Freaks and Geeks: The Geeks

The geeks are near the bottom of the social food chain of high school. They are small and somewhat goofy-looking. They are obsessed with science fiction, Saturday Night Live, and
Dungeons and Dragons. Most students don't give the geeks the time of day, and those that tend to be bullies who exist to make the geeks' lives hell. Unlike the freaks, the geeks want to be accepted by high school society, and they will do almost anything to be seen as cool by the social elite. Well, Neal and Sam fit that description; as I said in an earlier post, of all the characters, Bill is probably the most comfortable with himself (although there are definitely times when he wishes his life was a little different).

The geeks' path on the show follows them trying to finally be accepted. Sam longest storyline involves his unrequited crush on the beautiful cheerleader Cindy Sanders, who is one of the only girls at McKinley who actually pays any attention to Sam. She takes a liking to him early in the series, but sees him as nothing more than a friend with an insight into the male mind (she calls on him to help determine if a popular basketball player likes her). Neal tends to be at the forefront of most of their doomed endeavors to be cool; when a pretty new girl transferred to their school, she started hanging out with the geeks, and Neal devised a plan that bordered on creepy in order to keep her in the group. He also was the most ardent opponent of the trio going trick-or-treating on Halloween, out of fear of being seen (sadly, this fear was justified). However, Neal very much is a geek at heart, and was willing to act silly in order to become the school mascot (he wanted to ham the role up), and he never passed up an opportunity to play D&D.

Sadly, the geeks' lives presented them with a catch-22; on one hand, they could accept who they were and be happy enough (although they'd have to put up with bullies and celibacy for a while). Or they could try to deny who they were and be even more unhappy (and still put up with bullies and be seen as uncool). It was interesting to note that Bill was always the most reluctant to go along with Sam and Neal's attempts to be cool; watching him at the makeout party was hilarious and uncomfortable at the same time. Bill understood who he was and was content with himself. He definitely had problems to face, but they were external. Sam and Neal had a lot of internal conflict to work out before they could even consider dealing with their external problems. The biggest proof that being true to yourself is what will make you happy came near the end of the series when Sam was finally accepted into the cool crowd. He got everything he ever wanted only to learn that it was nothing like he expected and nothing he wanted after all.

Like the freaks, the geeks have to take their small victories where they can get them. Life sucked for geeks in high school, and for the most part, things did not go their way. So when good things did happen, such as their incredible play in gym softball, or when they made friends with a cute girl, they did everything they could to make the most of it. But these events were few and far between. Most of their funniest scenes were funny because of how awkward and painful things got. My prime example involves Neal's ventriloquist dummy. When Neal learned that his father was cheating on his mother, he started to use his dummy as an outlet for his anger. Neal's new "routine" was incredibly funny, but its source was incredibly painful. There's also the time Sam was duped into wearing a very unflattering jumpsuit to school (this is especially poignant for me because I did something kinda similar...).

Sadly, we will never see how the geeks would grow into themselves due to NBC's horrible handling of the show. Oh well. What we got was incredible.

Up next: Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders...