If you're not familiar, Freaks and Geeks is a TV show that ran for one season (1999-2000) on NBC. It centered around the Weir siblings and their lives while attending high school in Michigan in the early '80s. Lindsay is struggling to reconcile her good-girl past with her desire to be true to herself/maybe rebel a little bit with her "freak" friends (Seth Rogen, Jason Segel and James Franco), and Sam is just trying to survive as an underweight freshman with his "geek" pals (Martin Starr and Samm Levine).
It was created by a then-fairly-unknown Paul Feig (director of Bridesmaids) and he produced it with Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin, etc.). In addition to Apatow's go-to gang of actors, it featured several now-famous guest stars (Rashida Jones, Shia LaBeouf, Lizzy Caplan, Ben Foster, etc.).
The show aired my sophomore year of high school, and it was my jam. I was generally a geek, but fancied myself a freak, and I was envious of Lindsay's fearless attitude while identifying with her mathlete past. Ratings were not great, so NBC would preempt it and then show it on Friday nights (where TV shows go to die), and it's possible that I sneaked upstairs from a basement party to watch it in my friend's living room one weekend. Yes, I was that cool.
There's an epic episode where the geeks swap out the keg at Lindsay's party with a non-alcoholic one, including a great moment where Millie (pictured above) shows up and sings "Jesus is Just Alright." It was my goal throughout college to throw a (secretly) non-alcoholic kegger to see how people would act, but I never made it happen. Someday, people.
The Halloween episode, featuring Martin Starr dressed as the Bionic Woman, was also amazing. Or the one where they find out one castmember is a closet disco-dancer. So many great moments. Then there's this exchange, the last line of which I quoted to my stoner crush for the rest of high school:
Lindsay: I
don't smoke pot.
Nick: Come on, what's the big deal? It's from the earth, it's natural. Why would it be there if we weren't supposed to smoke it?
Lindsay: Dog crap is here, and we don't smoke that.
Nick: Come on, what's the big deal? It's from the earth, it's natural. Why would it be there if we weren't supposed to smoke it?
Lindsay: Dog crap is here, and we don't smoke that.
The show was certainly hilarious, but it also had heart. I liked that it made characters multi-faceted; they showed each kid's background and offered an glimpse of how they became who they were. Even mean girl Kim Kelly (Busy Philipps, who is the funniest on Cougar Town) had a softer, vulnerable side.
Unlike past subjects of Things I Used to Love, I absolutely still love this show. It has aged well and still resonates with me. I'm just not quite as obsessed with it as I was sophomore year, which is probably for the best. You can buy the series on Amazon, or if you want to borrow my copy, give me a shout. Thank Christ it's nearly Friday!
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