Angela Chase
by S.K. Evans
I hate Christmas Specials. So, when a friend suggested we watch “something Christmas-y” and drink mulled wine, my first thought was: the My So-Called Life Christmas episode! Juliana Hatfield. Homeless guardian angels. Teen angst. Plaid. OMG, perfect.
Besides, after hearing rumors that Billy Corgan is dating Jessica Simpson, I’d really just like to go back to 1994. 
Back when things still made sense.
Angela Chase may have been my first girl crush. Like Rayanne Graff, however, I didn’t just love her, I wanted to be her. As far as I know, every awkward, vaguely literary, over-sensitive teenage girl did. It’s amazing the show didn’t last (well, I guess not so amazing when you consider that it was one of the first television shows to deal explicitly with gay rights and to explore teenage sexuality and underage drinking). In today’s tween-marketing world, though, Angela would be a hot commodity. She is every twelve year-old girl’s fantasy. She wears multiple layers of flannel, remains a virgin, writes ridiculous poems about gingerbread houses and she still gets the hot stoner guy. Even if the on-and-off relationship was so obviously painful for my fictional emotional doppelganger, the fact that he secretly loved her in a way teenage boys never actually love girls allowed me to maintain the tween illusion that there is actually something profound going on behind that stony façade. Right. Boys are jerks because they like us.
Too bad we all learn in college that the Jordan Catalanos of the world are just kinda, well, dumb. Pretty and disaffected, sure. But also dumb.
Also worth noting: I’m now totally into the parental plot lines that used to leave me thinking “eew, boring.” Does that make me old?
2 Comments »
[...] kind of thing happens every time someone from one aspect of my life turns up in another. As Angela Chase so eloquently put it: “What I like, dread, is when people who know you in completely different [...]
December 15, 2009 @ 9:38 pm
I am so glad I’m not the only one who now gets the parental plot lines. In fact, I just finished up watching the boxed set my husband bought me and I kept thinking “Why am I relating to the parents almost more than I am to the kids?” (The fact that I described them as kids there also frightens me.) However, I always knew that Jordan was just plain dumb; I always loved Brian.