My So-Called Life

I've been watching a lot of "My So-Called Life" lately, which for me is the most accurate teen drama, even if at times it emotionally feels more sophisticated than the teenagers I went to school with. It specializes in mixed-up, unexplainable emotions, and unlike most shows about teenagers it's the rare drama where the adults are as complex as their children. You get as wrapped up in Angela's parents' dilemmas -- should her father start a career as a chef mid-life? Is her mother too skeptical? -- as you are in her ongoing love for Jordan Catalano. It is a highly realistic show in style, and yet there have been occasional moments, not unlike the opening credit sequence with whispers "Go... now... go!", that work their way into the floating free-for-all of dream states. It went where no other family drama went before, daring to ruminate on existential crises such as Angela's narration, "People always say how you should be yourself. Like your self is this definite thing, like a toaster or something. Like you know what it is, even."