La la la la la, MTV has confirmed that its beloved 90s animated series Daria is up for the reboot treatment. Apparently, this ‘reimagining’ will be called Daria & Jodie. Even though the whole point of Daria is that she’s ultimately a loner and therefore there is never an & after her name. Or an ‘n. Even when she had a boyfriend. But whatever.
Chris McCarthy, president of MTV, said in a statement that MTV Studios hopes to reimagine shows from its archives.
“MTV has the biggest collection of hit youth franchises that spans more than three decades of content and over 200 titles, part of which have fueled our resurgence,” he said. “With MTV Studios, we are for the first time ever opening up this vault beyond our own platforms to reimagine the franchises with new partners.”
Producers of the new show say: “The iconic animated franchise is reinvented through the eyes of heroine Daria Morgendorffer and one of her closest friends Jodie Landon. These two smart young women take on the world, with their signature satirical voice while deconstructing popular culture, social classes, gender and race.”
Whilst I like Jodie, I think she is an important, funny and necessary main character in the original series deserving of more airtime, this also makes me want to fall to my knees and cry JAAAAAAAAAANE! Is she going to be there? She doesn’t get a mention.
Also, I don’t know quite how they could update Daria. Watching the show again (like I ever stopped), it seems as though the show can be summed up thusly ‘Daria warned us’.
Bar the absence of a smartphone, the bovver-booted hero was already using the internet, is already politically cynical and already had a best friend: JANE LANE.
And don’t mention apps because we all know she would not participate in Facebook, Snapchat, Tinder (please) or Tumblr. I’m willing to acknowledge she may have Twitter. Jane has Instagram but only for the filters. Jodie would have them all (bar Tinder, Mack 4 eva) and preside over many organisational Whatsapp groups. Which is why she and Daria don’t make sense as a twosome.
The upcoming new iteration of Daria will be written by Grace Edwards, who has previously written for Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt, Loosely Exactly Nicole and Inside Amy Schumer.
Am I going to watch it? Probably. Will it be good? I don’t know, we live in a Sick Sad World now…
