A little Freaky a little Geeky

Freaks and Geeks was one of the best shows of all time (on par perhaps only with My So Called Life). As with most of the best tv series' it only made it through one season. It was one of the few shows I cared about in high school so when I started dating Sam and he had the whole thing in a box set I was elated. Freaks and Geeks was created by Paul Feig who has since directed some of the best shows out there including The Office, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, and Mad Men. The show was produced by Judd Apatow who has since gone on to take over the modern comedy as we know it. Also writing, directing, and occasionally on screen was Mike White,,,who I'm going to write about in some future post because he deserves it. Also the casting job on the show was amazing in introducing the world to Linda Cardenelli, Seth Rogan, Jason Segal, Martin Starr, and the ever sexy and art collecting James Franco.

Perhaps it was Mike White's influence (since Apatow has proven himself to give half a shit about females) but Freaks and Geeks is one of the few shows in history that gives us a main female character that is A HUMAN. I capitalize that because she is the most fair handed female character I've ever seen. The writers clearly put a lot of their own identities into her without worrying about her gender. Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardenelli) a high schooler in 1980 is an ex Mathlete who starts wearing her dad's old army jacket and experimenting with smoking, guys in bands, and coolness by hanging out with the school's "freaks". I once read an interview with Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore where they said that they encourage their daughter to view Lindsay Weir as a role model. She's similar to Angela from My So Called Life but without all the angst and hair dye.

Freaks and Geeks managed to not only have a great lead female but Seth Rogan's character also had a healthy and caring relationship with a hermaphrodite band geek, and other characters dealt with death, adultery, Steve Martin, and your mom dating your gym teacher. All the biggies and yet it never turned into 90210 and stuffed a moral down your throat.

Despite the fact that the show was ended abruptly they still managed to have an amazing conclusion to everything. James Franco starts playing Dungeons and Dragons giving him some structure to his life and making the geeks cool by association. Jason Segal gets into disco and everyone thinks he's lame, but its okay because so do we. And Lindsay ditches her academic summit summer program to follow The Grateful Dead with Kim Kelly who is just psyched to get out of her crappy town. This is kind of amazing because not only did Lindsay follow her guidance counselor's instruction and start listening to the Grateful Dead but its very rare to see girls actually learn and heal from their television friendships instead of going all Mean Girls on each other. Now that I've gotten all mushy here are some clips.

Here Lindsay and Sam's dad explains what happens when you cut corners, have sex, or smoke.


Lindsay goes to Kim Kelley's for dinner. I've so been in this situation before.


The parents talk about sex. Ewww.


Kim and Daniel make up after a big fight