Its cult fame is growing gradually and its enormous influence is becoming more recognized, but Freaks and Geeks remains the most underappreciated cultural entity of my lifetime. The show, which just turned a decade old, is a bleak high school dramedy done right. Each of its 18 bittersweet episodes is a near-perfect construction, but what's most impressive is how the whole season tells a thematically complete story while maintaining a tremendous love for each one of its characters.
The most important and memorable component of the show is the cast and staff. More than anything, this is what draws people to the show. It's also the show's most lasting legacy.\nFirst, Freaks and Geeks introduced to the world mega-producer Judd Apatow, who has become arguably the most influential filmmaker of the past half-decade, thanks to his hit comedies The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Funny People.
The show has the most retroactive star power of any show ever, maybe. Apatow and creator Paul Feig cast a bunch of then-unknowns. See if you can keep up: James Franco, Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, John Francis Daley, Busy Philipps, Leslie Mann, Martin Starr, Samm Levine - and these guys named Shia LaBeouf and Seth Rogen had their first major acting roles on this show.
Chances are you recognized at least three or four of those names, but you'd recognize almost every face. These guys are all over modern comedies, and dramas, too. Cardellini rose to fame while starring in ER and Philipps while playing a major role in later Dawson's Creek seasons. Feig and Apatow are some bewildering combination of lucky and prophetic.
As phenomenal as the cast is, it's but a cog in a very robust whole. The setting is a Michigan suburb in 1980, which is as tame as it sounds. But the grays and rust are fully realized; I felt like I knew the whole town by the closing minutes of the finale.
Most shows treat their soundtracks as something supplemental that can be trimmed or completely cut depending on that week's budget. Freaks and Geeks boldly burned NBC's dollars, though, playing Kansas and Cream and Billy Joel on a regular basis. Only Led Zeppelin, oft-mentioned in the show, was passed up because of how much royalties would cost.
Perhaps the most enduring creative quality of Freaks and Geeks is its defiance of comedy formula. It proved that you don't have to follow the archetypes or limit character development to be gut-bustingly funny. You'll crack up and choke up, sometimes at the same moment. The emotional highs come infrequently but have tremendous impact when they do.
Surely, other ground-breaking comedies that saw more widespread recognition - like Arrested Development, Weeds, 30 Rock, The Office and Desperate Housewives - owe much to the groundwork laid by this show.
One last compelling thing about Freaks and Geeks is the reverence it's been treated with since it was canceled. Several TV writers have since written numerous pieces honoring the show, including Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger, who not only named Freaks and Geeks the best comedy of the decade but also wrote an extremely thorough episode-by-episode analysis available for free online.\nIf you've never seen the show, Shout! Factory worked with the creators to put together the greatest DVD box set of all time: The 18 episodes include 29 audio commentaries - meaning most episodes have more than one commentary track - that feature almost every notable cast or staff member, and more.
Also included are more than 60 outtakes, deleted scenes, cast auditions and extraneous bits - most of which have commentary, too. If all shows gave their DVD sets this attention to detail, I'd have no problem dropping the $40 most shows charge for a season.
There's never been a better time to catch one of the most underrated, cult-hit cornerstones of all time than now. Its price is currently a dirt-cheap $36.99 on Amazon.com, its cast is all over the headlines and its influence is growing more profound every day.
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