2004-07-17 - 7:07 p.m.

The Roommate�s little sister came up to visit, and she brought with her the entire box set of Freaks and Geeks on DVD. I stayed up by myself �till 5:30 am watching it.

I don�t know what to think. One part of me really likes the show. It�s funny, the acting is surprisingly excellent, and so is the writing--the characters are flushed out and not at all one-dimensional, and there�s plenty of side characters to get to know. I like how things can get highly uncomfortable at times. The transitions between the sister�s and the brother�s worlds are nearly seamless, and it�s always fun when the two subsets overlap. The show is just hokey enough without going over the top (usually), and except for a few anachronisms (one I noticed was when they were in a convenience store that was selling plastic (not glass) bottles of Gatorade racked by the nozzle like martini glasses in a bar), and the fact that the show takes place in the 80s is perfectly acceptable and doesn�t feel gimmicky.

I think my one problem with the show is that I�m a bitter old curmudgeon. Sometimes it upsets me a little when I see fourteen-year-old girls who are not in any way punk wearing punk rock belts and clever T-shirts that they got at Urbans. I mean, I don�t really have a legitimate problem with this, but it kind of bothers me how easy it is to just have a look but not have events and a lifestyle that lead up to it. Certainly when I was fourteen years old there were folks who had the today I�m going to be a hippie, tomorrow I�m going for goth thing going on, and that�s an age where you should be figuring things out and experimenting. It�s just that there today there seems to be no emotional investment involved in looking a certain way, and it pains me to see people borrowing fashionable elements from a culture of which they know little and by which they would have been relegated to the status of pariah and poser.

Freaks and Geeks, and other shows like My So Called Life, or movies like Saved right now--it just seems like there�s so much more out there for today�s kids, making the �underground� more accessible--easier--more popular--and I feel bad for the kids that really think of themselves as outsiders because where are they going to turn that hasn�t already been exploited. It�s gotten to the point where social alienation is portrayed as appealing and for the winners, whereas I feel like I�m a better person for having to struggle through it.

All I had was The Wonder Years. I mean that�s it. I had The Wonder Years and Pink Floyd�s The Wall, I guess. I guess I�m just bitter �cause I�m older, and of course things get easier for each generation and deep down inside I loathe and despise change. Freaks and Geeks is a good show. I�m going to watch the rest of the episodes, just in case I missed a valuable lesson from my childhood that I didn�t learn on my own.