This series has appeared in many best of the decade list, so I thought I should check it out. I wasn’t too keen on it without knowing much about it, I just knew it was about high school. There have been many shows about high school, but this one is different: it takes place in 1980.
That simple fact allowed this show to elevate itself in quality. Immediately there is a nostalgia that defies explanations. I didn’t attend high school in US, I was in Italy, and I didn’t attend high school in the 80’s, rather in the 90’s. However, I still had that nostalgic feeling watching this show.
Even though I didn’t have jocks in my high school, I had freaks and geeks and rock lovers, math lovers etc… So I feel this show has a universal appeal.
Even though this is mainly a comedy, there is plenty of drama about these students lives at home. The central character is Lindsay who is going through an identity crisis. She used to be a “geek”, being a math-lete, but she starts to hang out with the “freaks”. Her arc through the season is the most interesting. She’s trying to find herself and there is one episode in particular that clears things up for her. It’s the one where she goes back to the math club and her former life, but at the end realizes that she’s just not that person anymore. A great episode.
The other main character is probably Sam, Lindsay’s brother. He’s part of the “geek” group, who are picked on by bullies and ignored by everybody else. They are probably at the bottom of the social pyramid, but as the season goes on, we learn that they are actually happier than other people. At the end it’s clear that they are the cool people in reality, even though nobody wants to admit it. Proof of this is that Daniel actually enjoys hanging out with them and playing D&D, also Vicky in a moment of truth confesses that she envies the geeks, because they look happy. But the biggest proof is that Sam has been pining for hot cheerleader Cindy all season, but after he gets her he realizes she is boring and dumps her. That tells all about the geek’s “real status”.
Watching this series years after it aired was fun for a specific reason: I saw so many actors that would later become famous. Most notably are the freaks: James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel. All are now movie/tv stars, largely thanks to Judd Apatow, producer of this series. But there are also so many cameos by actors I recognize from later shows: “Wallace” from Veronica Mars, “Bree Buckley” from Gilmore Girls, Ben Foster, Shia LaBeof and many many others.
I really enjoyed this series, and even though it was cancelled after 18 episodes, it really felt like these characters had a complete arc. I don’t know if a second season would have been much better. This definitely deserves the cult following.
Rating: 4 Stars
I agree that one of the points of the show is that the geeks are happier and better-off than a lot of the more popular kids. In general, I really like that the show frequently departs from the typical formulas of teen comedy. Daniel playing D&D is one example. Others I can think of are the near-beer party and when they make friends with the pretty new girl. In both stories, the conventional plotline would be to have them inevitably fail. The near-beer plan would blow up in their faces, or the pretty new girl would eventually reject and embarrass them. But the show actually lets them succeed. The show gives all of the characters at least some degree of dignity, which I think is uncommon in comedies.
Also, Jason Segel’s “Lady L” song is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
About the pretty new girl plot, I thought they should have kept that going, instead of basically ignoring it. She did come back in an episode, but it didn’t feel connected to her first one. I liked that episode, I just wish they kept that story line going.
You’re right about giving everyone some dignity, even the bully Alan had a “good” scene.
A great series indeed.