Undeclared vs. Freaks & Geeks

rong

dude have you even watched that shit? both great, but undeclared might be just slightly better.

"might be" vs. "isn't"

I mean, I liked Undeclared a lot, but when even its boosters are like "it might be better" in this kind of thought-experiment kind of way, like "provocative thesis: what if it were better?," that suggests to me that much as we may like or even prefer it, it just didn't hang together as well as the other one did.

the half hour format sucks

I wouldn't say it might be better, I'd say it absolutely is superior. The 'geeks' drag F&G down a notch.

"Undeclared" is pretty snooze-y. Freaks & Geeks is classic.

Undeclared is good, and my opinion of it improved a little after renting the DVD and seeing the unaired episodes recently. But the cast, or rather the cast members that weren't also in F&G, is kinda weak by comparison (Monica Keena was mad hot, though).

Yeah, Undeclared is certainly funny, but it lacks the emotional resonance of Freaks and Geeks. One of the achievements of the earlier show was that it struck such a fine balance between hilarity and poignancy. Im Undeclared, the humor is more overt or for its own sake. I also didn't identify with anyone as much as I identified with Lindsay Weir.

What about Neal?! I thought of you as a kid when I saw his audition video!

I feel like Undeclared was a better show marred by two genuinely uninteresting leads, while F&G was a slightly less good show boosted by two great leads. So I gave it to F&G, even though I want to give it to Undeclared.

My vote is for F & G by a long shot.

I totally agree that young-me was similar to Neal in some ways, but only when I was consciously putting on an act: showing off, doing impressions, etc. I don't think we had the same inner life.

You did not have the inner life of an 80-year old Jewish man, in other words.

F&G by miles. Undeclared had moments, but was not overall as effective, seemed a bit unfocused sometimes, and some episodes are just plain bad. Like the Adam Sandler one.

Jay Baruchel is awesome. Jason Segal in Undeclared is amazing. But F&G is way way way better than Undeclared.

Really? You like Jay Baruchel? Why?

Because he actually looks and acts like a dorky 18-year-old?

ie, he is a good actor?

?

the casting of F & G was just so spot on in my opinion. undeclared felt more forced to me.

Yeah, that British dude sucks. The wacky guy kind of does too.

I think F&G was better, but the Will Ferrell speed-freak character was AWESOME.

I don't mind the British dude, but yeah, Marshall is just gross. Favorite character, and we needed more of him: Perry.

the Will Ferrell speed-freak character was AWESOME

^^^ yes.

I was JUST about to say that Perry was the secret weapon of Undeclared. I'd like to think that if the show survived to a 2nd season they would've upgraded him to a full-on cast member eventually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqrjsAX7tJ0

freaks & geeks had pitch-perfect casting for EVERY CHARACTER, not just the main ones--dave gruber allen as the guidance counselor (is that his name?), biff as the coach, seth rogen's hermie girlfriend, and ESPECIALLY the kid who played ALAN

its true - F&G did not waste a single castmember (even Nick's rebound girlfriend has a little story arc!)

she showed up later as janis ian in mean girls

the poor man's Fairuza Balk

Max, OTM.

ESPECIALLY the kid who played ALAN HARRIS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAmEa6GwO3o

Haha, I was going to say the same thing as Bill.

Apparently the actor who played Harris has a LiveJournal.

(Where he talks mostly about RPGs, but this post mentions F&G.)

he talks mostly about RPGs

:D

I can't believe I never noticed that was him in Royal Tenenbaums

ZOMG i cant believe i forgot harris. i went to nerd camp and 60% of my fellow campers were harris look-and-sound-alikes. down to the wispy mustache and the bragging about making out with girlfriend

You guys heard how he got into F&G, right? Faked letter from his 'agent,' basically defrauded his way there with a non-existent resume, once he got found out nobody cared cos he was so awesome?

I thought it was that his babysitter was going to audition or something and they had to jump through A MILLION hoops since he's Canadian and underage, etc, but PERFECT IN EVERY WAY.
Undeclared wuz just sorta alright. Was P. Feig as involved?

After F&G got canceled, they tried every damn thing to get people to watch Undeclared. As a result, if you watch the series all the way through from beginning to end, you notice that several episodes restate things that happened previously, and a lot of the episode will be taken up by that. Even worse, they had the two leads kind of getting into a relationship, and then in one episode they completely rewind it, so that they are shy and he doesn't know she likes him, etc., and they start all over in the cat and mouse relationship chase.

F&G, which actually hangs together in a consistent story line, is therefore obviously superior.

if you watch the series all the way through from beginning to end

Are you talking about the order it was shown on TV, or the order on the DVD set? Because in both cases the episodes are presented out of order. On Wikipedia, there are instructions as to how to watch the episodes so the continuity is not scrambled.

Oh I think it's obvious that Undeclared was designed to be friendlier to mainstream U.S. viewers than F&G was from the beginning - the cast is generally more attractive and is featured in various stages of undress, it's jokier/sitcomier, plus there's the Adam Sandler episode. They were really aiming for mainstream success with Undeclared.

That isn't a criticism, BTW. Except for maybe the Adam Sandler thing.

Because in both cases the episodes are presented out of order.

Even so, it's still the case that they restarted the major love-connection between the two main characters. It's obvious that they were doing so because they didn't want new viewers to feel like they couldn't get into the show. n/a is exactly right - Judd pretty much brought Freaks & Geeks II to the table with Undeclared, which didn't fit into the 'every episode is its own world' thing that Sinfield / Friends pulled off so well. They obviously tried to shove it into that format anyway, and as a result it comes of as - well, as a pale shadow of Freaks and Geeks.

Hmmm, I guess I don't remember that, then.

Hmmm. Well that makes me think that I may be completely wrong and simply making stuff up. Could very well be.

And that 'Hmmm' is not like a 'I'm mocking your Hmmmm' BTW.

Haha OK.

I thought that the episodes being out of order was totally the network's fault! It's obviously not how Apatow et al intended for it to be presented. When watched in the correct order, it's a great, hilarious show.

That being said, it still doesn't touch Freaks & Geeks.

I don't mean to seem to defend Friends, but it was definitely not "every ep is its own world", it had a very convoluted continuity.

Also, remember when Pam from the Office was on Undeclared, only she wasn't Pam yet, so it didn't make any sense?

It wasn't that convoluted. I was exposed to it (like radiation) from time to time and I got what was going on. This guy likes that girl, these two are into each other. OK. Freaks and Geeks was A LOT more complex than that, and I still say they tried to fit Undeclared into the Friends mode - which is: review for a few minutes, plot point moved slightly forward, jokes jokes jokes, plot point move reviewed. Not the Judd style, crash and burn.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

when was pam on undeclared?

They've having a party and try to invite her. I think she's either a cheerleader or sorority girl.

I think she hooked up with the british dude and then did the walk of shame. it was right at the beginning of an episode.

I actually liked Undeclared a lot more before I had seen F&G. Right after watching the whole F&G, I rented Undec., and it felt like Methadone. So, context.
Apparently, most of the F&Gers have been on How I Met Yr Mother, but I have a hard time watching that show.
Also, I was once in a movie with Lindsay Weir.

Oddly, Karen from the Office was in the "Kim Kelly Is My Friend" episode of F&G, as Kim's tough friend who bullies Sam and the geeks.

OMG you were in ER! Dr. Superman! Yeah I remember now.

Bill and Neal are the only F&G alumni who have guested on "How I Met Your Mother" so far, right (besides Jason Segel being in the cast, obv)? it'd be cool if they got more of them on there, like Seth Rogen now that having Seth Rogen on your show would actually be a big deal. HIMYM is totally a good show, btw, probably the best 3-camera sitcom on the air right now.

so depressing how bland Cardellini's look and career have become:

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/5825/Events/5825/LindaCarde_Vespa_12885649_400.jpg.html?path=pgallery&path_key=Cardellini,%20Linda

yeah she looks like a different person.

that just ain't right

actors /= the characters they play, c or d

more like actors looking hot in a normal way and being on good if low rated TV shows /= becoming creepy fembots and wasting their career away on a show that's been going steadily downhill with a revolving door cast for 10+ years

t/s: steady, well-paying TV gig vs. praying for film work

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

haha

That was ... unsurprising.

http://blog.myspace.com/jgrode

perry from 'undeclared' works for defamer now...

i'm watching undeclared now after finishing freaks & geeks and it is such a letdown :(

fucking 'british' accents. why, oh why, oh why?