Post by affrosponge88 on Dec 31, 2012 0:48:34 GMT -6
Freaks and Geeks: "Kim Kelly is My Friend" Review
by Scrawler
Note before starting: I'm going to type this directly into the comment box, because I hate dealing with all the weird line breaks that happen when I copy and paste from anywhere else. So please forgive me if there are, like, a zillion typos.
I'm gonna do this by section, because that's how my brain works.
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Lindsay and the Freaks
"Not everybody's family is like ours" - Lindsay Weir
To me this is the most-important theme of the episode. For the first time, Lindsay realizes that not everyone in her world lives in the same peaceful family idyll as she does. (And as the series continues, we learn she has spent time with Millie's family as well as Sam's, both of which, at least on the surface, seem like hers.) As a result, Lindsay is forced to reevaluate her whole understanding of Kim, and also to think about her own family and her place in it. This will be a continuing theme of the series as we meet Nick's dad and Daniel's family going forward.
Lindsay's journey starts with her fear of mortality kicking in when her grandmother dies. But until she starts actually getting to know the freaks as people--not just her ridiculous crush and his friends who say funny shit--she's kind of a poser. She's trying to get freak social cache, without actually understanding what makes them who they are.
And this pretender status is why she lets Kim pressure her into stuff on Halloween and why she lets Daniel pressure her into having the party. Because she knows that she's not really integrated into their lives and could end up forgotten at a moment's notice. Naturally, this will change as time passes on the show, and she will become an integral part of the group. And I think this episode is the crucial first step between being the girl who's having a mini-breakdown and using the freaks as part of her rebellion (not quite as much as Kim is using her, but it's a factor, for sure) and becoming a real friend to them.
Let's face it, Kim's home life is kinda scary. It's obvious that her mother cares, after a fashion, but she's too harried and frustrated and bitter to express it in a way that will reach Kim. In fact, she pretty much does nothing but make Kim feel even more terrible about her life than she already does. And Kim's step-dad seems like a total jerk. (His line as they drive away about how Cookie "spoils" Kim is just, ugh, awful. Also, not that this makes him a bad person, but Kim definitely implies that he's illiterate at dinner.) Throw in a probably brain-damaged older brother, an economic situation that means the Kelly (or whatever her stepfather's last name is) household is probably never going to finish that remodel, the fact that the only person Kim felt close to in the family died of a drug overdose (and obviously was not on very good terms with Kim's mom), the reveal that Kim's worst grade came from fighting off the advances of a teacher, and Lindsay finally sees why Kim acts so tough all the time. She has to. It's a coping mechanism.
"She thinks I'm a loser. She thinks all my friends are losers. I just wanted to bring home someone like you." When Kim says that, I dare anyone's heart not to break.
And all this is before we throw the Daniel situation into the mix.
Even more than Lindsay's reaction to her family situation, I think Lindsay's reaction to Daniel possibly cheating on Kim with Karen (god Rashida Jones should play more bullies, because she is fucking fantastically terrifying here) is really the thing that cinches her friendship with Kim going forward.
Kim reveals that another big part of why she's such a raging bitch a lot of the time is that she feels constantly at risk of losing Daniel (and given the lack of stability in her home life, it's really not surprising). She has to scare off girls who are interested in horning in on her action. And she has to at least try to keep Daniel scared enough that he won't step too far out of line.
Suddenly, her treatment of Lindsay comes into sharp focus, because Lindsay did want to steal Daniel from Kim. Granted, Kim and Daniel were broken up at the time. But she still hoped to step in and take Kim's place as recently as the party episode. And I've always been under the impression that Daniel was her first friend among the freak group. So it's perfectly understandable why Kim feels threatened by her. Her reactions have seemed really extreme, but now that we know that she thinks of Daniel as pretty much the only good think in her life, well it makes more sense.
And I think this is the point of no return for Lindsay's crush on Daniel. Now that she understands Kim, now that she's seen how much that relationship means to her, she would never try to take it away. And, to me, even more than the family stuff, that's the real reason Kim lets her in, finally.
The second half of the freak-side of the story deals with the freaks invading the Wier home. This whole part seems so very Apatovian to me: The idea that the comforts and stability of a strong family unit can heal most of a person's problems.
The look on Kim's tear-stained face when Lindsay is trying to rush them to her room and Jean offers them dinner, it's heartbreaking all over again. You can just see her looking at that cozy table and wanting to be able to steal a little bit of that for herself, even if just for a few hours.
And the comforts of the Weir home do heal her, to some degree. And it's only there that she and Daniel can have a productive confrontation, when he convinces her that there's no one else for him and she finally relents, knowing that she would eventually anyway.
On the other hand, the Weir household will never quite be the same again after its first freak invasion. Harold and Jean's reactions to them are just priceless.
----------------
Sam and the Geeks
"My dad has a rule, you don't hit girls." - Sam Weir
It's sort of a funny quote to pick, because hopefully it's obvious that I wholeheartedly agree with it.
But, at the same time, I think it also illustrates a smaller-scale version of the same lesson Lindsay learned in this episode. Sam gets stuck in a quandary where he's being bullied by someone whom he can't even try to stand up to without breaking the societal rules put in place by life in the Weir home. Karen has shaken up his understanding of the social structure (just like Kim's family shook up Lindsay's) by doing something that none of Sam's rules for understanding the world have equipped him to cope with.
And this sends Sam into a bit of an identity crisis. He has never thought of himself as a geek. But apparently the rest of the world does. Even his own best friends do!
It also sends him into a spiral of shame about his body. He once again lashes out at the Weir family system, yelling at his mom for not having enough food in the house, blaming her housekeeping for his small stature.
Luckily, a couple ships-passing-in-the-night encounters with Kim snaps Sam out of his funk as he accidentally misunderstands Kim's rage at Karen's flirting with Daniel for rage at Karen's mistreatment of his locker. Even if she didn't do it intentionally, Sam's belief that Kim has his back is enough to make him feel a bit more confident again.
-----------------
Lindsay and Sam
"Maybe you are a geek." - Lindsay Weir
Sam and Lindsay's conflict from Halloween lingers as the clashes continue between their two social structures.
Sam is outraged and offended that Lindsay would continue to hang out with people who are mean to him. Lindsay is upset that Sam tattled about Kim's behavior at school to their mother.
Once again, it comes down to Lindsay selfishly wanting everyone to accommodate her as she spreads her wings and explores new avenues of social life. Once again, Sam (who is still having problems letting go of his childhood, as evidenced by the Tonka truck imbroglio) has trouble understanding why anyone would want to change who they are so fundamentally the way his sister does.
It's a conflict that will heal to some degree as the family accepts the freaks a bit and the freaks accept the family. But Sam never really understands Lindsay's need to break from her past. And Lindsay will remain typically teenaged and self centered enough to prioritize impressing her friends over a lot of other things, going forward.
Apatow and Fieg have said that if they got another season, one of the things they wanted to explore is Sam becoming sort of popular (either through Cindy or a friendship with Todd the basketball player, or something) and a conflict arising when the geeks feel left behind (which is sort of addressed in the party episode, but could have been much further explored). I always wondered how that would have changed Sam's relationshp with Lindsay, since for most of this season he fundamentally couldn't understand why she would want to have new friends or interests.
Random Thoughts and Funny Things:
- Every time Bill says something really old fashioned sounding, I giggle. Like solar plexus. Or last hoo-rah. (See also, Neal saying rumpus.)
- "She fornicates it!" - Millie. Oh Millie, you always make me laugh.
- Kim's remarks at the Weir dinner table and in the family room are hilarious. When she asks Harold: "Why are guys only interested in sex?" oh my god, I can't stop laughing. Also, when she tells him that you can get the same sports equipment that he sells e at his competitor for less money.
- "Do you guys mind if I have this Fruit Roll-up?" - Nick. And then he takes a bunch more before leaving!
- Nick attempting to give Lindsay a back-rub to help ease her stress while she's trying to prevent a confrontation between Kim and Daniel at her parent's house. Oh man. The boy has the world's worst timing.
- Neal's insistence that girls don't get horny. Oh Neal, you have so much to learn.
- It bugs the crap out of me that Kim's mom asks Kim if she picked up any "soda" on the way home. They're in Michigan! She should say "pop."
by Scrawler
Note before starting: I'm going to type this directly into the comment box, because I hate dealing with all the weird line breaks that happen when I copy and paste from anywhere else. So please forgive me if there are, like, a zillion typos.
I'm gonna do this by section, because that's how my brain works.
----------
Lindsay and the Freaks
"Not everybody's family is like ours" - Lindsay Weir
To me this is the most-important theme of the episode. For the first time, Lindsay realizes that not everyone in her world lives in the same peaceful family idyll as she does. (And as the series continues, we learn she has spent time with Millie's family as well as Sam's, both of which, at least on the surface, seem like hers.) As a result, Lindsay is forced to reevaluate her whole understanding of Kim, and also to think about her own family and her place in it. This will be a continuing theme of the series as we meet Nick's dad and Daniel's family going forward.
Lindsay's journey starts with her fear of mortality kicking in when her grandmother dies. But until she starts actually getting to know the freaks as people--not just her ridiculous crush and his friends who say funny shit--she's kind of a poser. She's trying to get freak social cache, without actually understanding what makes them who they are.
And this pretender status is why she lets Kim pressure her into stuff on Halloween and why she lets Daniel pressure her into having the party. Because she knows that she's not really integrated into their lives and could end up forgotten at a moment's notice. Naturally, this will change as time passes on the show, and she will become an integral part of the group. And I think this episode is the crucial first step between being the girl who's having a mini-breakdown and using the freaks as part of her rebellion (not quite as much as Kim is using her, but it's a factor, for sure) and becoming a real friend to them.
Let's face it, Kim's home life is kinda scary. It's obvious that her mother cares, after a fashion, but she's too harried and frustrated and bitter to express it in a way that will reach Kim. In fact, she pretty much does nothing but make Kim feel even more terrible about her life than she already does. And Kim's step-dad seems like a total jerk. (His line as they drive away about how Cookie "spoils" Kim is just, ugh, awful. Also, not that this makes him a bad person, but Kim definitely implies that he's illiterate at dinner.) Throw in a probably brain-damaged older brother, an economic situation that means the Kelly (or whatever her stepfather's last name is) household is probably never going to finish that remodel, the fact that the only person Kim felt close to in the family died of a drug overdose (and obviously was not on very good terms with Kim's mom), the reveal that Kim's worst grade came from fighting off the advances of a teacher, and Lindsay finally sees why Kim acts so tough all the time. She has to. It's a coping mechanism.
"She thinks I'm a loser. She thinks all my friends are losers. I just wanted to bring home someone like you." When Kim says that, I dare anyone's heart not to break.
And all this is before we throw the Daniel situation into the mix.
Even more than Lindsay's reaction to her family situation, I think Lindsay's reaction to Daniel possibly cheating on Kim with Karen (god Rashida Jones should play more bullies, because she is fucking fantastically terrifying here) is really the thing that cinches her friendship with Kim going forward.
Kim reveals that another big part of why she's such a raging bitch a lot of the time is that she feels constantly at risk of losing Daniel (and given the lack of stability in her home life, it's really not surprising). She has to scare off girls who are interested in horning in on her action. And she has to at least try to keep Daniel scared enough that he won't step too far out of line.
Suddenly, her treatment of Lindsay comes into sharp focus, because Lindsay did want to steal Daniel from Kim. Granted, Kim and Daniel were broken up at the time. But she still hoped to step in and take Kim's place as recently as the party episode. And I've always been under the impression that Daniel was her first friend among the freak group. So it's perfectly understandable why Kim feels threatened by her. Her reactions have seemed really extreme, but now that we know that she thinks of Daniel as pretty much the only good think in her life, well it makes more sense.
And I think this is the point of no return for Lindsay's crush on Daniel. Now that she understands Kim, now that she's seen how much that relationship means to her, she would never try to take it away. And, to me, even more than the family stuff, that's the real reason Kim lets her in, finally.
The second half of the freak-side of the story deals with the freaks invading the Wier home. This whole part seems so very Apatovian to me: The idea that the comforts and stability of a strong family unit can heal most of a person's problems.
The look on Kim's tear-stained face when Lindsay is trying to rush them to her room and Jean offers them dinner, it's heartbreaking all over again. You can just see her looking at that cozy table and wanting to be able to steal a little bit of that for herself, even if just for a few hours.
And the comforts of the Weir home do heal her, to some degree. And it's only there that she and Daniel can have a productive confrontation, when he convinces her that there's no one else for him and she finally relents, knowing that she would eventually anyway.
On the other hand, the Weir household will never quite be the same again after its first freak invasion. Harold and Jean's reactions to them are just priceless.
----------------
Sam and the Geeks
"My dad has a rule, you don't hit girls." - Sam Weir
It's sort of a funny quote to pick, because hopefully it's obvious that I wholeheartedly agree with it.
But, at the same time, I think it also illustrates a smaller-scale version of the same lesson Lindsay learned in this episode. Sam gets stuck in a quandary where he's being bullied by someone whom he can't even try to stand up to without breaking the societal rules put in place by life in the Weir home. Karen has shaken up his understanding of the social structure (just like Kim's family shook up Lindsay's) by doing something that none of Sam's rules for understanding the world have equipped him to cope with.
And this sends Sam into a bit of an identity crisis. He has never thought of himself as a geek. But apparently the rest of the world does. Even his own best friends do!
It also sends him into a spiral of shame about his body. He once again lashes out at the Weir family system, yelling at his mom for not having enough food in the house, blaming her housekeeping for his small stature.
Luckily, a couple ships-passing-in-the-night encounters with Kim snaps Sam out of his funk as he accidentally misunderstands Kim's rage at Karen's flirting with Daniel for rage at Karen's mistreatment of his locker. Even if she didn't do it intentionally, Sam's belief that Kim has his back is enough to make him feel a bit more confident again.
-----------------
Lindsay and Sam
"Maybe you are a geek." - Lindsay Weir
Sam and Lindsay's conflict from Halloween lingers as the clashes continue between their two social structures.
Sam is outraged and offended that Lindsay would continue to hang out with people who are mean to him. Lindsay is upset that Sam tattled about Kim's behavior at school to their mother.
Once again, it comes down to Lindsay selfishly wanting everyone to accommodate her as she spreads her wings and explores new avenues of social life. Once again, Sam (who is still having problems letting go of his childhood, as evidenced by the Tonka truck imbroglio) has trouble understanding why anyone would want to change who they are so fundamentally the way his sister does.
It's a conflict that will heal to some degree as the family accepts the freaks a bit and the freaks accept the family. But Sam never really understands Lindsay's need to break from her past. And Lindsay will remain typically teenaged and self centered enough to prioritize impressing her friends over a lot of other things, going forward.
Apatow and Fieg have said that if they got another season, one of the things they wanted to explore is Sam becoming sort of popular (either through Cindy or a friendship with Todd the basketball player, or something) and a conflict arising when the geeks feel left behind (which is sort of addressed in the party episode, but could have been much further explored). I always wondered how that would have changed Sam's relationshp with Lindsay, since for most of this season he fundamentally couldn't understand why she would want to have new friends or interests.
Random Thoughts and Funny Things:
- Every time Bill says something really old fashioned sounding, I giggle. Like solar plexus. Or last hoo-rah. (See also, Neal saying rumpus.)
- "She fornicates it!" - Millie. Oh Millie, you always make me laugh.
- Kim's remarks at the Weir dinner table and in the family room are hilarious. When she asks Harold: "Why are guys only interested in sex?" oh my god, I can't stop laughing. Also, when she tells him that you can get the same sports equipment that he sells e at his competitor for less money.
- "Do you guys mind if I have this Fruit Roll-up?" - Nick. And then he takes a bunch more before leaving!
- Nick attempting to give Lindsay a back-rub to help ease her stress while she's trying to prevent a confrontation between Kim and Daniel at her parent's house. Oh man. The boy has the world's worst timing.
- Neal's insistence that girls don't get horny. Oh Neal, you have so much to learn.
- It bugs the crap out of me that Kim's mom asks Kim if she picked up any "soda" on the way home. They're in Michigan! She should say "pop."
