My So-Called Life

For viewers who scream for quality, this is it...I can't answer for today's teens, but from this geezer-gazing distance, the show is amazingly, wonderfully right. As an added benefit, it's a perfect reminder of why I never again want to be 15. [24 Aug 1994, p.C1]

Marshall Hershkovitz and Ed Zwick, the team that brought us "thirtysomething," have a grasp of adolescence that's so real you can smell the Clearasil. [25 Aug 1994, p.45]

Easily the best new series coming to TV...With enough rich characters to fill several series, Life could become the latest show to shake up network television. [25 Aug 1994, p.1C]

Holzman's writing is brilliant. [25 Aug 1994]

The show's other standout is Bess Armstrong, as Angela's loving, conflicted mother, Patty. She is equally compelling and convincing as a woman still so in touch with her youthful idealism and values that she can't believe she's also a disapproving mother. [23 Aug 1994]

There is much in the next few weeks that is touching, humorous, painful and admirable. But not insightful, or at least not insightful enough to make going back to high school something that seems like must viewing between 8 and 9 on Thursday nights...Still, My So-Called Life is likely to be as good as you're going to get this season as far as new shows are concerned. [24 Aug 1994, p.65]

My time spent in Angela's life was a wasted hour in my own so-called life. [24 Aug 1994, p.47]