Thu, May 29, 2003

When My So-Called Life originally aired on MTV, I didn't watch it. I didn't watch that much MTV in general and so I didn't hear about it until it was almost over. I remember friends who were crazy about it, though.

Recently, on the advice of a friend who'd purchased the DVD set, I began renting the discs and watching it for the first time. There was a brief period when I really adored Claire Danes and then that went south, but lately I feel like she's calmed down a little and as of Igby Goes Down and Terminator 3 she seems back to her old self. So it was a good time to explore her beginning. The first three episodes (Disc 1) were really engaging, and so far I've seen one or two more that seem to suggest that the show didn't grow into its potential very well. But who knows, maybe it will still pick up. What really startled me was that A.J. Langer was playing the best friend of Claire Danes's character. I'm more familiar with Langer from It's Like, You Know... which I watched when it was on, so I would have guessed that she was at least five years older than Danes. (As it turns out, this is almost exactly the case.) Bizarre. In the show they look about the same age, but Langer's under tons of costume and makeup, so who can say. It makes me kind of glad I didn't watch the show originally because I probably would have had some kind of psychotic episode when I first saw her in It's Like, You Know...

So, as I said, the jury is still out on whether the show is all it's cracked up to be, but hands-down the best part of the DVD experience is the music that runs over the DVD menus. It's the unabridged version of the My So-Called Life theme, composed by W.G. Snuffy Walden. It has a peppy, mid-90s feel while also possessing a heartfelt lilt and a rockin' backbeat. A lot of times, I just stay on the menus and let the track loop. Walden also composed the music for the series which usually features the American Beauty-style xylophone more than the theme does. But the best part of the theme is that it feels absolutely like it could be the instrumental version of a real pop song. It has a verse-chorus-verse quality to it that is extremely catchy.

Overall, though, what strikes me is Walden's versatility. While I first became aware of him in 1998 when he composed the music for Sports Night, he's been working in TV music since thirtysomething and The Wonder Years. Today, his work can be heard on many shows, most notably The West Wing. I think Sports Night is his most impressive work for a situation comedy because it depended on music a lot more than most comedies do. He was doing more than just the usual interstitials and music in and out of commercial. The musical montage, while rare on shows like Friends, was used quite a bit on Sports Night. And the hour-dramas, like Felicity and Cupid take up a lot more music. Walden's comfort with so many styles from the grandiosity of The West Wing to the simple guitar riffs of Sports Night is pretty remarkable. Even more so because all the themes are so catchy.

And, on My So-Called Life, he combined that deceptive simplicity with the resonant emotional depth of the show, creating something that stays with you long after the end credits have rolled – and the best part of the DVD.

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