MTV's Daria was a massively popular animated series in the late 1990s. While it began life as a spinoff of Beavis and Butt-Head, the show quickly proved it was more than capable of standing on its own, painting a hilarious and satirical picture of suburbia through the eyes of its eponymous, disaffected protagonist. It should come as no surprise, then, that Daria is currently available to stream in its entirety on Paramount+. Well, almost in its entirety.
As it stands, Daria's five seasons are available to Paramount+ subscribers, with all 65 episodes present and accounted for. However, the show's two television movies -- 2000's Is It Fall Yet? and 2002's Is It College Yet? -- are nowhere to be found. This is rather odd, given just how essential they are to getting the complete Daria experience.
When Daria premiered in 1997, the show was episodic in nature. This mostly continued through the main series' conclusion in 2001, though later seasons did start to implement more overt throughlines and multi-episode arcs. This can be traced back to the Season 3 finale, "Jane's Addition," which introduced the character of Tom Sloane -- an introduction that would have major ramifications going forward.
Season 3's finale brought Tom into the fold as a new boyfriend for Jane Lane, Daria's best friend. Throughout Season 4, we see the iconic friendship between Daria and Jane gradually begin to fall apart, with Jane's romance with Tom also disintegrating in the background. All the while, Daria and Tom -- who initially detested one another -- slowly start to warm up to each other. This all comes to a head in Season 4's finale, "Dye! Dye! My Darling," when Daria kisses Tom and has a falling out with Jane, leaving the future of their friendship uncertain as the credits roll.
By Season 5's premiere, however, everything seems to be perfectly fine. Daria and Jane are once again the best of friends, Daria is now in a steady relationship with Tom and things are more or less back to business as usual, with no explanation as to how. Well, the reason Season 5's premiere doesn't resolve Season 4's cliffhanger ending is because the first movie, Is It Fall Yet?, does. But those binging the series for the first time on Paramount+ wouldn't know that.
While established Daria fans returning to revisit the series may know how to fill in the blanks, omitting the movies could prove confusing for newcomers. There's a very similar problem with the second film, Is It College Yet?, which released in early 2002 -- about six months after the Season 5 finale, "Boxing Daria," aired on MTV in mid-2001.
"Boxing Daria" is a fantastic finale in its own right. But Is It College Yet? is the true conclusion to the saga of Daria Morgendorffer. It's not so much a finale as it is an epilogue (like El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie), but it's an essential epilogue -- one that not only ties up the story arc that began all the way back in Season 3, but Daria's time at Lawndale High as a whole.
While it's certainly disappointing, the Daria movies being excluded from streaming platforms is nothing new. The exact same problem was present when Daria was available on Hulu up until about mid-2020 and when it came to CBS All Access ahead of the platform's rebranding as Paramount+. It's the same story on MTV's official website -- all 65 episodes, no movies.
Luckily, it's not terribly hard to get your hands on Is It Fall Yet? and Is it College Yet? elsewhere. They're available on the Daria complete series DVD box set, and they can also be found on YouTube, iTunes and Amazon where they're treated as regular episodes. However, those platforms require you to buy specific seasons/episodes of Daria individually. You don't get access with a general subscription. For whatever reason, a proper streaming release for these films remains elusive.
It's unclear exactly why Daria's two movies are excluded from Paramount+, though it is worth mentioning that home video/streaming releases for the show have had to deal with music licensing issues in the past. Still, Paramount+ clearly prides itself on being the definitive Viacom experience, so it's surprising that one of MTV's most iconic cartoons would be left incomplete like this, especially a show like Daria that -- despite very much being a product of its time -- still has an enduring appeal. (Hence, the upcoming spinoff.) Hopefully, this will be rectified in the future, for longtime fans and newcomers alike.