Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks

A teen comedy that aired on NBC in 1999-2000.

The Set-Up: After the death of her grandmother, high schooler Lindsay Weir rejects her existence as a geek, dons her father’s army coat, and migrates to the freak crowd (“Freaks? Like circus freaks?!”). Meanwhile, her younger brother remains with his geek friends. As they learn the ins and outs of social networking, a consensus is reached: high school sucks.

Typical episode: Inner turmoil rips thru the freak crowd, causing them to temporarily feud with each other. Meanwhile, the geeks face some outside opposition, but they hang together and get thru it. Usually, girls are involved. Lindsay and Sam get some outdated advice from their parents, who are clueless about the world their kids live in, but are effectual in their own way. The kids learn their most important lessons by breaking rules.

An unseen deity plays era-appropriate rock music.

Typical dialogue: “I kind of wish I didn’t come to school today.”

Typical geek dialogue: “Dodgeball is kind of a stupid game, isn’t it?”

Typical freak dialogue: “Are you calling me irrational? Cause I’ll tear your head off. I’ll tear your head off and throw it over that fence!”

Typical parent dialogue: “You tell them you’re proud of your body. That’ll show ‘em!”

My Favorite Parent Dialogue: “You know who’s funny? That Red Buttons.”

My favorite episodes:

• 1.1 The Pilot. The opening teaser brilliantly sets up the series. The camera panning past the vapid athletes and settling on the slackers under the bleachers and the nerds hanging out behind the bleachers.
  
• 1.4 “Kim Kelly is My Friend” Dinner at Kim Kelly’s house. Holy shit. How insane. Written by Mike White. It was impossible to like Kim Kelly before this episode. Here, she becomes one of my favorite characters. The Freaks invade the Weir residence.
  
• 1.5 “Tests and Breasts” Daniel gets accused of cheating on a test. This episode captures the unreasonable pressures of high school and how teachers give up too easily on particular students. It also showcases Daniel’s keenly honed survival techniques.
  
• 1.6 “I’m With the Band” Nick gets frustrated with his friends over the band. He takes it far more seriously than everyone else, but when he’s left to pursue his interest alone, he doesn’t just give it up. It turns out Locke’s dad was a terrible father even back in 1980. The family dinner scene is brilliant.
  
• 1.10 “The Diary” This episode does an incredible job of depicting how unfair high school life is and how much the adults are to blame for it, and then does an even better job of reversing it so the kids stand up for themselves effectively. This one may be my favorite episode of the series.
  
• 1.12 “The Garage Door” Action’s Connie Hunt is Neal’s Mom. The soapiest of the episodes, but the show wears it well. It follows up old arcs and introduces new ones.
  
• 1.15 “Noshing and Moshing” While I like Daniel’s desire to be a punk rocker, it seems like this interest is too fleeting. It never comes up again. And is getting a piercing really such an awful thing? Daniel’s showing up at Kim’s door is sweet. From here on out, all of the episodes feel more serious and somber. I’m not sure if it’s the show or my mood.
  
• 1.17 “The Little Things” I never did like Cindy. What the hell did Sam ever see in her to begin with? One of my favorite moments: Cindy’s staring stone-faced at The Jerk. I really started to hate Mr. Rosso by his point. Not just because the performance is getting too goofy, but because of the way he writes off some of the kids, and then claims not to.
  

Least Favorites:

• 1.7 “Carded and Discarded” While I understand the dilemma of trying to keep a girl from graduating to a higher echelon of social status, the characters come off as too desperate. And the performances from the guest stars are too over-the-top and don’t fit in.
  
• 1.13 “Chokin’ and Tokin” I really like the character of Alan White, so I was happy to see him get some play. But the freak portion of the episode feels too much like anti-drug propaganda. Boooooooo!
  

How many episodes were produced? 18. I think only 15 or 16 aired.

Is there much continuity? There are few story arcs, but relationships do evolve. Some characters slowly infiltrate the main cliques. Generally, something will come up in one episode, then reappear in a later episode. Most props that show up once make at least one more appearance later on.

Why was it canceled? NBC kept shuffling around the schedule, and an audience never materialized.

Was there closure? It feels like there is closure. The last episode is “Discos and Dragons.” And for the most part, everyone seems to have found where they belong (at least for the moment) by the end of the episode. Boundaries have been crossed. Groups have split. Dungeons & Dragons has been played. And "I Don't Want To Be A Freak" has been heard over the soundtrack. Still, since the show runners suspected it was going to be the last episode, I wish they had worked in more of a good bye to some of the characters. No Millie. No Alan. Not even that hermaphrodite girl. There’s a nice parallel regarding the end of disco coinciding with the end of the series. Of course, disco had never been much of an issue before this episode.

Any unattended issues? A few. Neal has only begun to come to terms with his father’s cheating. Alan White never comes to terms with his geek tendencies. I can’t see Daniel spending the rest of his days enjoying role playing games. Really, it would have been nice to see where the characters end up in life. Or at least, get more of a hint where they will end up. Or maybe even a deliberate denial of what the future holds. As it is now, we just get a shuffling of the characters that could easily be reshuffled a week later. Still, it doesn’t leave you with any unresolved plot arcs. It works as an ending.

The verdict:
One of my favorite shows. The characters are sweet and smart and act like high school kids. And I love how the show sets up the parameters of each semi-permeable clique, and then forces characters to cross the boundaries and interact with characters outside their comfort zones. I especially appreciate how the kids struggle to get by in school while pursuing their own individual interests.

Linda Cardellini’s performance as the honor student who sees through the bullshit is fantastic. From her exasperated looks when talking to unreasonable teachers to the mortified/empathetic looks she gives her friends.

Mr. Weir is too cartoonish at times, but the mom is spot on. The writing perfectly nails that adult cluelessness about the high school experience and never feels forced.

The show really seems like a product of 1980. But it’s a good thing the geeks weren’t into Second City or they might have noticed Sam’s dad on TV. Is there any reference to Second City on this show? It would natural for there to be.

The show feels so accurate about so many things. From the awkwardness of high school, to the fleeting fads of acceptance. It is funny, painful, sad and most of all, completely sympathetic with the kids. I had only seen the final three episodes before buying this set. I’m glad I decided to get it.

An observation: this is the second one season wonder I’ve watched so far that utilizes only the punch line of one particular joke. In Action, the exact punch line was “I rang the doorbell, didn’t I?” Here, the punch line was “How do you think I rang the doorbell?”