There aren’t enough fingers on my hands to count all the high school drama shows that have made their way onto TV, but among them Freaks and Geeks holds a special place in my heart. The show is too refreshingly down-to-earth to give a damn about its bad reputation. It dares to give us a sneak peak at the dirty underside of teenage life from both sides of the tracks. Though Freaks and Geeks was given the boot far too soon, it managed to accomplish more in 18 episodes than other shows do in six seasons and a movie. Following the lovable “freak” Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) in her oversized Army jacket, Freaks gathered a loyal following still active to this day.
Lindsay and Sam Weir (John Francis Daley), the show’s featured siblings, live in an unassuming Michigan town with their shockingly naive mother (Becky Ann Baker) and surprisingly sarcastic father (Joe Flaherty). The Weir children represent two bands of the high school social strata, Lindsay with her friends Daniel (James Franco), Nick (Jason Segel), Kim (Busy Philipps) and Ken (Seth Rogan) as the freaks on the smoking patio and Sam with Neal (Samm Levine) and Bill (Martin Starr) as the geeky trio with paper bag lunches in the back of the cafeteria. Neither Lindsay nor Sam quite fit in where they want to — Lindsay’s mathlete history is hard to shake in front of her new crowd while Sam can barely survive a round of Dodgeball but is attracted to a popular cheerleader. But whether they are crawling into the back of a Dead Head van or messing around with a chemistry set, the Weirs eventually find just what they’re looking for in their own skin.
It’d be hard to beat the cast of Freaks and Geeks. Seriously, who doesn’t swoon over James Franco and his perpetual bed head, or Jason Segel’s adorkable charm? Big names like Franco and Segel, not to mention Seth Rogan and Linda Cardellini, got their start in the halls of McKinley High. Like all actors in a first role, they’re messy, awkward, and gawky in their new feet. Instead of polishing every line or fixing every mistake, though, Freaks and Geeks does the unthinkable and decides not to try so hard to make reality happen, and that’s what makes it a show worth watching. These actors don’t just play the part, they are the part. Too fresh to the scene to lose their heads in Hollywood, the kids of Freaks and Geeks are learning at the same time as their characters and are just as hesitant and uncertain as the characters on the screen. The result is a beautiful, genuine and effortlessly witty take on all the ups and downs of growing up.
Freaks and Geeks wasn’t the first show to look through the walls of high school, and the Disney Channel has certainly made sure that it won’t be the last, but that won’t matter one bit to anyone who takes the time to sit down with Lindsay and her motley crew. So give this group of misfits a chance — you’ll find they’re a lot more like you or me than you’d think.
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