{"id":6197,"date":"2014-09-09T11:43:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=6197"},"modified":"2014-09-30T12:07:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T17:07:00","slug":"netflix-series-review-freaks-and-geeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/6197","title":{"rendered":"Netflix Series Review: Freaks and Geeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Freaks-and-Geeks2\"<\/a>By Hannah Hecht–\u00a0<\/strong>As students across the Morningside campus settle into their fall semester routine, free time becomes a precious rarity. And, no matter how well manicured the ample green space of the campus, most students will spend that time curled up on a lumpy futon under a blanket with a bowl of popcorn watching an entire television series back-to-back. Let me help you…<\/p>\n

In a previous recommendation<\/a>, I highlighted a political drama that stormed the nation back at the turn of the millennium. As the aforementioned The West Wing, Law and Order and Friends dominated all of our rabbit-ear analog televisions, another incredible NBC show creeped beneath the radar.<\/p>\n

Freaks and Geeks is an 18-episode teen comedy\/drama created by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow that has been listed as one of Time magazine\u2019s \u201c100 Greatest Shows of All Time\u201d and TV Guide\u2019s \u201c60 Greatest Dramas of All-Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show features a cast of young actors who would grow up to be household names for their work; the show even launched the careers of James Franco, Jason Segel, and Seth Rogen. It’s perfect for fall binge viewing.<\/p>\n

Freaks and Geeks, set in 1980-81 in fictional McKinley High School, <\/i>centers its plot around high school junior Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) and her freshman brother Sam (John Francis Daley). In the pilot episode, Lindsay shakes off her ties with the high school Mathletes and makes friends with a group of \u201cfreak\u201d slackers who spend their time smoking under the bleachers: Daniel Desario (Franco), Nick Andopolis (Segel), Ken Miller (Rogen) and Kim Kelly (Busy Phillips). Sam, on the other hand, spends the series trying to navigate his freshman year as a \u201cgeek\u201d along with his friends Neil Schweiber (Samm Levine) and Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr).<\/p>\n

The show sets up the most authentic portrayal of high school life of any movie or television show that I have seen. When taken as a whole, it is a dynamic and heartfelt coming-of-age narrative that will move you to laugh and cry along with the characters\u2019 struggles and triumphs. The focus on the two different fringe groups (the \u201cfreaks\u201d and the \u201cgeeks\u201d) helps to convey the \u201coutsider\u201d feeling that almost all teenagers struggle with.<\/p>\n

I especially enjoy Linda Cardellini\u2019s portrayal of Lindsay Weir, the protagonist who finds solace in her newly acquired friend group of high school \u201cburnouts.\u201d Weir is a three-dimensional female character and one who doesn\u2019t conform to any of the usual high school girl tropes. She makes bad decisions, but she remains strong in her convictions and unquestionably loyal to her friends. Unlike most other young female characters, she doesn\u2019t automatically fade into a background \u201cgirlfriend\u201d role as soon as a love interest comes into the picture. Almost paradoxically, despite her clashes with drugs, alcohol, and vandalism, Lindsay is the type of role model that I would like my (future?) daughters to grow up with.<\/p>\n

In the end, the only real complaint that I have about the series is its brevity. Despite its devoted fanbase, the series was cancelled after only one season. NBC\u2019s decision to cancel the show back in 2000 caused uproar among critics and fans alike, but the show just didn\u2019t have enough viewers for the network to keep it on the air. However, with its availability on Netflix and Youtube, Freaks and Geeks <\/i>is making a huge comeback.<\/p>\n

Morningside College students may find Freaks and Geeks <\/i>to be a perfect-show to binge-watch, since it is a much smaller commitment than, say, Breaking Bad, <\/i>or any other show with more than fifty, hour-long episodes.<\/p>\n

If you still need convincing, here is a clip that showcases the heartbreaking early 80\u2019s charm of the cult classic:\u00a0Freaks and Geeks Clip: The Parisian Night Suit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hannah Hecht–\u00a0As students across the Morningside campus settle into their fall semester routine, free time becomes a precious rarity. And, no matter how well manicured the ample green space of the campus, most students will spend that time curled up on a lumpy futon under a blanket with a bowl of popcorn watching an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":6202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6197"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6304,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197\/revisions\/6304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}