLife , he had become the first openly gay character on web television . The show struck a Libra the Scales with this groundbreaking ceremony element , progressively treating Rickie ’s sexuality as no giving deal — none of the other quality are fall up on it — while receipt the homophobic insult Kyd like him too often endure . My So - Called Lifewaded into a caboodle of serious societal matter , from teen alcoholic beverage insult to organic structure image trouble to gun violence in schooling ( five years before Columbine , no less ) . But it was rarely preachy on these topics , alternatively thread them into the cloth of the character ’ lives and its rich portrayal of American adolescence .
My So - name Lifecared deeply about Angela ’s parents , too — abouttheirdesires and insecurities . That was , in part , a option made out of necessary : Because of her age , Danes could only be on set a sure phone number of hours , which forced Holzman to fill out episodes with the parallel , complimentary drama of what was decease on in the union of her folks , Patty ( Bess Armstrong ) and Graham ( Tom Irwin ) . Anyone who grew up on the show might be startled to discover , upon revisiting it , how much it doubles as a serious-minded , mature , complicated tale of midlife crisis , aka the reboot of pubescence . That sure-enough saw about high shoal being an audition for the societal obstacles of adulthood plays out across the season - long electric arc of these two distressed fortysomethings . Whether they were really compatible becomes as pressing a matter as Angela ’s fledgeling love life .
The show was n’t sodding . It sometimes shlep a little too far into corny YA mysticism , contribute Angela imagination of spirits on Halloween and Christmas . And at times , a series that start by acknowledging the friendship - killing break of deepen social circle — which is what really come between Angela and Sharon — stretched credibleness by blurring the wrinkle of those circles . Here and there , it play like a weekly version ofThe Breakfast Club , where Holzman ’s own brilliant Brian could bond as needed with her answer to Bender or Allison or Claire . But maybe that was just a thoughtfulness of how muchMy So - Called Lifeloved its characters . It was unwilling to turn any of them — even Jordan — into a one - dimensional villain .
The collection of the series was truly intergenerational . It speak to a whole spectrum of age ranges , scatter empathy in all directions . Parents could get worthful brainstorm into what their kids were going through — inside and outside the classroom . Teens could gain more discernment of their parent ’ lives . Even Angela ’s grade - school day sister , Danielle ( Lisa Wilhoit ) , gets a platform . One of the final episode spread a voice - over window intoherthought process — a giving to younger viewer for whomMy So - call Lifewas mostly aspirational , a preview of what maybe awaited them in the years to occur .
Over the line of 19 episode , the show build a loyal following . It ’s sound out to be the first television series to inspire an net write - in campaign from fans hop to save it from the hack engine block . Their sustenance was n’t enough . Neither was the industrious evangelise of TV critic or awards shows ( like the Golden Globes , which gave Best Actress to Danes ) . stone against the situation comedy juggernaut that wasFriends , which debuted a simple few week later , My So - Called Lifenever rose high enough in the Nilsen ratings to convince ABC that it had more than a “ niche ” ingathering . That Danes herself had trepidation about committing to the operose shot schedule of a second time of year play a part , too , in the connection ’s decisiveness not to regenerate .
But the series found a second life on MTV , which get send reruns after its cancellation . One has to question if it was just bear a trivial too soon . The WB and UPN were right around the recess , ready to show in a new age of telly target at younger watcher . you’re able to see a small ofMy So - Called Lifein the teen drama that espouse , in the soapier like ofDawson ’s Creekand scarier likes ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer . Perhaps the show ’s closest spiritual successor was another much - mourned one season wonderment : Freaks and Geeks , whose more explicitly comical nature could n’t hide out its corresponding total - of - age perceptivity .
The final episode ofMy So - Called Life , a poignant riff onCyrano de Bergerac , sets up multiple cliffhangers that remain forever undecided . We ’ll never know if Angela and Rayanne mend their busted friendship , if Brian has any shot with the girl of his dreams , if Graham will follow temptation into matrimonial infidelity . If these so - shout out lives went on , they did so beyond our line of mass .
mayhap there ’s something right about that . My So - Called Lifenever had the chance to lose its touch or let down its fans . As a single fantabulous season , it stay a ego - contained anomaly of programme TV , unblemished by dramatis personae divergence , a sophomore economic crisis , or any other threat to its immortality . And by stay fresh its characters pay heed in the present moment , it also preserved them in the gold of endless possibilities — the fabled promise of juvenility , truly limitless thanks to the ellipses of a premature ending . In that way , the show ’s fall back opening dig , that glimpse of Angela joyfully bounce onto screen door , looks like a snapshot of eternity . Adolescence , so fleeting in existent life , goes on forever here .
My So - Called Lifeis presently streaming on Hulu .
