Freaks & Geeks (NBC, 1999-2000)

Critics and fans have heaped praise upon praise on this Judd Apatow- produced and directed high school "dramedy" set in the 80s. Despite its cult-status and the acclaim from hard-nosed critics, the show was canned abruptly before it reached its S1 climax. Subsequently, the entire S1 was released on DVD.

Let me just say this flat out because there is no other of saying it: FREAKS & GEEKS is very funny and moving, but it is inherently flawed.

I can understand why people love this show, but in this is that rare case where the show's cancellation was justified.

Tonally FREAKS AND GEEKS is very consistent (the nerds vs. the jocks vs. the school vs. the world) but in terms of character development and structure it blows.

The Pilot is fantastic and is beautifully shot by Dick Pope. It is a solid precursor to what could have been...but the show degrades into a slow burn where characters don't go through a natural development but rather a TV/Scripted development that relies on cliché to move the story forward. Let me give you an example: the smartest girl in the school hangs out with the slackers to look cool, and starts loving them as friends despite the fact that her new crowd is a bunch of aimless, rude assholes. This character Lindsay has that stereotypical function in Hollywood scripts: *save* the bad boys and girls from themselves. It's gets very tiring as you can imagime...

FREAKS & GEEKS has an incredible writing and directing team behind it (Jake Kasdan, Judd Apatow, Paul Feig), which is quite obvious. But despite the promise of something new and bold with the first few episodes, the show eventually slides into what its characters and makers seem to detest most: mediocrity.