This is a little something I meant to publish last September, but I kept getting distracted, then worked on other entries for a while.
As you can probably guess, between the rampant shutdowns due to COVID- 19 and the fact that summer break meant I couldn't do any of my usual work as a teacher's assistant, I had a LOT of free time last year from April through much of August, and as you can tell from my previous entries around that period, I did a good deal of binge- watching during that time.
Among other things, I watched an entire animated TV series over the course of a couple months that I hadn't seen in at least ten to fifteen years: The MTV show "Daria."
(Meet Daria; She looks like a cheerful sort, doesn't she?)
This show was a spinoff of "Beavis and Butt- Head" (Daria was a supporting character on that show), but the similarities end there. "Daria" is funny, but often in a much more intelligently- written, sophisticated way, and it could at times tackle serious subject matter.
The show ran from 1997- 2002, and centers around Daria Morgendorffer (Voice of Tracy Grandstaff), an intensely brilliant yet unbelievably cynical teenage girl who at the start of the series has just moved to the suburb of Lawndale along with her family: Workaholic mother Helen, high- strung and rather childlike father Jake, and perky but quite flaky younger sister Quinn. Daria soon becomes friends with a similarly- minded young artist named Jane, and most episodes deal with the two of them trying to get through the monotony, frustrations, and flat- out idiocy of high school and suburban adolescence in general.
I'd had the complete series of "Daria" on DVD for a few years (I got it for a great deal in some Black Friday sale), but had never actually watched the DVD set until just this last summer. Having watched it now, I can say it still holds up amazingly well all these years later! It doesn't really feel dated, and many of the points it raises over its five seasons are still quite relevant today. Its theme song by Splendora is really cool, too.
The humor in "Daria" is always great, largely in the form of Daria and Jane's witty and cutting remarks and commentary on everything around them. I'm not sure if there was even a single episode that didn't have me laughing hard several times.
The supporting characters on "Daria" are a lot of fun to watch too, such as Quinn's friends in the high school's Fashion Club who are even more shallow than her, the sweet yet dopey cheerleader Brittany and her brainless jock boyfriend Kevin, and the school's rather psychotic history teacher Mr. DiMartino (This guy needs anger management therapy in the worst way).
In my summer binge- watch of this show, I saw an episode that dealt a little with the subject of faith in a mostly good way: The Season 4 episode entitled "Groped by an Angel."
After watching a TV program dealing with people having encounters with guardian angels, Daria's sister Quinn has a slight spiritual awakening as she begins to fervently believe that she has her own guardian angel looking out for her. This belief is further strengthened when she escapes a couple near- disasters (i.e. Getting up from a chair seconds before a chandelier falls on it, and refraining from having her usual salad dressing as part of her lunch one day then discovering afterwards that the dressing in question had gone bad and made some other students sick). All this is to the great annoyance of Daria, who is a hardcore skeptic of such things.
Things come to a header one night as Daria and Quinn are both invited to a party being thrown for the cheerleader Brittany by her doting father to celebrate her managing to get her cumulative GPA up to a C- (For someone as dim as Brittany, that IS an achievement worth celebrating). While there, Quinn gets soda splashed on her new jeans in a VERY embarrassing spot, if you get my drift. Quinn then further embarrasses herself by accidentally shattering a mock- crystal cheerleading bullhorn Brittany's father gave her as a gift at the party. Quinn suffering all this causes her catty frienemy Sandi (A young lady who's pretty much the ultimate textbook definition of a "Mean girl") to mockingly say that perhaps Quinn's guardian angel has abandoned her. Quinn begins to take this to heart, and understandably feels miserable about it. Daria, after having a lengthy conversation on the subject with their mom, gains a newfound sense of tolerance and encourages Quinn to not let a single bad evening cause her to lose her faith.
One problem I had with "Groped by an Angel" is with the scenes involving Brittany's younger brother Brian. While we had scenes with him in earlier episodes that show he's an annoying pest, in this episode he crosses the line into an obnoxious, screaming little brat, and the scenes with him will thus REALLY grate on you.
Other than that, 'Groped by an Angel' is a VERY entertaining episode. It is filled with one funny line after another, usually from Daria (i.e. When asked if she believes there's anything watching over them, she responds, "Well, there's the IRS, and those guys with the black helicopters."), and it does at times grapple with some deep concepts. It's also easy to feel both for Quinn with the spiritual awakening and test of that faith she goes through, and for Daria's general annoyance at how Quinn's experiences cause her and others around them to start flat- out obsessing about angels.
There's also a rather funny subplot in which Quinn's three idiotic quasi- boyfriends Joey, Jeffy and Jamie start wondering about Quinn's supposed "Guardian angel." When one of them explains that a guardian angel is "This dude who follows you around and makes sure you don't get into trouble," another chimes in "Oh, like a parole officer!" They then decide that this "Guardian angel" must be a sicko peeping on their girl, and things kind of go from there.
What also works about this episode is that it's explained that Daria and Quinn's mom Helen is a spiritual person as well. If it were just Quinn, some viewers could say that the episode paints a negative portrait of believers, that it implies they are stupid or naive. However, while Helen may have her flaws (i.e. Her workaholism often preventing her from being there for her family as much as she knows she should be), stupidity is NOT one of them. For all her neuroses, she is still a quite intelligent, level- headed woman, so showing that she is a believer too made things a little more balanced.
Even though "Groped by an Angel" is at times critical of the concept of faith, I believe there are some nuggets of Scriptural wisdom to be found in it if you know where to look (Bet you never thought that could be said of an MTV show):
The first I can see concerns the matters of providence and prayer, both answered and unanswered. Quinn came to believe that her guardian angel would always be there to protect her from any harm or anything bad happening, only for her to then have such an awful night at the party. This, as I said, greatly shook her newfound faith. Daria, however, in talking to Quinn about it near the end of the episode, gave a short but extremely astute answer as to why her guardian angel didn't protect her from the humiliations at the party, especially her destroying the mock- crystal bullhorn:
"Maybe the angel didn't think saving an overpriced, undeserved knick- knack was the most efficient use of his time."
I think that really was a good point. Divine intervention is meant by God to serve a higher purpose and aid in building His Kingdom on Earth, and simply protecting that tacky piece of junk from being shattered wouldn't really serve ANY kind of Godly goal.
See, God DOES dearly love us and CAN intervene, at times in miraculous ways, when we are most in need (I've personally witnessed this several times). However, that doesn't mean He will constantly do so to prevent us from ever being so much as inconvenienced in any way.
There's also a rather funny subplot in which Quinn's three idiotic quasi- boyfriends Joey, Jeffy and Jamie start wondering about Quinn's supposed "Guardian angel." When one of them explains that a guardian angel is "This dude who follows you around and makes sure you don't get into trouble," another chimes in "Oh, like a parole officer!" They then decide that this "Guardian angel" must be a sicko peeping on their girl, and things kind of go from there.
What also works about this episode is that it's explained that Daria and Quinn's mom Helen is a spiritual person as well. If it were just Quinn, some viewers could say that the episode paints a negative portrait of believers, that it implies they are stupid or naive. However, while Helen may have her flaws (i.e. Her workaholism often preventing her from being there for her family as much as she knows she should be), stupidity is NOT one of them. For all her neuroses, she is still a quite intelligent, level- headed woman, so showing that she is a believer too made things a little more balanced.
Even though "Groped by an Angel" is at times critical of the concept of faith, I believe there are some nuggets of Scriptural wisdom to be found in it if you know where to look (Bet you never thought that could be said of an MTV show):
The first I can see concerns the matters of providence and prayer, both answered and unanswered. Quinn came to believe that her guardian angel would always be there to protect her from any harm or anything bad happening, only for her to then have such an awful night at the party. This, as I said, greatly shook her newfound faith. Daria, however, in talking to Quinn about it near the end of the episode, gave a short but extremely astute answer as to why her guardian angel didn't protect her from the humiliations at the party, especially her destroying the mock- crystal bullhorn:
"Maybe the angel didn't think saving an overpriced, undeserved knick- knack was the most efficient use of his time."
I think that really was a good point. Divine intervention is meant by God to serve a higher purpose and aid in building His Kingdom on Earth, and simply protecting that tacky piece of junk from being shattered wouldn't really serve ANY kind of Godly goal.
See, God DOES dearly love us and CAN intervene, at times in miraculous ways, when we are most in need (I've personally witnessed this several times). However, that doesn't mean He will constantly do so to prevent us from ever being so much as inconvenienced in any way.
It calls to mind James 4:3, which says about unanswered prayer, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." Quinn merely seeking to avoid embarrassment and protect that stupid bullhorn would not have done anything to advance God's plan for the world, and us as Christians often praying for things merely to advance our own immediate, selfish desires would be much the same way. Just because you get hit with hangups and don't get everything you ask for doesn't mean God doesn't care or isn't there; It likely just means that what you want wasn't part of God's plan for you, at least not for the moment.
Another Scriptural lesson I can think of that can be taken from 'Groped by an Angel' is on the subject of tolerance for those with differing beliefs. While Daria remains a skeptic on matters of faith, the conversation she has with Helen helps her to realize that she can hold to that, but still at least tolerate Quinn feeling differently on the matter. She sums this up when she then tells Quinn in the end of the episode, "I think what makes sense is to believe whatever makes you feel best." That may not exactly be a complete slam- dunk theologically, some kernels of truth can be found in it; See, while we as Christians should believe and stick to the core tenets of our faith (i.e. That Jesus is God's Son and the only way to Heaven) and not compromise what we believe in just for the sake of unity, we should most definitely have tolerance for other Christians with minor differences in beliefs from ours (i.e. Those in other Christian denominations, such as Baptists vs. Methodists).
It calls to mind a story relating to Jesus in Mark 9:38- 41: "'Teacher,' said John, 'we saw someone driing out demons in Your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.' 'Do not stop him,' Jesus said. 'For no one who does a miracle in My name can the next moment say anything bad about Me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in My name because you belong to the Messiah will not lose their reward.'" What matters is that we are believing in the same Savior.
Last but not least, "Groped by an Angel" teaches us an important lesson on the importance of developing real depth to one's faith. Quinn's newfound beliefs are shown to be as shallow as most other aspects of her character; She believes in angels, but doesn't seem to let it really translate into a belief in God (The one who MADE the angels and rules over them) or any kind of real theology. Her beliefs are limited to her just thinking that angels are out there and are always looking out for her. With beliefs that shallow, it is unsurprising that they are heavily shaken by their very first trials (Her humiliating experiences at the party).
Another Scriptural lesson I can think of that can be taken from 'Groped by an Angel' is on the subject of tolerance for those with differing beliefs. While Daria remains a skeptic on matters of faith, the conversation she has with Helen helps her to realize that she can hold to that, but still at least tolerate Quinn feeling differently on the matter. She sums this up when she then tells Quinn in the end of the episode, "I think what makes sense is to believe whatever makes you feel best." That may not exactly be a complete slam- dunk theologically, some kernels of truth can be found in it; See, while we as Christians should believe and stick to the core tenets of our faith (i.e. That Jesus is God's Son and the only way to Heaven) and not compromise what we believe in just for the sake of unity, we should most definitely have tolerance for other Christians with minor differences in beliefs from ours (i.e. Those in other Christian denominations, such as Baptists vs. Methodists).
It calls to mind a story relating to Jesus in Mark 9:38- 41: "'Teacher,' said John, 'we saw someone driing out demons in Your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.' 'Do not stop him,' Jesus said. 'For no one who does a miracle in My name can the next moment say anything bad about Me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in My name because you belong to the Messiah will not lose their reward.'" What matters is that we are believing in the same Savior.
Last but not least, "Groped by an Angel" teaches us an important lesson on the importance of developing real depth to one's faith. Quinn's newfound beliefs are shown to be as shallow as most other aspects of her character; She believes in angels, but doesn't seem to let it really translate into a belief in God (The one who MADE the angels and rules over them) or any kind of real theology. Her beliefs are limited to her just thinking that angels are out there and are always looking out for her. With beliefs that shallow, it is unsurprising that they are heavily shaken by their very first trials (Her humiliating experiences at the party).
In this sense, Quinn can be seen as representing what Jesus said in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-23, specifically the section about the seeds that are sown on rocky soil, quickly sprout up, but then are withered by the sun since they could not grow deep roots: "The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away."
God doesn't want believers to simply stay the way they are, theologically speaking, to remain in what one church I'm familiar with once called "Christian Kindergarten": He wants us to become stronger, better believers as time goes on, who can better spread his Gospel to all around us. When we come to faith, we need to properly strengthen it and develop solid roots to it through such means as worship, studying the Bible, coming to the Lord in prayer, reading solid yet understandable theology books (I have some good recommendations in that regard, if anyone's interested), and learning from other believers. In this way, our faith can grow stronger every day, and withstand even the worst of trials.
So, that is about all I have to say about that episode. It helps us remember truths about answered and unanswered prayer, shows us to have more tolerance of those whose theological beliefs may differ somewhat from ours, and inspires us to better grow in our faith and thus become stronger believers. I'd say those are messages that even someone as cynical and skeptical as Daria could agree with.
That's about it for this episode of the Nightcrawler Experience. Keep your eyes open for new entries, I have a few ideas I'm working on. Until then, stay safe and healthy, and may God bless you all!
So, that is about all I have to say about that episode. It helps us remember truths about answered and unanswered prayer, shows us to have more tolerance of those whose theological beliefs may differ somewhat from ours, and inspires us to better grow in our faith and thus become stronger believers. I'd say those are messages that even someone as cynical and skeptical as Daria could agree with.
That's about it for this episode of the Nightcrawler Experience. Keep your eyes open for new entries, I have a few ideas I'm working on. Until then, stay safe and healthy, and may God bless you all!
