Freaks and Geeks
Cast & Key People
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Our Review
Eighteen episodes that launched a hundred careers and defined the high school show: Paul Feig’s Michigan 1980, the burnouts (the freaks) and the AV-club outcasts (the geeks) navigating the social geography of William McKinley High. The cast is absurd in retrospect: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps, Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, Martin Starr, the Brat Pack of the Apatow era, all at the start, all already great.
It’s the rare show that takes teenagers seriously without flattering them: Lindsay Weir (Cardellini, luminous), a mathlete drifting toward the burnouts after her grandmother’s death, gets the show’s best arc, while her little brother Sam’s geek triumvirate suffers the authentic indignities of freshman year. The Disco and Dragons finale. Lindsay joining Daniel in a D&D game instead of attending the academic summit, is one of TV’s perfect endings, aired as a burn off after cancellation. Every teen show since owes it rent.
Verdict: Watch it. The geeks inherited the earth.
