frEEks, gEEks, and wEEds

Lately I have been kind of consumed with two television fascinations which are old to some, but brand spanking new to me.  They are totally unrelated to each other, and have nothing in common, and were produced years apart from each other.  Yet I have kind of fallen in love with both of them in different, yet equally huge ways.

These shows are Weeds, and Freaks and Geeks.  For those unfamiliar, a brief summary of each:

Weeds stars the BEAUTIFUL Mary Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin, a widow and mother of two.  Nancy's husband has died shortly before the beginning of the series, leaving her alone to raise her two kids Silas and Shane.  To make ends meet, she takes up selling marijuana to neighborhood stoners in her perfect little cookie-cutter town of Agrestic.

Freaks and Geeks takes place in the '80s and centers around several high school students.  At the forefront stand Lindsay Weir and her younger brother Sam.  Lindsay is still trying to find herself, and finds herself drawn to the "Freak" crowd, while her brother is very naturally a "Geek."

These two shows are so vastly different in every way imaginable, except for maybe the fact that they are single-camera dramedies with no laugh track.  Yet I am still inclined to write about them together, because today, whilst pondering them, all of the things I loved about each of them were coming to me and surprising me that they could be so different, yet entertain me so much.  It dawned on me that my enjoyment of these two showed proved a hypothesis I've always believed.  There are many elements to any filmed work, be it a tv show or a movie.  There is the writing.  The acting.  The editing.  The direction.  The actual story.  The cinematography.  Countless other elements.  Typically, we as viewers take the sum of all these parts and then decide if the tv show or movie we are watching is "good" or not.  All too often, if just one of these elements does not live up to our expectations, we tend to hastily write off the work as not being "good."  It's only human nature, I think.  I've tried to be more open-minded (for lack of a better term - I'm a self-proclaimed loather of the usual concept of open-mindedness) while watching anything I've never seen before, in recognizing all of the elements on their own, rather than solely on the "big picture", so I can learn to appreciate almost anything.  For example, if one decides they really hate the way the dialogue is written in a movie or tv show, and therefore decides they don't like the entire work, one might be depriving oneself of being able to appreciate a stellar acting performance by one of the performers forced to recite said bad dialogue.

Now onto our current subjects, "Weeds," and "Freaks and Geeks."  "Weeds" airs on Showtime.  Since Showtime is a cable network, the show is profanity laced and offers more than just glimpses of illegal activities (including, but not limited to, the consumption and sale of marijuana), and frequent sexual activity complete with full-frontal male and female nudity.  A lot of these activites are obviously only added to the show to gain viewers.  "Weeds" would be just as enjoyable without so much bad language and nudity.  But, being on a cable network also allows the writers more freedom to do whatever they'd like within the world they have created.  These elements give the show a gritty, harsh feel, while simultaneously maintaining a very comic, gimmicky, unrealistic atmosphere.  One thing that really stands out are a the performances of Mary-Louise Parker, who plays the main character, and Elizabeth Perkins, who plays Celia Hodes; the town snob who treats her family like crap and only cares about herself, and how she is perceived by her "friends."  Parker's and Perkins' characters are given very silly situations to react to and mediocre dialogue, yet the viewer has no choice but to fall in love with them simply because these two actresses are able to read deeper than simply what is given to them in their scripts.  They find these layers within their characters and push them out for us to see, and really connect with them.  As a young, conservative, straight-laced male, I never thought I would be able to sympathize with a middle-aged widowed mother of two teenagers, who sells marijuana.  But I find myself pulling for her.  Rooting for her to get out of whatever bit of trouble she gets herself into.  For the thirty minutes that the show sucks me in, her immorality is fully justified in my mind, and only when it's all over do I stare blankly at the closing credits and say.. "That was insane."

Back to my original point, if I let my prejudices that I hold in my mind; the ones that help me decipher what should be considered moral or immoral; deter me from watching a show that I already know will contain gratuitous sex and drugs, I would miss out on superb acting by two very under-rated actresses.

"Freaks and Geeks" is a show that originally aired in 1999.  I didn't watch tv in 1999.  I am now kicking myself for that.  It debuted when I was 17 years old and in high school, just like several of the main characters in the show.  They deal with issues that I remember dealing with myself.  The show is full of heart, wonderful stories, wonderful characters, and I can find very few faults within it.  But the thing that fascinates me the most is how fitting the title is.  The students in the high school that are focused on are all either considered "freaks" or "geeks," although this is a moniker that members of neither group would ever place on themselves, they freely refer to their opposites as such.  In the center of all of this is the character of Lindsay Weir.  Finding herself drawn to a small clique of "freaks," she has a "geek" brother who she cares about very much, and thus serves as a bridge between the two worlds.

In the episode "Kim Kelly Is My Friend," we see this clash between the two groups spelled out for us in a very obvious, yet moving way.  Kim Kelly (a "freak) invites Lindsay to her house for dinner.  Kim attempts to use Lindsay to show her parents that she can have well-adjusted friends who are good influences on her, with the hopes that she will be able to keep her car.  At Kim's house, we see instantly why she is the way that she is.  Her mother is likely a worse influence on her than her friends are, her father is absent, her step-father is illiterate and bitter, and her brother is slightly retarded from being beaten up, and just sleeps on the couch all day and night.  In this environment, things eventually go haywire, and Kim and Lindsay leave, with Kim's mom and step-father now believing that Lindsay is no better than any of Kim's other friends.  From here, Kim and Lindsay go to Lindsay's home for dinner instead.  This immediate transition of environments make it blatantly obvious how different these two worlds are, and what happens when they clash.  When some more of Kim and Lindsay's freak friends show up, more chaos ensues; but this time it's in the comfort of a nice household, and is resolved with a much happier outcome.

As mentioned above, I didn't watch tv in 1999, but this show certainly would have appealed to me, had I given it a chance.  I am still thankful to have had the opportunity to see it at this stage in my life, for it offers a certain vibe of reminiscence as I think back on my own high school days, and clashes with cliques outside of my own.  But I still have to wonder how watching this show would have affected me in 1999.  Life does indeed imitate art, in my opinion, and I'd like to think I could have learned a lot from this show.  While it's primary purpose is to entertain, it also serves as a means of enlightenment to those who find themselves relating to VERY relatable characters.

If you've made it this far, I thank you for hanging in there.  Perhaps my opinions don't mean much to you, but that's why they are called opinions.  It is my desire that if you got nothing else out of this, that you try to recognize anything positive about a particular film or show that you may not otherwise enjoy, and focus on that aspect of it.  Learn to appreciate it.  And if it has no obvious redeeming value, feel free to dislike it; but until that is evident, be fair.

Back to blogging.

I used to keep an online journal pretty regularly.  It was on Livejournal.  I got a little personal on it, and sometimes felt like I was just looking for attention and pity, so I ended up deleting it.  For some time now, I have wanted to start a blog such as this one.  One where I can write movie reviews, or talk about anything that is a current fascination of mine, be it some tv show, or even a single actor, or what's going on in the baseball world.

This is that blog.

Now the task at hand is to get used to writing in it regularly.  For you, my readers, I hope I can do that.  And I hope I can make it enjoyable for you.  I ask that you please respond to opinions I make on here.  Especially if you disagree.  Few things are as enjoyable to me as debating about what makes a good or bad movie, or themes and messages within individual movies.  My guess is I will only have a couple of followers to begin with, but I hope to eventually make this a nice place for film and pop culture discussion.  Enjoy, if I can get myself in gear to continue.....

Where to begin...?

First of all, welcome to my blog!! I do not write enough anymore, and I am out of practice. Perhaps keeping a semi-regular blog will help with this. Plus, life is actually picking up and getting more exciting recently, so maybe I'll actually have things to write about!

So what's been going on? I guess I can start with the most recent bits of excitement, which happened on my last two days off of work. First of all, I got a call from my friend Mary on Monday! Hearing from her in the first place was exciting enough, as it's been a few years since we've actually talked.. But then she told me she got free tickets to the Braves game and asked me if I wanted to go. I didn't even have to think very long, before I said.. "Uh, YEAH!" I was hoping to go to a Braves game this week anyway, maybe with my dad, but he isn't up for much on weeknights. Anyway, we met at her mom's house, where I also got to meet her awesome son DJ. He seemed to like me! That was cool, because sometimes it feels like little kids don't like me. So Mary, her husband Dallas, and I waited for this other dude named Greg, and when he got there the four of us headed downtown. The game was great, yet full of Chicago fans, but it's ok cuz we shut them up. There are a few quirky anecdotes I could share about that evening, but I'll refrain. All in all, it was so great to see Mary again, and to see the Braves shut out the Cubs!

After the game we went back to Mary's mom's house, and Greg left pretty much immediately. Then this dude who goes by the name Tigger came over, and we all talked until about 2 in the morning. It was truly a blast; I have not gotten out NEARLY enough lately, so it was awesome to have such a great time with old friends and make new ones.

So then I went to sleep, and woke up at about 10:00 AM on Tuesday morning. I piddled around the house for a while and watched a few episodes of Roseanne. Then I went to Best Buy (I've been going at LEAST once a week, as of late) got some Chick fil A, and then went over to my friend Andi's house, where we had a Kill Bill marathon! I haven't seen Kill Bill in quite a while. And the ONLY way to watch it is both volumes back to back. So that was pretty nifty. And Andi had just gotten her wisdom teeth out the day before, so it was cool to get to hang out with her and keep her company while she is recovering, although she seems to be doing very well with that. We had a wonderful time indeed.

THEN, I went and picked up my friend Melissa, and we met some friends of hers at Discover Mills for the midnight showing of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Oh me oh my, was that a fantastic cinematic adventure. I am a self-professed LOATHER of Michael Bay, and those who have had any type of in depth film conversation with me know that I am quite vocal about this. I think he is pretentious, which he has no place to be, because he's not even that GREAT of a filmmaker. He kinda just makes the same movie every time, with the same themes, and the same military involvement, and the same exploding helicopters. But, he is good at what he does, and he is good at that formula. Despite my hatred from this man (the word hatred is used here only for effect.. I hate no one) I went to see the first Transformers and absolutely LOVED it, so I knew I would love this one as well. I justified seeing these movies in my own mind by telling myself that my 10 bucks was going to Steven Spielberg, NOT Michael Bay. I will give Mr. Spielberg my money all day long. Anyway, yeah, the movie was great, and 2.5 hours long, and I didn't get home til 4 AM.

And then I slept, and then I wasted a few hours vegged out on the couch being lazy, and then I went to work to begin another week.

So, that was my last two days. Looking at everything I just wrote, it looks like I have an action packed life with tons of friends and I stay busy all the time. But these past few days were the exception to the rule that is my life, and I am thankful to all of my friends who made them possible. If you actually took the time to read this far, I thank you as well for your interest in my life.

I have other big things to talk about.. These will be coming soon.