Freaks & Geeks Complete Series
The Cast
Linda Cardellini .... Lindsay Weir
John Francis Daley .... Sam Weir
James Franco .... Daniel Desario
Samm Levine .... Neal Schweiber
Seth Rogen .... Ken Miller
Jason Segel .... Nick Andopolis
Martin Starr .... Bill Haverchuck
Becky Ann Baker .... Jean Weir
Joe Flaherty .... Harold Weir
Busy Philipps .... Kim Kelly
The Premise
Best way I can put it, is that F&G is a mix of That 70s Show & My So-Called Life, except actually funny, & a less darker, respectively. Lindsay is the Angela of the show, a former Mathlete who's sick & tired of that side of the high school life. Her brother, Sam, is a geek, & the whole show revolves around the two groups the Weir siblings fall into, in some cases begrudgingly.
The Good
Everyone in the cast is completely believable in the roles they play. The way the show is filmed & the sets, the wardrobe, everything looks legitimately 1980ish. The movies & things they talk about, while at some points seem like subtle nods or just blatant name-dropping, are the kind of pop culture that people lived back then.
It's excellently written in such a way that you fall in love with certain characters, depending on your predilicition I guess. Personally, I, like most everyone else, love Lindsay. She's uber hot & awesome in many ways, the kinda girl you want to hang out with & make out with. But, for my money, no one is better than Bill Haverchuk. If I were to make a Top Five List of TV characters I'll never forget, Bill will be on that list along with Dan Rydell.
The Bad
Like I said, at some points the pop culture just comes across as name-dropping. Plus, Sam is one of the least charismatic kids I've ever seen in my life. He's just a weird, weird looking kid & kinda weirds me out a little too. Another thing is the fucking bizarre plot twist the writers gave Ken in his relationship with Amy. I've coughed up better plot twists. That was just weird for the sake of being fucking weird. Also, just because you love Mystery Science Theater 3000, doesn't mean you have to give Joel Hodgson a job acting. He's not even the best MST3K host ever, & boy did he get fattish.
& I'd like to be able to get through something these days without seeing Ben Stiller!
The Fucking Awesome
I no longer think of Tom Wilson exclusively as Biff Tannen. I'm not sure if that's fucking awesome, but Wilson was excellent in his role on F&G, & I'd have loved to see where his relationship with Bill's hot mom would've gone.
The Verdict
This is a TV show that in some aspects felt like a movie / mini-series. The only thing that was wrong about it was that the high school kids weren't swearing, & that's why this show didn't feel completely real. The characters were excellent, the stories were great, & in some cases highlighted things I remember from my school years. Someday I'd like to sit down & watch all the commentaries for each episode just to find out more about the show. High recommendation to buy or watch.