My So-Called Life (Pilot)

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What is the meaning of television? It's Thursday night, Jordan and Patty seem to prefer the picture sans sound. Danielle desperately wants to watch a tv-movie about this woman who makes obscene phone calls and is murdered. Is that what this show is about? Or is it that the lack of meat is destroying America?

For the pilot, Winnie Holzman establishes the characters, and the series' character, with director Scott Winant. My So-Called Life (MS-CL) is going to be something quite different from the usual fare. That is obvious from the uncharacteristic introduction.

The episode leaps about a bit more than usual, revealing more about characters than is necessary, laying the groundwork for subsequent developments. The first sequence ends with Angela dying her hair, which had been holding her back.

The Chase household is displayed. Patty isn't as awful as Angela claims, seemingly more nervous at meeting Angela's new friends than they are. Rayanne hides her book before devouring all Patty's cheese. Angela soliloquises strong sentiments about stabbing her mother (she doesn't mean it) and how her breasts have come between her and dad. Angela won't cover herself to ease Graham's discomfort and he won't confront her directly, urging Patty to "tell her not to walk around in a towel" or, failing that, "get her a bigger towel." Seems dad was supposed to go to chef school, not work for mom.

It's Thursday and Angela is in love. Jordan has been left back... twice... and he leans great. Rayanne picks up on the attraction and mentions that Jordan will be at Tino's, so Angela contrives to be there. The other boy in her life, Brian, appears in the background at first, snapping photos at the yearbook meeting. Later, he is being hassled by bullies... twice.

Angela began hanging out with Rayanne and Rickie just for fun, as a contrast to the boredom of class, where questions, questions flood the minds of the concerned young person, mostly answered by Brian. His first words are the response to some stupid question by a teacher. In class, Brian knows all the answers. Angela upsets the smooth flow of boredom mumbling that Anne Frank was lucky. Such inconsistent behaviour worries her teacher, Ms Mayhew.

Graham puts in a good word for Patty. "Try to be nicer to her once in awhile— as an experiment." Shortly after, a squabble breaks out because Graham lets Angela go to a party. Well, she doesn't say it's a party, but it is a school night. At the party, after getting knocked into mud, Angela meets Jordan, so to speak. She freaks out and they have a real-life pointless conversation about what day it is. It's Thursday. Jordan doesn't even ask her name, splits when his buddies call him.

Act III begins with a prison analogy, for everyone seems trapped in this episode. This metaphor gets released again in ‘The Zit.’ A great bathroom scenes follows. Sharon asks why she was dropped by Angela. It's a tearful scene where they try to understand what's happening. Angela needs to break out; Sharon needs Angela. Remember Sharon's initial reaction to Angela's hair: "I can't believe you did that to your hair... without telling me." Despite the tension and at risk of seeming catty, Sharon warns her friend that Rayanne may do to her what she did to Judy Barsch.

From this affecting scene, cut to Angela's home and Patty's solution for everything. Let's go ice-skating. It's apparently her attempt to return to a place where things made more sense to her. No one wants to go ice skating, probably not even Patty. She tells Graham to grow up and take sides.

The pilot ends with Angela going to Let's Bolt, where Tino can get them in. Hey, Jordan will be there. By this time, even Brian knows that Angela's got the hots for Jordan Catalano, though where Angela is concerned, he does seem well-informed. Yet, in a way, he is her "clueless neighbor." The normally dependable Tino fails to show up.

There's some bonding, where Angela says she'd want her lover to say, "It hurts to look at you." Rayanne makes the obligatory flip response, though Rickie thinks it's great. As they are transported (not arrested) by a policeman, Jordan sees Angela. "I know that girl. Angela!!" So he knows her name. Well worth the evening's hassles. Angela is smiling in the squad car.

She's in such a good mood, she actually answers Brian when he asks, "What happened?" (He's reading in a tree when she returns, like he's waiting up for her.) She is devastated when she sees a young woman with Graham, who is supposedly shooting pool with her uncle. REM's ‘Everybody Hurts’ flavours the bittersweet ending. Brian is about to say something important, but Angela cuts him off. She goes to Patty, who has the television on (volume off), weeping an apology. I like the way she cries.

Not to end on a downer, in the hall Monday, Jordan actually speaks to Angela: "Out on bail?" Maybe he's being witty. He says his weekend sucked. And Angela agrees with Rayanne that "we had a time" as the camera slows to a stop.

What is the meaning of television? Hell, what is the meaning of life?

[Note: the closing theme has more drums than in the rest of the shows. In fact, this one is quite a bit different, having been shot months earlier. The young persons are younger. It's a lot more focused on telling the story, rather than letting the story tell itself, which makes the series so classy later on. After seeing ‘In Dreams...,’ it's clear where it's going, but an amazing contrast in styles. Even with the next episode, written and directed by the same dynamic duo.]

MIDPOINT ANNOUNCEMENT - ANGELA (of course)