FREAKS AND GEEKS (PG) 5 stars
This wonderfully funny and moving cult comedy-drama only lasted one season but if it ended too soon at least it didn't overstay its welcome. It's a high school show set in the early 1980s at William McKinley High School in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. The main characters are the Weir siblings. Older sister Lindsay (Linda Cardenellini) is a brilliant maths student who finds herself being drawn to the "freaks" – the pot-smoking, underachieving, somewhat mysterious clique including Daniel Desario (James Franco), Ken Miller (Seth Rogen) and Jason Segel (Nick Andopolis).
Her younger brother Sam (John Francis Daley), meanwhile, is definitely a geek, along with his friends Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr) and Neil Schweiber (Samm Levine). But even they are questioning their position in the social pecking order sometimes.
There's a lot of talent on both sides of the camera – Paul Feig and Judd Apatow were among the creative team – and it's arguable nobody ever topped their work here. The strictures of television might have been a help: instead of relying on crudity, work had to be done on character development and storylines. It's lovely stuff.
There are heaps of extras including commentaries, deleted scenes, bloopers and audition footage.
