Morgendorks: A Daria Podcast

Well, here we are. It's time for Daria to wrap itself up once and for all—and very nearly time for us to put this retrospective series to bed. It's the first half of our coverage of "Is It Fall Yet?," this week on Morgendorks! College application season has rolled around, and everybody's trying to figure out where they'll end up. Some will be thrilled! Some, disappointed! Some ... confused? Also, Quinn has a friend with a drinking ...

Rob's been waiting three god damn years to talk about this episode, and it's finally here: It's time we covered "Boxing Daria," this week on Morgendorks! When a discarded refrigerator box brings back some troubling emotions from her early youth, Daria's left questioning her understanding of, well ... just about everything. It's a wildly interesting, introspective, and reverent episode, and we truly hope our discussion did it justic...

As they said in the '90s: Let's talk about sex. It's time for "My Night at Daria's," this week on Morgendorks! When Tom falls asleep at Daria's house it ends up creating a rumor that he and Daria are sleeping together—which leads Daria to feel pressured to actually start sleeping together. But what if you're just not in that mindset?

Also, Jake has a sushi parasite.

Just a note that Rob's connection was a little wonky throughout re...

The Fourth of July has come and gone, but we get into the spirit by celebrating two proud American traditions: wildly excessive amounts of processed meat and the brutally exploitative postsecondary education complex! It's time for "Prize Fighters," this week on Morgendorks! When scholarship application season kicks into gear, it sends Daria into direct competition with a few of her classmates. Whole lot of conflict throughout this ...

Batten down the hatches, the Barksdale sisters are in town! It's "Aunt Nauseam," this week on Morgendorks! When Helen's niece gets ready to file for divorce, it ends up bringing the Barksdale sisters together again ... but not in a good way. Turns out they only exist to destroy one another? This is an episode that is somehow both busy (there's a friggin' D plot, y'all) and repetitive, and we get a little lost trying to figure out w...

Let's take a trip back to the 1950s! Or Maybe let's not, because it looks like our tour guide is a real turd. It's time for "Life in the Past Lane," here on Morgendorks! When Jane hooks up with a guy who's obsessed with the "timeless" style of the 40s and 50s, she falls into it herself—much to the dismay of Daria. Also, Upchuck's a magician now! So that's cool, I guess. Whole lot to chat about with this one, with a ton of cultural ...

How's Quinn gonna get through this episode? "One J at a Time," of course. Actually, let's talk about Quinn and her characterization throughout this one, because we have some, er, concerns. Same with Helen, actually. And why is Daria so afraid of Tom meeting two people he's already met?

That said, there's a lot to love in this one, and we talk through every bit of it—including maaaaybe one of the best Jake plotlines of the entire se...

Let's take a dive into the world of art recreations and frivolous lawsuits! It's "Art Burn," this week on Morgendorks! When Jane gets hired by a local scumbag gallery owner to paint recreations of famous works to pay off gazebo debts, she's conflicted: Getting paid for art is awesome, but just how much time and energy can you dedicate to painting someone else's work before you've kinda forgotten what being an artist meant to you in...

Time for another episode of Morgendorks! This week, we're covering "Lucky Strike." When the teachers of Lawndale High finally decide they've had enough of their criminally low salaries, they go on strike—and it throws Daria into a pretty awkward spot when she's ... kinda ... strong-armed into being the replacement Mr. O'Neill. Not sure how we feel about Daria "Once Sparked a Socialist Riot" Morgendorffer suddenly not being on the s...

When two writerly folks gather together to talk about an episode of Daria focused on the intensely personal craft of writing, you can bet we're gonna be pulled in all sorts of tangents. It's time for "The Story of D," this week on Morgendorks! When Daria submits a short story for publication to a literary journal and gets rejected, she's struck with a crisis of confidence. Also: The Fashion Club goes humanitarian! And Helen's makin...

Grab your oversized Camp Grizzly t-shirt and dig into your flavorless potato chips, it's time to cover "Camp Fear" on Morgendorks! When Daria goes to a summer camp reunion, it brings back a bunch of memories she was plenty happy leaving behind. Meanwhile, Jane and Trent go on a quest to get Trent's passion for music back, and Helen and Jake clean the garage. With sexy results! Oy.

No cultural context this week because the second do...

Time to cover "Fat Like Me," this week on Morgendorks! When Sandi—not Stacy, Sandi—breaks her leg and gains a few pounds, it tosses the entire Lawndale High social structure into disarray and gives Daria and Jane a chance to do some good ol' fashioned scheming. It's a ... complicated episode to talk about, and you'll sense how torn we were throughout.

Also, you might get to the beginning of the episode rankings, look at the timer, ...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for a special episode of Morgendorks! This week, we found ourselves honored/privileged/more than a little giddy to welcome Daria character designer, supervising director, and animation guru Karen Disher to the program! Ms. Disher was delightful enough to give us an hour of her time to talk about where Daria's character design came from, what she thinks of the show's continued legacy...

Time to crush the relationship roles of the heteronormative patriarchy! Or maybe just poke away at it a bit? It's time for "Sappy Anniversary," this week on Morgendorks! When Daria and Tom's six-month anniversary approaches and he doesn't seem interested in celebrating, Daria's torn: Is this something she cares about? Does she care that he doesn't care? What does it mean?

Relationships are hard, y'all. This one's a very interesting...

Let's go ahead and mark our entry into season five with some hearty dialogues against capitalism: It's time for "Fizz Ed," this week on Morgendorks! When a cash-strapped Lawndale High turns to cola companies for those sweet, sweet vending machine contract dollars, Daria's forced to grapple with the juxtaposition of her moral objections and her general apathy.

And for our cultural context, we take a look at the controversy surroundi...

When the whip comes down /
When they nuke the town /
When dead clowns can't clown /
We'll still be freakin' friends.

All right, y'all, let's wrap this sucker up. The first half of "Is It Fall Yet?" left us with a lot of questions, some concerns, and a whole bunch to look forward to—and here we are. Do Daria and Jane figure things out? Do Daria and Tom? Has Quinn really turned a corner and embraced her own intelligence? ...

We've finally arrived at the first Daria movie! This week, we're covering the first half (or so) of "Is It Fall Yet?" The turbulence of the season four finale hangs in the air and Jane and Daria still find themselves on the outs as they head into a summer in which they won't be seeing much of one another. With Daria trying to navigate relationships both starting and crumbling, Jane trying to navigate some surprisingly complex issue...

Season four has been a long and turbulent ride, and it's not about to get any smoother as we roll into its finale, "Dye! Dye! My Darling," this week on Morgendorks! When Jane pushes Daria into a hair dyeing adventure she's deeply uncertain about, things go horribly wrong—and it brings all of the tensions of the previous twelve episodes to a head (heheh). Love! Loss! Betrayal! This episode has it all! Ahhh!

Oh! And for our cultural ...

Hey, sometimes your dad accidentally sets the house on fire and you have to live at a swanky hotel for a few weeks but your sister basically claims the room as her domain so you've gotta go crash with your best friend instead except she's got her boyfriend over and they've been having ~issues~ but also he and you are getting along very very nicely and it makes things extremely complicated. That's just life, y'know? That's living.

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