MTV has an extensive catalogue of shows from the ’90s that we all grew up watching, and the network’s hoping that our nostalgia will be enough to lure audiences back for reboots of Aeon Flux and, surprisingly, Daria. La, la, la, la laaaa…
Daria and Jane judging the hell out of Brittany.Image: MTV
According to The Hollywood Reporter, MTV Studios is planning on a reboot of Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn’s Daria, which was originally spun off from Beavis and Butt-Head. It will be shopped around to other networks and streaming services in the near future.
Speaking to THR, MTV head Chris McCarthy explained that a number of MTV Studios’ newer projects in development are the sorts of series that might not necessarily be the right fit for the network, as it’s become increasingly more-focused on unscripted, reality TV content.
No details about the animated reboot have been announced yet, but catching up with Daria and her cohorts in 2018 would be interesting to say the least, given that the last time we saw her, she was heading off to university back in 2002. The world’s a drastically different place these days, though it’s hard to imagine someone like Daria changing all that much.
Here’s hoping that when Daria comes back, she’ll show up with her trademark sardonic wit – and will offer some much-needed perspective about the current hellscape we’re all living in.
Comments
17 responses to “MTV’s Marvellous Misanthrope Daria Is Coming Back In A New Rebooted Series”
The biggest shame with Daria is you need to put in work if you want to watch it with the original music, which was one of the best parts of the show.
Damn straight. The original show had one of the best soundtracks of any cartoon ever, which isn’t surprising for a spinoff from Beavis and Butthead (where the boys would regularly sit down and watch whatever was new and cool on MTV). Having it all ripped out and replaced with generic music really sucks, no matter how much of a licensing nightmare it would be to do anything else. At least we always have Splendora…
This will flop for sure, I liked Daria back in the day but I don’t see it appealing to the same age demographic as it did before, or still being appealing to the people who watched it when it was on originally.
They either drasticly change the show or settle for one or two seasons at most.
As much as I myself like Daria, I also know it is very strongly a product of its time.
It doesn’t help either that the realistic demographic is basically US teens who were going through school at around the same time as Daria herself.
These people have since grown up and the decade of that given life style is long gone.
The number of changes to reach relevance for a new demographic basically makes such a reboot more effort than creating a new IP.
I wasn’t a teen when I first watched the show but I still loved it, mainly because I could relate to being a snarky nerd in high school. The various cliques at high school don’t change very much regardless of the era, so re-watching the series again about a year ago I found it still held up really well.
If they updated it the only real difference I could see them making would be every kid having their head glued to their mobile phone and a greater emphasis on cyber-bullying.
I was a teenager a decidedly non American school, with non of the same school culture, cliques or stereotypes around me as the show, and about 5 or 6 years after it was aired.
I still fell in love with it because it tapped in to that “Everyone around me is stupid and the things adults are trying to say is stupid” phase that I think most teenagers go through
A few friends and I have rewatched a bunch of shows from our youth recently, and we agreed that Daria is one of the few that actually still holds up, even today.
There are some dated things, sure, but only really the tech in the show…dumb phones and bad internet etc. But the story, the humor, and rhetoric still works, and works well.
Sometimes I was my childhood and teenage years would just stay where they were.
But then corporations couldn’t make money off of your misplaced nostalgia
Daria was a product of the grunge and depressed 90s generation, to see a reboot using 2018 mindsets and “values” would be a nightmare
I dunno about the grunge, but I think there’s plenty of depression to go around.
A side topic if I may share.
Rather that try and reboot the series (I listed the problems in my earlier post) maybe they should try their hand at a better home media release?
Granted, the have a snowball’s chance in Hell in getting any of the music rifts back in due to licensing costs, but I would love to see better image quality than that seen on the DVDs.
They aren’t the worst I’ve seen but they still have a lot of room for improvement.
I will proceed with caution into this brave new world.
Daria was one of the properties I thought wouldn’t ever be given a reboot, everything about it was so perfect for its time, but with the right writers I could possibly see it working if Daria and Jane’s characters were preserved and it was everyone else that changed.
Funnily enough there’s a lot about Daria that still applies in this day and age. It served as a formative influence on my life so I dread anyone touching it but at the same time I’d love to see what a modern day take on the show would be because we’ve got so many more things to make sarcastic remarks about and satirise now.
Mood: Cautiously optimistic.
Lol, the added mood bit took me back to Livejournal.
As much as i love Daria (or maybe the memories i have of Daria) i don’t see it working the way it did back then. the whole cynical / Grunge culture seems to have changed. all kids care about now is Fortnite and Twitch. I don’t see younger generations clinging to the idea and i think people who grew up watching Daria are either just nostalgic for the idea of what Daria was and meant to them as teens and probabaly wouldnt be able to connect with a remake of the show.
But hey what do i know im just a random dude. it could be amazing.
Best Daria episode – GO!
I gave Daria a rewatch just a few months back. I’m not necessarily going to hold my breath for a reboot to be any good, but I do think that a modernised version could work as long as it was still as sharp with the satire and social commentary as the original was. I think Bojack Horseman isn’t a million miles from what I’d expect from a new Daria, albeit less adult and a smidgen less unrelentingly bleak.
Totally agree, man. My major concern is that in the current social climate the concept of ‘satire’ is truly lost on most people.
Don’t you fucking dare ruin my Daria.