High school is a battleground for your heart

I watched every episode of My So-Called Life save the pilot on its original 8pm Thursday time slot on ABC, absolutely loving the whole thing. I identified in an awfully big way with Brian Krakow (played by Devon Gummersall), who was a curly-haired smart kid harboring a gigantic crush. A stranger once told me I looked like Krakow, and I just glowed. I wrote ABC a letter begging them not to cancel the show. I planned a spec script where Brian's cool cousin breezes into town and Angela gets a crush on him and Brian can't understand why. And since I didn't have cable, I never saw a rerun, but despite being without it for over a decade, so much of it has stayed burned into my head.

Anyway, this week the complete series, all 19 episodes, was released on DVD, and I'm getting all caught up in it all over again. To give you just a little idea why, here are a few favorite clips.

First, the moment when Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) realizes he loves Angela Chase (sweet, sweet Claire Danes), prompted by a reading of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130.



And this is him acting on it. Never before has handholding been such an absolute apex.



Finally, the last few minutes from the last episode. Brian's done a Cyrano and written a love letter to Angela under Jordan's name, and she's found out.



Oh, did this kill me. The way she says "Brian?" The way Brian says "Hi" and the quickly corrects himself with the cooler "Hey." They got it. And boy, did they get me.