Judd Apatow is a Genius (and Paul Feig too)
So tonight I had a perfect night of television. Came down from the adrenaline rush of Lost – I have no idea what is going on, and I love that, and I’m as intrigued and excited as I was in Season One — with the Freaks and Geeks DVD, Vol. 1. I’ve been checking them out of the local library, one disc at a time, and that’s meant I’ve been watching episodes out of order. They’ve all been fantastic, but the pilot I finally got to tonight is a dream. Here are ten things I loved about it:
1. The fact that we just launch right into the story, not seeing when or where or how Lindsay (Linda Cardellini) first hooked up with the freaks. All we know is that she started wearing her dad’s Army jacket and that she no longer wants to be a Mathlete. Most shows would start with the beginning, that first contact, because they’d assume we had to see that to get it. But Lindsay is a girl in transition, and that’s what we’re witnessing; the storytelling mimics what we’re seeing in her life.
2. The bullies. They couldn’t be more real, both Adam, the male version and the female, the gloriously awful Kim Kelly (Busy Philipps). And isn’t it great that the terror in Sam’s (John Francis Daley) eyes is mixed with disbelief as in, ‘Why I am being tormented by this jerk? Why me?’). When Bill says to Adam “What’s the point Adam?” in the locker room, completely sincerity in the question, I just had to sigh with joy. I wish someone I knew in high school was that sensible.
3. Lindsay’s story about her grandmother dying, when she was alone with her in the hospital room, and how her grandmother was so scared and saw nothing (no corridor filled with light)…poignant but not too much. Just enough to make us understand her existential crisis.
4. In classic Apatow style (and I should be giving credit to Paul Feig here too, Apatow produced and wrote a number of episodes, but Feig created it), the show is nuanced enough to allow for that the possibility that some high school kids are well intentioned and kind. Such as Lindsay’s attempt to reach out to the “special,” oft-ridiculed Eli boy, or as she calls him “retarded.” She fails miserably, and its so sweetly sad. If you want a mental challenge, try making the leap that the kid playing Eli is Ben Foster, who I last saw playing Russell Crowe’s deranged sidekick in “3:10 to Yuma” (Yeah, the really trigger happy one. Insane that they could be the same actor, right?)
5. Jeff the wanna be “cool” teacher. I’m pretty sure I had least four teachers like him. But that I wasn’t cool enough to know they weren’t actually cool.
6. Sam asking Cindy to dance. He thinks he’s getting a slow dance out of her, and then the Styx song — that was “Sail Away,” right? — kicks into a fast tempo and he has to — ack — decide whether or not to dance. And he does and that smile spreads across his face. Beautiful.
7. Then we get to witness that through Lindsay’s eyes (she’s been ordered to man the refreshment stand), see the smile break out on her face. I swear I teared up when she asked Eli to dance.
8. The “Smoker’s patty (patio).” Ah, the days when kids were actually allowed to smoke on school premises. Can you believe that happened? At Brunswick High School, where I went, it was “Between the Wings” The school was shaped like an E, but without the middle part, and that’s where all the smokers — and some of the Jeff-like teachers — hung out.
9. The narrow distinction between the Freaks and the Geeks. All it takes is an old Army coat and suddenly you’re a different person. Or you’re seen that way.
10. Don’t even get me started on James Franco.
I’m not sure the library version is going to do it for me…I might have to buy this one for the permanent collection.
Posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008
Under: the small screen | 1 Comment »