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Freaks and Geeks

Before there was a 40-year old virgin, there was Sam Weir. Before he got someone knocked up, Seth Rogen was a low-voiced stoner whose girlfriend was a hermaphrodite. Before he was doing performance art on a nationally televised soap opera, James Franco was playing a cool loner, trying to fit in without looking like he wanted to. And before he was the king of all Hollywood comedies, Judd Apatow was just a writer and producer trying to get a TV show off the ground. Anyone who loved Freaks and Geeks, the show that brought all of these people and more together, knows that Apatow would have to wait for Steve Carell to get his chest waxed before he became a force to be reckoned with. As much as most of the actors on this show have gotten bigger, the 18-episode comedy-drama that aired in 2000 on NBC is where it all began, one of the titans of the brilliant but cancelled TV world.

The show was about how two groups of kids, the geekiest ones and the ones who hung around outside of school and smoked pot, tried to get through the angst of high school in 1980. NBC, of course, didn’t know what it had and dumped the show after less than a full season. Now, of course, the actors have moved on, but something as cheesy as a high school reunion could begin to answer some of the questions that the series left open. What happened to Lindsay Weir when she left for the concert at the end of the series? There doesn’t need to be a concrete answer, of course, but her future was wide open; what did she do with it? What of Sam? Would he find a girl who was more than just ideally pretty? Did Nick ever figure out how to become a better drummer, or back away from the militaristic influence of his father? We can craft the endings in our minds, but the actors and Apatow’s touch would likely turn something this potentially cheesy into gold.

Lost

I promise. I promise to the bottom of my heart that this is, for a very long time, my way of not talking about Lost again for a long time. For those of you who have not yet seen the finale (or just don’t want to know if you ever watch the show in the future), this will discuss a few plot spoilers, so be warned. For those who have watched the finale, you may want to know what the hell I’m thinking of. Wasn’t Lost’s finale…you know, final? We saw what the sideways universe meant (roughly, though you may see it a bit differently than I would), we saw what happened to our characters on the Island. Isn’t that it? Well, yes and no. For example, we know that, once Jack passed on the duties of protecting the Island to Hurley, Hurley and Ben worked as a powerhouse duo for untold years. What did they do on the Island after we left the story?

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