My Favourite TV: My So-Called Life

Telling the story of growing pains and teenage angst this was, in my opinion, one of the best TV shows of 1994/95. Told from the viewpoint of 15 year old Angela Chase played superbly by the then 15 year old Claire Danes the series moved through various interlocking storylines involving Angela, her friends, her first relationships and her family.

I’ve just finished watching this on DVD and was pleased to find that I still loved it after more than a ten year gap. Claire Danes gives I think her best ever performance as the somewhat dreamy outsider Angela. She makes the role her own and gives powerfully realistic performances on what seemed like a weekly basis. Amazingly only 19 episodes of this series were ever made leaving to story in mid air and mid plot – which actually in some ways added to its mystique. If you get a chance to see it, or if you remember it from its first showing, I’m sure that you will be as impressed as I was by the ability of the young actors in portraying teenage life in the modern world. I guess that this was one of the biggest selling points of the show – its realism. I certainly identified with more than one of the characters on more than one occasion.

Strangely I caught a music video recently as my brother channel hopped through the music channels. I thought that I recognised Jared Leto (Angela’s love interest) as lead singer of a band called 30 Seconds From Mars. I checked later on IMdb and found that it was indeed him. I thought he had a good voice from a song he did in the series.

Anyway, check it out if you can. It’s worth the time and effort.