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Freaks and Geeks


Although it happens almost every season on television, Freaks and Geeks seems like the poster child for a show that wouldn't have been canceled, if only people had watched it. Created by Paul Feig (who's a frequent director of NBC's The Office), the show takes place in Michigan in 1980. The main characters are Lindsay and Sam Weir (Linda Cardellini and John Francis Daley), embarking on new phases of their lives. Lindsay, the eldest, has always been considered a math-loving geek but decides to switch things up during the new year of high school and become a freak, like Daniel Desario (James Franco). Sam is just entering high school and still pals around with Neal and Bill, but doesn't want to be a geek all his life. Though not as uproarious as other Apatow-related productions, the amount of painful realism and appropriately moving emotion makes this one a home run. Rogen got his first major role here as Ken, one of the freaks; at first, we only know him as one of the drier characters (my favorite line of his remains this: "I don't know. What are you gonna do?"). However, one of the more adult storylines later in the series' 18-episode run was all about a romantic conflict of his, as he fell in love with a girl who'd been born with male and female genitalia. Though Freaks and Geeks never made it past its first season on NBC, it remains one of the great TV series. If you haven't seen it, you must see it as fast as you can. Frankly, if you've got the money, buy it. It's that good.

Knocked Up


Here's the movie that made Seth Rogen a star, or one of the two. This early-summer 2007 release had a poster that said everything: featuring a picture of Rogen, looking chubbier and more stoned than ever, the caption read: "What if this guy got you pregnant?" The only real wrinkle in the plot is that the woman who gets pregnant is, at the start, way out of Ben Stone's league, Stone being Rogen's cinematic counterpart. Ben is a slacker who's hoping to start up a doomed-to-fail Web site that shows all the nude scenes in every movie ever made. Allison (Katherine Heigl) works at E! Entertainment and has just been promoted to on-air talent when she meets Ben and has a one-night stand. Some complications lead to her being pregnant and the two opposites dealing with this major twist of fate. The second film written and directed by Apatow, Knocked Up has even more realism than "Virgin," and is sometimes more painful to watch, especially during a heated argument between Allison and Ben at the doctor's office. Still, there's plenty of humor (the running gag about Ben's friend's ever-growing beard still makes me laugh out loud) to go along with the pathos. The cast, including Mann, Rudd, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr, Jason Segel, and Kristen Wiig, are all doing their best work here. Though 40-Year Old Virgin is a funnier film, Knocked Up is a stronger, more dramatic piece of film.

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