The dance is tomorrow. She’s a cheerleader, you’ve seen Star Wars 27 times. You do the math.
I just couldn’t resist, and I finished off the last four episodes of Freaks and Geeks last night. What an awesome show, I can’t believe I missed it when it originally aired back in ‘99-’00. I’ve heard about it every once in a while over the years, but never got around to checking it out until Heather brought the DVD set back with her after the xmas holidays. I watched the first episode and was completely hooked.
I’ll admit, it wasn’t quite what I was expected. One of the tidbits that filtered through to me was how realistic the portrayal of high school life was, particularly in the setting of 1980. For some reason I imagined something with a more serious tone, a la My So-Called Life. While the show deftly addresses the standard teenage issues honestly and with some insight, it does so with wit and a bit of over-exaggerating … at least compared to my high school experiences.
But never mind all that … Freaks and Geeks is just plain laugh-out-loud hilarious and surely most people will find parts in each episode to relate to. Now obviously, I fall into the Geek corner. Having lunch with my fellow geeks, quoting favorite TV shows and movies, mocking various other cliques: all part of the high school experience. But I wasn’t as geeky as Sam, Neal, and Bill: no chemistry sets, no model rockets, didn’t play role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons (but geeky enough to at least get the jokes on the show), didn’t have Star Wars pajamas or bed sheets (the Star Wars comforter, now gone, didn’t come along until well into university life, a gift from Billie).
It’s great that there was a show featuring people on the outskirts of the “normal” high school crowd. But like many things latched onto by those who appreciate offbeat entertainment, Freaks and Geeks didn’t catch on with mainstream TV audiences. Low ratings and lack of faith from NBC, culminating in what looks like horribly impossible-to-predict schedule shuffles doomed the show after only 18 episodes. That’s being generous: twelve episodes were shown during the regular season, three were dumped in the middle of summer to close out original broadcasts, and three were never even shown until the next season when Fox Family picked up rights on the produced episodes. Sounds very much like the situation with other shows I’ve liked over the past few years.
It’s a shame the show didn’t last longer. But the complete series is available on DVD, so try to check it out.
I am most like someone, Darren? is that a person? I forget who I am most like, but it was definitely a freak. I loved that show too, and I wish they would have continued it. Why is the OC successful, but not that???
This show is overrated
Billie: you mean Daniel. You’re the real badass; not a good influence, I should stay away from you.
As for anonymous comments, try being more insightful. How exactly is a poorly rated and short-lived show so overrated?
I’ve noticed that there is a serious lack of discussion about Nana Lan’ on this site. Please attempt to fix this problem. More people should be discussing whether Nana and Mr. Wooka are doing it in the hand puppet theatre while Mona is off playing with “Russer”; and Discuss.