Freaks and Geeks Appreciation Thread

Cafe Society
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Freudian Slit, I always noticed that too. They were obviously wedded to even having the lighting and sets appear to look late 70s/early 80s midwestern in a very authentic way. Not in a 70s/80s-made-pretty-way with great lighting etc… I think they actually let the kids look spotty and have frizzy hair and unflattering camera angles. Daniel Franco actually looked like he kind of smelled of stale cigarettes smoked at the far end of the parking lot. Which is where the freaks usually hang out, smoking cigarettes.

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If I recall correctly, there was an interview with Linda Cardellini (Lindsay) where she was talking about the look of the actors. She said that this was an era in which you had kids like the ones in Dawson’s Creek and Felicity with them all made up like models and she had little makeup on during the Freaks and Geeks, which adds an authenticity to it.

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One of my all-time favorite shows also. I like how the series captures so many details and scenes that you rarely see in movies, but that really feels life-like and so true to being an adolescent. I also love how Apatow cleverly escapes cliches, like with the house party – it would have been really typical to have the older characters wreck the party and leave the Weirs to try to explain to the parents what happened the day after. Instead we see Bill get wasted, watching Dallas. Awesome!
The standard is very high throughout, though I don’t think the show is necessarily perfect. There are two parts I’m concidering:

  1. the episode where Sam is naked at school. I always die of embaressment when I watch it, especially when it’s coupled with that Madness song. It’s just a bit too much for me.

  2. the episode with the Who concert thingie. The episode just seems generally weaker compared to the rest.

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My So Called Life did a good job with this, too. The characters often wore the same clothes over again. Plus, the lighting was similar–Claire Danes, obviously a gorgeous actress, still looked pretty, but she felt real. Plus, posture/acting helps. In “Freaks and Geeks,” Lindsay’s definitely beautiful, but you can tell she’s still insecure/finding herself and all that.