My So-Called Life at 30: The iconic Claire Danes series holds up as if it was made today

If you watched TV in 1994, you thought teenagers had a charmed albeit dramatic life, usually near sand and waves.

Beverly Hills, 90210 dominated the zeitgeist with its sunny, soapy stories. Saved by the Bell had just wrapped its run, the neon colours and canned jokes of its world still fresh. In Australia, the kids of Home & Away were forever hanging out at the beach or at the Summer Bay Diner.

Beaches and burgers were the order of the day, and teen angst was present but it was rarely heavy.

My So-Called Life was not that. The one-season drama debuted 30 years ago this month, introducing Claire Danes and Jared Leto to the world. Danes was 14 years old when she shot the pilot and after the show’s one and only season would go straight to the set of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, which catapulted her onto the A-list.

Created by Winnie Holzman, My So-Called Life was almost antithesis to its compatriots. It was set in suburban Pennsylvania, its protagonist was an introverted 15-year-old who dyed her hair red, wore plaid shirts, corduroy dresses and Doc Martens, and the parents had regular jobs and regular problems.

Not every day was sunny. Not everyone had their own car.

Even to audiences outside of the US, the world of My So-Called Life was recognisable. And it still is. If you rewatch the series today, there are markers of its era - sure, no one has a mobile phone let alone social media - but it still feels authentic to the teen experience.

Key to that is the show’s choice to ground its story from the perspective of Angela Chase (Danes), a flawed, uncertain and empathetic teenager during a formative year of her life, one when she discovers her parents’ limitations, new friends with different live experiences, and gets closer to her dream crush.

It was Danes’ sensitive voiceover, as if we were reading from the pages of Angela’s diary, that put us so firmly in her interiority, and showed us that the unassuming, introspective girl who didn’t seek attention at school had a rich inner life.

Angela’s quest for an identity she forged rather than one assigned to her by her parents, was so relatable. Those middle years of high school, that liminal time between childhood and the freedom of your late teens is filled with questions about who you are, who you want to be and who are you allowed to be.

Like many of us at that age, Angela thinks she has entered a new era of maturity only to be reminded time and again that she needed her parents and the structure of home, even though it’s the time when we realise our parents are not perfect and can’t always be who we want them to be.

Angela’s discovery of her father’s infidelity is part of that awakening. It challenges her foundations, and when her world is shaken, she seeks connections elsewhere. The plot line was specific but the emotions it evokes, that shattering of trust, is what makes it universal.

At the same time, her new friends Rayanne (A.J. Langer, who would go on to marry the Earl of Devon before separating last year) and Rickie (Wilson Cruz) emancipated her from her cloistered suburban life.

Rayanne was wild and came from an economically disadvantage background, and to Angela, she represented a break from the “childishness” of her past self. Rickie, outgoing and vulnerable, was one of the first openly gay teenagers on an American network TV series and gave My So-Called Life an opportunity to delve into the conversations around sexuality.

And then there was Jordan Catalano (Leto), a name that still makes women and men of a certain age swoon. Angela’s big crush was beautiful and seemingly unattainable but he harboured his own challenges. She pined for him, or at least the version of him she created in her head.

But Jordan Catalano (for he will always be referred to by his full name) existed outside of Angela’s daydreams. He had learning difficulties due to his dyslexia and in tutoring him, they grew close. Angela’s fantasy boyfriend became her actual boyfriend but between her naivete and his hot-and-coldness, it’s hardly easy.

At the time, he seemed misunderstood, in retrospect maybe he was a bit of a dickhead, but it’s more likely that Jordan Catalano was somewhere in-between. Like the other characters on the show, including Angela’s parents, he was still trying to figure it out.

My So-Called Life taught its audiences to be kinder to their own uncertainties and identity crises. We’re not supposed to have all the answers or always know exactly who we are – and that’s OK.

Danes told Variety in 2019 that she strongly related to Angela’s insecurities and felt Holzman’s writing captured those adolescent feelings so vividly. She said, “I was in so much pain. I don’t think I’ve ever been in more pain in my life. That’s a very challenging age, especially for girls.

“I had just gone through junior high school. I felt bludgeoned by it, navigating my way through those social gymnastics. I was so bad at it.”

The series validated the experience of regular teenagers, gave them a voice to tell their stories, and it never made them seem less than. It also influenced the flood of shows that would follow within years, including Buffy, Felicity, Dawson’s Creek, Freaks & Geeks and Party of Five.

But the ratings were never very good and the show was always on the verge of cancellation. It made it to 19 episodes and at the end of its first season, it was cancelled.

That it is still talked about 30 years later speaks to its outsized impact as audiences and later generations found it on reruns, DVDs and then eventually streaming.

Holzman, speaking to NPR in 2015, said she was devastated when it was axed and had plans for what the next chapter could’ve been, but she now sees the series as it was as perfect.

My So-Called Life is streaming on Disney+