Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Freaks and Geeks ::
by William the Bloody
So, you don't give a damn about your bad reputation?
Lindsay's grandmother just died and it's making her act differently. Suddenly, she's not wearing girly dresses and she's given up her place as the leader of the mathletes. She's traded this all in for her dad's old army jacket and attempting to hang with the burn outs on the smoking patio. The burn outs treat her harshly at first, since her reputation as a brain has preceded her, but they slowly start to warm up to her. Meanwhile on the other side of the social spectrum is Lindsay's brother Sam, who is a bottom of the totempole freshman geek along with his best friends Bill and Neil. While Lindsay is having her first taste of relative juvenile delinquency with the freaks, it's business as unusual for Sam getting picked on by upperclassmen, mooning after the pretty and popular Cindy and talking about Star Wars with his friends in between.
The Good: The series takes place during the 1980-1981 school year and this is a stroke of genius. Every attempt was made by the show's creators to make it period authentic from the soundtrack to the films and television shows talked about by the characters. It's pretty darn cool. There is an episode which is pretty much all centered around The Who that had me grooving to the soundtrack ("Reign O'er Me"?? Yes, please!). Lindsay's awkward attempts at fitting in with the freaks felt genuine. Here's a girl who has been a straight A student and never done anything bad her entire life now joining in with kids who have terrible home lives who do nothing but act out. I contribute this to both the great writing for the series as well as the terrific acting. Linda Cardellini as Lindsay really sells it. There are some really great awkward bits in between Lindsay and Nick who has a hopeless crush on her and Jason Segel (as Nick) does send that one home. Though it's never said out loud, you totally get the idea that Lindsay kind of like Daniel, but he's dating bitchy Kim, and Nick is being really nice to Lindsay because he really wants her to be his girlfriend badly. In a later episode, Nick writes a song for Lindsay to express his feelings and Jason Segel got to write it for his character! Now that's devotion to a role. Seth Rogen was perfect as the stoic and sarcastic Ken, who only chimes in when he has a witty jab to say. And there is some really cool dialogue in this show such as "You guys, I killed Millie's dog." "Like, with your bare hands?" and also "Are you calling me irrational? Because I'll tear your head off, Daniel. I'll tear it off and I'll throw it over that fence." I was pleased at how they equally divided up the each episode between Linsay and her freaks and Sam and his geeks because both aspects were fun and had something to offer. And I should probably mention that the show was produced and partially written by Mystery Science Theater 3000 alum Josh Weinstein and he brought some other MST3Kers with him like Trace Beaulieu (Dr. Forester) as a teacher and the elusive Joel Hodgeson (Joel Robinson) as a men's clothing salesman who likes disco! Sweet!
The Bad: Unfortunately, this show kind of mirrors My So-Called Life a little too much for my tastes. We have the good girl who suddenly "goes bad" by hanging out with a crowd of slacker types, gets a crush on the handsome but dumber than a hammer head slacker who is in a band, tries to tutor him and buys a fake ID in order to "impress" him. Yep, all been done before. One plus for Freaks over So-Called though is the lack of a "message" to the teen audience and also the dialogue comes of more natural.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed it. The series well captured the lives of the high school student "fringe" on both the freaky and geeky sides. The shows about the less popular kids always appeal to me, but the period setting really made this one stand out and endear it even more.
A+
