My So Called Life - A
By Kage Alan

Morose and always deep in thought, Angela Chase is an average 15-year-old high school student going through many of the very same trials and tribulations we all did. The best friend she had growing up, Sharon Cherski, is a stranger to her anymore and she (Angela) finds that she wants to hang with people a bit more “out there”. Out there is exactly what she finds in wicked and wild Rayanne Graff and gay boy extraordinaire Ricky Vasquez.

As for other supporting characters, there’s the boy of Angela’s dreams, Jordan Catalano, the one every girl’s mother warns her daughter about, the extremely smart and misunderstood geeky next door neighbor who has a secret crush, Brian Krakow and, of course, Angela’s family. Graham and Patty Chase have as many problems as their daughter does. Graham seems to be having issues with his fidelity as well as where he wants to be professionally while Patty is high strung, feels unloved and is usually an emotional mess. Their youngest daughter, Danielle, is trying her darnedest not to be a wallflower.

The 19 episodes cover everything from substitute teachers, acne, low self-esteem, sex, drinking, drugs, fake IDs, mortality, abandonment, sexual orientation, forgiveness and everything else that goes along with life. While the overwhelming majority of the episodes work, two of them are a bit awkward because they rely on things that just go outside the reality of the show, namely the Halloween and Christmas episodes. Fortunately, despite these shortcomings, the show is incredibly well acted, well written and just a pleasure to sit through.