Claire Danes has suggested that her 1990s teen drama My So-Called Life, which was canceled after just one season, should have never made it to air. In it, the future Homeland star portrayed angsty Liberty High School student Angela Chase, whose eclectic social circle, familial dynamics, and narration drove the drama. As well as Danes, this gone-too-soon ABC classic helped launch the careers of Jared Leto (Masters of the Universe) and Wilson Cruz (Star Trek: Discovery). Sitting down for this week’s episode of the Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast, Danes reflected on the legacy of My So-Called Life after the host asked about her character’s resonance with modern viewers.
“It’s still radical! It remains ahead of this time. It shouldn’t have been made, it almost wasn’t made many times, and it just wills itself into experience. It’s not very often that we spend that much time, intimate time, with a teenage girl.
“I remember reading the pilot before the audition and just having a very profound experience. It was really powerful to have some woman [creator Winnie Holzman], some writer person so perfectly articulate my internal life. We’re seeing the world from inside of her and really through her vantage point. And she’s so earnestly wrestling with big stuff. It’s just so well-balanced and it’s so of her. There’s some zingers, there are some really well-crafted lines. I feel wildly fortunate that that was my entry point.”
Despite only 19 episodes making it out into the world, they are held in such high esteem. Just ask Rotten Tomatoes, the arbiter of quality in the TV and movie industry; My So-Called Life has a 94% score, which is way higher than Friends (74%) and its other natural rivals of the period. Fortunately for fans, its makers are said to be developing a new project together.
‘My So-Called Life’ Team Working on HBO Series

Claire Danes in Netflix hit The Beast in MeNetflix

Back in February 2025, it was reported by Variety that the award-winning actress and Winnie Holzman had set up another serialized drama at HBO, titled The Applebaum Curse. Danes will be taking the lead in front of the camera (as well as executive producing), with the latter acting as writer and showrunner. The show was described as an “ongoing one-hour drama series about a dysfunctional family with Claire Danes as the lead role.”

Holzman, who co-wrote the screenplays for Wicked and its sequel Wicked: For Good, and played the therapist Dr. Slavin in a 2007 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, was previously asked why she hadn’t attempted to revive or remake My So-Called Life three decades on from its unceremonious end. Here’s her tantalizing answer (although it’s unclear what stage of development The Applebaum Curse finds itself in right now):
“It’s interesting that you’re asking me that. I am writing something that I’m hoping to do with Claire. It’s not a reboot in the traditional sense, but I think Claire Danes and I back together would be a kind of version of that. It’s a completely different story, but we’re hopeful that we’re gonna work together again.”