Post by affrosponge88 on Dec 31, 2012 1:20:57 GMT -6
Freaks and Geeks: "Looks and Books" Review
by Chris Traeger
“If I gave you a joint, would you have sex with me?”
This is the opening line to the episode, said apparently hilariously to Lindsay by a couple of guys she doesn’t even seem to know. This new identity is starting to feel like it’s literally not the best fit for her. Sam sees Todd(!!!) with Cindy and realizes what he’s been doing wrong this entire time: not having amazing hair. Sam seeks to rectify this. With these two events, the plot of the episode is set in motion, and we see an episode focused very bluntly on one of the major themes of the series, that of identity. And, haha, that’s something no one’s ever talked about in relation to Freaks and Geeks!
High school is a time when we explore and decide who we are and it’s supposed to be some of the most important years of your life, according to a great deal of fiction centred on that time. It’s supposed to define who we become. The truthiness of this varies from person to person. For Lindsay and the geeks, it’s easy to see that high school is not the be all and end all for them. As someone who (surprisingly) identifies quite a bit with the geeks, I feel like I’ve learned more about myself in my last two years of university than throughout all of high school, and I think this is pretty normal for people who were socially awkward in high school. For the freaks, it could be very different. The decisions they make now are more likely to follow them through their lives, and high school might be seen as where their lives peaked. It would be a little weird to call people with bright futures “burn outs”. The stakes are high here, but the people who think this aren’t the ones whose futures are on the line, and those whose lives might be determined by this time are putting more effort into not caring than they are into doing anything about it.
Sam goes about changing himself as soon as he realizes how much having sexy, sexy hair will make Cindy want him. When that doesn’t work, he goes even further and buys a Parisian night suit. It was unpopular at the time, but, as we all know, it soon caught on and ascended to a towering level of popularity that still looms over us to this very day, what with Parisian night suits being the most dominant form of clothing worn in the world. Surprisingly, Sam is picked on for his choice of outfit and the Geeks try to help him out of the school before abandoning him to write a pop quiz. With the help of Mr. Rosso Sam gets home to change, before falling into despair with the crazy notion that Sam is not, in fact, cool. Mr. Rosso, using a story about getting beaten up that possibly ended very, very badly, gets Sam to realize that he’s cool. So Sam decides that he’s cool, and even impresses Bill. And the Parisian night suit, despite its massive current popularity, is never mentioned again. I’d like to go on record as saying I’ve never in my entire life done anything embarrassing to impress a girl and thus I have no relatable experiences to this.
Lindsay gets in a car accident driving the freaks to pick up some amps to be used rocktagiously. Something I like about the driving scene is that Lindsay, who at times can seem a little intimidated and uncomfortable around the freaks falls into a kind of groove when she’s driving, and for me at least this is pretty true to life. The ability to provide a concrete benefit to a group you’re not sure you have a great footing in makes you feel pretty great about yourself. I too have that felt that strange confidence, Lindsay. I too.
With this incident, she decides that maybe hanging out with people whose sole goals are to coast through school doing as little as possible may not be the best thing for her, and she retreats into the comforting arms of Millie and the mathletes, like she’d never left. Something I like about Freaks and Geeks is that it realizes that, yes, there are cliques in high school but they’re nowhere near as segregated or as static as most high school fiction seems to think they are. Lindsay still stays friends with Millie, even as their relationships strain and their social circles slowly separate, like chromatids in a cell undergoing mitosis, or some other less strained simile. I had my own mathletes-esque table of friends waiting for me when I wasn’t hanging out with my usual group of friends, and it was always nice to be able to go between different groups so easily. Most high school fiction points out that people change as a teenager but they also hold the contradictory idea of being locked into this exact identity you slot yourself into. They seem to think that change happens but also can’t happen both at once, but Freaks and Geeks knows better. It always does.
Lindsay’s departure from the group causes the freaks to re-evaluate their life goals and assess further roles they wish to find themselves filling. Kim and Nick have lofty, and sadly, probably impossible future jobs. Ken, always grounded, has a lazy, realistic future planned out. Daniel is hit hardest by this. He’s this cool aloof guy, which works out great for him in high school, but what happens after he’s done that? What kind of future does he have? What is he building towards? He has no idea, and it scares him. Even Kim is inspired by Lindsay’s renewed dedication to being the smartest person alive and Daniel is left behind in empty halls with no one to skip class with.
Lindsay finds herself fitting snugly back into her role as a geek, a mathlete, and an all around BAMF. She does super well and even gets to watch the girl who thought she was better than Lindsay completely fall apart on her math questions! Haha, that’s what she gets for being so uppity and thinking that just because she tries really hard and is constantly a part of the team that she should do well! Lindsay meanwhile gets back into the swing of things in a matter of days and dominates everyone, because Freaks and Geeks works on some kind of opposite karma. Also, the freaks (without Nick who left because he was found out being quite the stalker) are there to cheer her on, because they love her and stuff. At Millie’s celebratory slumber party (which looks like a lot of fun, I wish I was friends with Millie, *sigh*), Lindsay realizes this isn’t what she wants and runs off into the night. She meets up with the Freaks who have decided to take their futures more seriously, by watching a foreign film. Lindsay goes back to the freaks, but she will never be one of them. Being very smart and having a loving, caring, middle class family, Lindsay’s insulated against many of the problems the freaks faced or are facing. But her rebellious streak and lack of respect for following the rules and norms of polite society make her stick out from the mathletes. She doesn’t truly belong in any group, but for now, the freaks are fun, and she might as well enjoy high school.
Stray observations:
"The name of the company is Texas Instruments, but I heard it's made in Taiwan!" Millie CK, everyone.
"My mom always says you should be happy with what the good lord gave you."
"Yeah, well the good lord gave you a lot, Gordon"
Gordon, upon Cindy telling him that she'll bring his pencil back, sharply, mirthlessly replies: "You better!" Gordon has been burned before, and there's no way he's letting that shit happen again.
So Carl Sagan says: That's not a cosine. You don't know your asymptote from a hole in the ground.
Super stud, Sam. Super stud!
Daniel, while not knowing what a dungeon master is, likes the idea that he would be a good one.
"Alan, how many times a day do I have to tell you to be, cool?"
And Lindsay reunites with the freaks to the sweet sounds of Supertramp.
by Chris Traeger
“If I gave you a joint, would you have sex with me?”
This is the opening line to the episode, said apparently hilariously to Lindsay by a couple of guys she doesn’t even seem to know. This new identity is starting to feel like it’s literally not the best fit for her. Sam sees Todd(!!!) with Cindy and realizes what he’s been doing wrong this entire time: not having amazing hair. Sam seeks to rectify this. With these two events, the plot of the episode is set in motion, and we see an episode focused very bluntly on one of the major themes of the series, that of identity. And, haha, that’s something no one’s ever talked about in relation to Freaks and Geeks!
High school is a time when we explore and decide who we are and it’s supposed to be some of the most important years of your life, according to a great deal of fiction centred on that time. It’s supposed to define who we become. The truthiness of this varies from person to person. For Lindsay and the geeks, it’s easy to see that high school is not the be all and end all for them. As someone who (surprisingly) identifies quite a bit with the geeks, I feel like I’ve learned more about myself in my last two years of university than throughout all of high school, and I think this is pretty normal for people who were socially awkward in high school. For the freaks, it could be very different. The decisions they make now are more likely to follow them through their lives, and high school might be seen as where their lives peaked. It would be a little weird to call people with bright futures “burn outs”. The stakes are high here, but the people who think this aren’t the ones whose futures are on the line, and those whose lives might be determined by this time are putting more effort into not caring than they are into doing anything about it.
Sam goes about changing himself as soon as he realizes how much having sexy, sexy hair will make Cindy want him. When that doesn’t work, he goes even further and buys a Parisian night suit. It was unpopular at the time, but, as we all know, it soon caught on and ascended to a towering level of popularity that still looms over us to this very day, what with Parisian night suits being the most dominant form of clothing worn in the world. Surprisingly, Sam is picked on for his choice of outfit and the Geeks try to help him out of the school before abandoning him to write a pop quiz. With the help of Mr. Rosso Sam gets home to change, before falling into despair with the crazy notion that Sam is not, in fact, cool. Mr. Rosso, using a story about getting beaten up that possibly ended very, very badly, gets Sam to realize that he’s cool. So Sam decides that he’s cool, and even impresses Bill. And the Parisian night suit, despite its massive current popularity, is never mentioned again. I’d like to go on record as saying I’ve never in my entire life done anything embarrassing to impress a girl and thus I have no relatable experiences to this.
Lindsay gets in a car accident driving the freaks to pick up some amps to be used rocktagiously. Something I like about the driving scene is that Lindsay, who at times can seem a little intimidated and uncomfortable around the freaks falls into a kind of groove when she’s driving, and for me at least this is pretty true to life. The ability to provide a concrete benefit to a group you’re not sure you have a great footing in makes you feel pretty great about yourself. I too have that felt that strange confidence, Lindsay. I too.
With this incident, she decides that maybe hanging out with people whose sole goals are to coast through school doing as little as possible may not be the best thing for her, and she retreats into the comforting arms of Millie and the mathletes, like she’d never left. Something I like about Freaks and Geeks is that it realizes that, yes, there are cliques in high school but they’re nowhere near as segregated or as static as most high school fiction seems to think they are. Lindsay still stays friends with Millie, even as their relationships strain and their social circles slowly separate, like chromatids in a cell undergoing mitosis, or some other less strained simile. I had my own mathletes-esque table of friends waiting for me when I wasn’t hanging out with my usual group of friends, and it was always nice to be able to go between different groups so easily. Most high school fiction points out that people change as a teenager but they also hold the contradictory idea of being locked into this exact identity you slot yourself into. They seem to think that change happens but also can’t happen both at once, but Freaks and Geeks knows better. It always does.
Lindsay’s departure from the group causes the freaks to re-evaluate their life goals and assess further roles they wish to find themselves filling. Kim and Nick have lofty, and sadly, probably impossible future jobs. Ken, always grounded, has a lazy, realistic future planned out. Daniel is hit hardest by this. He’s this cool aloof guy, which works out great for him in high school, but what happens after he’s done that? What kind of future does he have? What is he building towards? He has no idea, and it scares him. Even Kim is inspired by Lindsay’s renewed dedication to being the smartest person alive and Daniel is left behind in empty halls with no one to skip class with.
Lindsay finds herself fitting snugly back into her role as a geek, a mathlete, and an all around BAMF. She does super well and even gets to watch the girl who thought she was better than Lindsay completely fall apart on her math questions! Haha, that’s what she gets for being so uppity and thinking that just because she tries really hard and is constantly a part of the team that she should do well! Lindsay meanwhile gets back into the swing of things in a matter of days and dominates everyone, because Freaks and Geeks works on some kind of opposite karma. Also, the freaks (without Nick who left because he was found out being quite the stalker) are there to cheer her on, because they love her and stuff. At Millie’s celebratory slumber party (which looks like a lot of fun, I wish I was friends with Millie, *sigh*), Lindsay realizes this isn’t what she wants and runs off into the night. She meets up with the Freaks who have decided to take their futures more seriously, by watching a foreign film. Lindsay goes back to the freaks, but she will never be one of them. Being very smart and having a loving, caring, middle class family, Lindsay’s insulated against many of the problems the freaks faced or are facing. But her rebellious streak and lack of respect for following the rules and norms of polite society make her stick out from the mathletes. She doesn’t truly belong in any group, but for now, the freaks are fun, and she might as well enjoy high school.
Stray observations:
"The name of the company is Texas Instruments, but I heard it's made in Taiwan!" Millie CK, everyone.
"My mom always says you should be happy with what the good lord gave you."
"Yeah, well the good lord gave you a lot, Gordon"
Gordon, upon Cindy telling him that she'll bring his pencil back, sharply, mirthlessly replies: "You better!" Gordon has been burned before, and there's no way he's letting that shit happen again.
So Carl Sagan says: That's not a cosine. You don't know your asymptote from a hole in the ground.
Super stud, Sam. Super stud!
Daniel, while not knowing what a dungeon master is, likes the idea that he would be a good one.
"Alan, how many times a day do I have to tell you to be, cool?"
And Lindsay reunites with the freaks to the sweet sounds of Supertramp.
