My So-Called Life shows teenage life very realistically as it is seen by Angela Chase, played wonderfully by Claire. The school seems like a social battleground, she's grown apart from her old best friend, her mother is much of the time intolerable, and her formerly close father is uncomfortable with her developing curves. The show gathered a large cult following, for a reason, although in my opinion many of its elements get repetitive after a few episodes.

By standards of Young Actress Reviews, Claire is a little too old in this show, but she has a certain soft quality to her that makes her relevant long past the norm. She's an absolutely natural actress and I can't find any fault in her acting, but her real magic lies in her tender presence. Remarkably, she has kept much of that quality until the present day, over ten years after this show.

It's a matter of opinion if Claire at her best in My So-Called Life, but certainly there's more of her in it than in any other production. Of her other early roles, I recommend Little Women, and I haven't seen a single movie where she has disappointed.

Lisa has a small role as Angela's little sister Danielle. Her scenes are mostly small and inessential, but the relationship between the siblings rings true, manifesting mostly as bickering and eye-rolling, but with love underneath. The character has a fair amount of personality, which could be said of all characters in the show.

The 2007 re-release, from which the screenshots are, has better a picture quality than older releases, but as you can see, the quality is still pretty low.