Apatow's followup to Freaks and Geeks was this Fox series, about college freshmen living dorm life. Watching this after F&G was probably a mistake, because it pales in comparison. Or at least it seems to at first. It's more sit-commy, and at only a half-hour, compared to the full hour of the earlier show, it doesn't seem to have the time to develop its characters. Over the first half of the episodes or so, I was thinking it was okay, but not too much over mediocre. But then I started to latch onto it, started to like its quirky sensibilities. It may be closer to a sit-com than F&G, but it's no Home Improvement or Full House. The show stars Jay Baruchel as Steven, a skinny, geeky kid who is attending a college so close to home his dad (Loudon Wainwright III) pops in to visit him frequently, much to his mortification. Lizzie (Carla Gallo) is the girl whom Steven falls for right off the bat, and who quickly submits to his advances to spite her obsessive, 25 year-old boyfriend, Eric (Jason Segel, who isn't a regular but pops up every couple of episodes). Lloyd (Charlie Hunnam) is Steven's British roommate who can bed pretty much any girl he sets his eyes on. Their neighbors are Ken (Seth Rogan) and Marshall (Timm Sharp), while Rachel (Monica Keena) rooms with Lizzie. Several famous guest stars pop up in the series, including Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler and Ben Stiller, all of whom are hilarious. A lot of the actors from F&G also appear, and it's a delight every time they do. Even though I did eventually like the show, I had problems with it. I really disliked the British kid, whom, for the longest time, I thought wasn't British but just feigning an accent. Turns out he really is British, but he's still mostly insufferable. The Rachel character was also pretty boring. Apatow's movies have been frequently criticized for lacking strong female characters, a criticism I do actually agree with. Freaks and Geeks, despite only having two major female characters, doesn't fall into that criticism, but Undeclared does. Lizzie and Rachel are mostly there just for sex, while the guys are usually involved in much more interesting situations. The show is pretty sex-obsessed. Of course, college freshmen are, too, at least the guys, and definitely some of the girls. But, I don't know, when I was lived in the dorm, the existence of sex was taken mostly on hearsay. The couple of people I did know who got laid in the dorms were either total jerks or ended up living out their time there very awkwardly avoiding the person or persons they slept with. I think the Fox factor was working here (F&G was on NBC, fwiw). The best episodes are the ones with Jason Segel, who is often accompanied by his co-workers from the copy shop, David Krumholtz and Kyle Gass. Segel was one of the best actors in F&G, and he's extremely hilarious here, especially the episode where he discovers that Lizzie slept with Steven.
