Blog:Depth Takes a Holiday (Daria)



"Depth Takes a Holiday" is the 4th episode of the third season of Daria.

Plot
Daria Morgendorffer is approached by Cupid and the St. Patrick's Day leprechaun, who want her to help them bring the spirits of Christmas, Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day back to Holiday Island. Cupid zaps Helen and Jake with his "love taser" to keep them out of the way, causing them to become more amorous than ever before. Quinn follows them around to prevent them from what she thinks is their intent to have another child.

Bad Qualities
1. To get the elephant out of the room, it has a really stupid premise for an episode of a show as intelligent and witty as Daria. Even the silly musical episode "Daria!" isn't as dumb.

2. On that topic, the premise is really nonsensical for a this show, as it's a slice of life show, which means it usually relies on realistic plots.


 * Because of its nonsensical plot, it feels like something that is more likely to be seen in Family Guy than Daria. Ironically, Family Guy was released in the same year as this episode.

3. The concept of personified holidays is ridiculous and laughable.

4. Daria, who is usually very smart, comes off as an idiot in this episode when she refers to Cupid and the leprechaun as her "imaginary friends", even if it was unintended. Even Quinn questions Daria's words when she says that. Yes, Daria's made honest mistakes and bad decisions before, but she's never made herself look that dumb.

5. Guy Fawkes Day speaks in a very grating voice.

6. The scene where Cupid puts Daria under his spell can come off as weird to some, especially since Daria is a teenager.

7. Cupid puts Helen and Jake under his spell to keep them out of the way, only to make their relationship way too sappy and saccharine.

8. Fans have considered it to be one of the worst episodes in the series, if not the absolute worst.

9. Fanfic writers hated this episode so much, they only touched on this episode because they wished to erase it from existence.

Good Qualities
1. It has grown in popularity in the Daria fandom for it's creativity and wackiness.

2. Clever title, which is not just a pun on the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday, but is also a meaningful title for the episode; because the writing in Daria has a lot of depth, but the writers decided to take a break, or a holiday, from the witty, intelligent, realistic and somewhat serious plots that the show usually revolves around.

3. This face that Daria makes when she's under Cupid's spell (causing her to think about Trent) is very cute.

4. The ending wasn't too bad.

5. The song "I'm a Teen Holiday" is funny.

Reception
"Depth Takes a Holiday" was roundly panned by Daria fans for being nonsensical and unrealistic. Many fans have considered it to be the worst episode of Daria, more so than the musical episode, "Daria!", another nonsensical and unrealistic episode. Despite this, the episode has grown in the fandom for it's creativity. On IMDb, it has a score of 6.2 out of 10, making it the lowest rated episode of Daria (including the two movies).