Monday, August 9, 2010
I DO GIVE A DAMN 'BOUT MY REPUTATION: I missed Freaks and Geeks when it first aired (it was my One-L year, which should serve as adequate explanation in and of itself), and have been watching (well, DVRing and watching) the Friday night reruns on IFC. Yes, it's great, but huge parts of it are incredibly hard to watch--this week's including a scene that Alan couldn't bring himself to rewatch when he did a rewatch a few summers ago, as well as a geek plotline that struck awfully close to home for me in my junior high memories. If you (like I) missed out on it, it's well worth checking out, though it's fascinating that while some folks involved (Rogen, Apatow, Segel, Starr) have gone on to comic notoriety (if not stardom), several of the story editors are now running 90212.0, which, while it may have started as something semi-realistic, has now apparently gone full soap.
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Oh, F&G I would find hard to watch again; (SPOILERS) it has to be the episode with Coach Fredericks dating Bill's mother Gloria. Tom Wilson is great in that episode, trying his damnedest to connect with Bill in some way and just failing miserably because he can't find a common ground.
ReplyDelete<span>Yeah, and I wonder whatever happened to Paul Feig, John Francis Daley, Martin Starr, James Franco, Linda Cardellini, Busy Phillips, bookending guest-star Lizzy Caplan, and recurring characters Joanna Garcia, Ben Foster, and Rashida Jones. That show was like a tiny big bang of talent. </span>
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I don't know if IFC showed "Kim Kelly Is my Friend" -- NBC didn't play it, because it thought it was too dark -- but that is one of the funniest, most amped-up episodes of TV I have ever seen. Busy Phillips just crushes that episode. If IFC isn't running it, you should just go ahead and buy the DVD anyway.
ReplyDeleteI caught a rerun and it happened to be the one that I most strongly remember as being hard to watch--the Halloween episode. In particular, it was the mom's naive enthusiasm and subsequent disappointment about the holiday that got me. Cannot take it. Sam realizing that Lindsay and her friends egged him was also tough. But it also had one of the funniest moments--Bill dressing up like Jaime Summers and acting out lines in his bedroom mirror. Luckily that part took place before most of the mom stuff and I was able to turn it off.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching Freaks and Geeks for the first time on IFC, as well. I'm really enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteIt also made me wonder--I've only watched the series once through--is it really in me to ever watch it through again? The Halloween turmoil is just one of many sequences that would be hard to watch. Take that, the drum audition, and "Lady L" and that makes three episodes that would have me tied in knots, just off the top of my head. And there are only eighteen of them in the first place!
ReplyDeleteIt was easier to watch them the first time through, but knowing what's going to happen...I just don't know.
Oh yeah, now THAT one I could watch over and over.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't show it in production order, but I think they're showing them in the order they ultimately got aired.
ReplyDeleteIs that the episode where they have a small montage of Bill at home alone looking perfectly content (yet ultimately depressing) doing things like making a sandwich, watching his favorite tv show, laughing out loud on the couch...?
ReplyDeleteBecause yeah, that sequence I remember was hard to watch.
Yep, though it's about the happiest we see Bill, as it's after another bad day in gym class for him. Oy, and then there's the part where Fredericks tries to apologize in the car. Damn, it's hard even to just read Alan's summary.
ReplyDeleteIFC did show it.
ReplyDeleteMy Tuesday Night TV group has just started watching F&G, because of the IFC re-air. What's fun is that we have about four people in the crowd who were in high school around the time F&G is set and one of them is even from Michigan. She's cluing us in to fun stuff like how the place where Kim tells Lindsay to say their lake house is was really kind of a dump. We also have two people who didn't grow up in America so they keep asking us, "Was it really like that?"
ReplyDeleteTrue fact: I started watching Bones just so I could see what John Francis Daley looked like all growed up.
The DVD's were a goldbox deal on Amazon earlier in the summer and I finally corrected the error of not owning them. That cast is so loaded, but I really think that it's Martin Starr who is the best. He just consistently kills it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think they A) Were saving Seth Rogen, then realized they were going to get canceled and wanted to get as many Ken storylines in as possible or B) Didn't realize what they had until too late in the series run? He really doesn't have a lot to do until the last few episodes.
Yeah, and (spoiler) the stuff at the end with Ken and his girlfriend, which is both excruciating but also well acted by Rogen (and incredibly well acted by Franco in his supporting role).
ReplyDeleteRogen was like 16 or 17 when it shot. He was pretty green as an actor (and had zero experience as a writer), so I think he grew a lot in that year. He said in an interview recently, probably jokingly, that Apatow paid increasing attention to him and to Martin Starr (who also was just a kid) because he pulled them out of school for this show that was in free fall toward cancellation and therefore may have been responsible for ruining their lives unnecessarily.
ReplyDelete"Freaks and Geeks" may be the closest thing I've ever seen to an accurate portrayal of the teen years, everything about it rings home with me. The hardest episode for me to watch is the one where Rashida Jones is a bully upset with the Geeks. Man, does that bring back bad memories.
ReplyDeleteI've touted it here before, but if you can, try to find the deluxe "Norseman" DVD set of F&G. It's a whole 'nother level of awesome - a true labor of love by Feig et al. (That said, even though I own the DVD set, I still find myself watching the IFC run pretty religiously.)
ReplyDeleteTo me, that's one of the loveliest sequences in the series. It's just so poignant, this lonely boy, making his comforting snack, turning on the television for company, and then just losing himself in joy. Makes me tear up.
ReplyDeleteJoseph, the scene with Bill and Fredericks in the car destroys me.
I did too! And I am inordinately happy at how handsome Martin Starr has become.
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of F&G because it was my first job in TV. I didn't actually watch the show, which still seems weird to me, but it's poignant. It was a good job, and I made some friends I still have. That being said, I was so green I didn't collect nearly the number of backstage stories I should have, which is a shame. I have a couple, but overall, I didn't even get to visit the set that often.
ReplyDeleteI watched "I'm With the Band" last night as a result of this thread and it's just amazing how well the show was done. Sometimes, I sort of forget when I haven't watched in a while and then BAM. Just like that, the cold hard slap of high school hits me again.
ReplyDeleteI'm not even making it through watching the first time. With all the love I netflixed it a year ago, watched the first 4 eps, got through 2 more on the 2nd disk, and then it's just sat there (I think for ~10 months now). Its not that I don't want to watch it, it just that I've already got enough stress in my live, and being thrown into a (negative) emotional flashback to high school just isn't going to improve my quality of life. It's a compliement to the quality of the show, but the reality is that, at this point, I want my entertainment to be well, entertaining, not enriching.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm far enough removed from HS (36 years) that I can watch F&G without much pain, although I strongly identify with the sister's situation - hopelessly smart but trying to be cool.
ReplyDeleteBetween Mad Men restarting, F&G and rewatching The Wire on DirecTV there's stuff worth watching at least.