Discos and Dragons
I've got that particular ache of the heart that comes with watching the very last episode of a television series and knowing those characters will never say anything new to you again. I first bought the Freaks and Geeks dvds years ago, when they first came out, but this month was the first time I actually watched them since the series first aired, and I'd forgotten how great it was.
The setting (a 1980s high school) is so real - and the sense of the period is very clear in everything from the food on the table, the high waisted pants, the lingo, the music, and even the way the light filters through the screen. But more than that it's the characters. Bill, Neal and Sam really are geeks - not misunderstood quirky hot indie boys - and they look and talk like it, but they manage to do so in a way that's endearing rather than grating. The 'freaks' are tough, sure, but underneath the surface you can really sense the way their backgrounds are niggling at them, and the growing fear of impending adulthood. The adults aren't just foils, or older versions of the kids - their lack of ability to connect with current times is both amusing and realistic, and they have complex motivations and interactions with each other. And Lindsey is such a great pov character for the audience - not sure where she fits in but willing to risk things to find out, quietly frustrated by the complete lack of anyone who understands her but not making a big emo deal about it.
It's funny the degree to which I read the characters differently now I'm no longer their same age. I still identify with Lindsey - more so, I think, as my foray into the whole new world of slackerdom & mild bad-assery didn't come til uni - but I can also see her blind spots. As a more needy teenager, I thought Nick's adoration of her was dorky, yeah, but also kind of sweet, whereas it started bugging REALLY early this time around. Kim's brashness is more clearly an act too, and her secret respect for Lindsey more obvious. And Daniel... Daniel is still really freaking hot. I think he's pretty close to my ideal, physically - lean and tall and lounging about wiht a smirk and messy hair. But. He's still "that guy", the one you think you can save, the one who uses you without meaning too, and tends to mess you up in the end.
The show was obstentially about labels & cliques - the title, the way the groups interact - but in the end it was about transcending them. About being brave enough to meet someone different, to try something new, to not define yourself by one lifestyle. I'll miss that, and the very clear recognition of feelings that are in their essence so very high school and (for better or worse) increasingly foreign in their particular blend of absurdity and awkwardness and end-of-the-world intensity. It ended far, far too soon.
So I don't end on too emo a note, I'll leave you with a few small pictures of the hotness that is Daniel Desario (James Franco)
Thoughtful Daniel
Smirking Daniel
My personal favourite, Laughing Daniel
I'm not sure why these came out so small - but what can you do?
The setting (a 1980s high school) is so real - and the sense of the period is very clear in everything from the food on the table, the high waisted pants, the lingo, the music, and even the way the light filters through the screen. But more than that it's the characters. Bill, Neal and Sam really are geeks - not misunderstood quirky hot indie boys - and they look and talk like it, but they manage to do so in a way that's endearing rather than grating. The 'freaks' are tough, sure, but underneath the surface you can really sense the way their backgrounds are niggling at them, and the growing fear of impending adulthood. The adults aren't just foils, or older versions of the kids - their lack of ability to connect with current times is both amusing and realistic, and they have complex motivations and interactions with each other. And Lindsey is such a great pov character for the audience - not sure where she fits in but willing to risk things to find out, quietly frustrated by the complete lack of anyone who understands her but not making a big emo deal about it.
It's funny the degree to which I read the characters differently now I'm no longer their same age. I still identify with Lindsey - more so, I think, as my foray into the whole new world of slackerdom & mild bad-assery didn't come til uni - but I can also see her blind spots. As a more needy teenager, I thought Nick's adoration of her was dorky, yeah, but also kind of sweet, whereas it started bugging REALLY early this time around. Kim's brashness is more clearly an act too, and her secret respect for Lindsey more obvious. And Daniel... Daniel is still really freaking hot. I think he's pretty close to my ideal, physically - lean and tall and lounging about wiht a smirk and messy hair. But. He's still "that guy", the one you think you can save, the one who uses you without meaning too, and tends to mess you up in the end.
The show was obstentially about labels & cliques - the title, the way the groups interact - but in the end it was about transcending them. About being brave enough to meet someone different, to try something new, to not define yourself by one lifestyle. I'll miss that, and the very clear recognition of feelings that are in their essence so very high school and (for better or worse) increasingly foreign in their particular blend of absurdity and awkwardness and end-of-the-world intensity. It ended far, far too soon.
So I don't end on too emo a note, I'll leave you with a few small pictures of the hotness that is Daniel Desario (James Franco)
Thoughtful Daniel
Smirking Daniel
My personal favourite, Laughing Daniel
I'm not sure why these came out so small - but what can you do?