Freaks And Geeks Analysis

Freaks and Geeks was a rarity in the early millennium of television. Existing in a hyper-dramatized era of film and television, the witty series effectively captures the awkwardness and angst of adolescence with simplicity and humor, reflected even in the very first episode, which I have screened. The episode mainly utilizes conventional formal elements, and it makes sense: to capture the reality of teenagers in suburbia, using conventional norms in areas such as lighting and editing masks production and allows the narrative to progress naturally and invisibly. Hence, this screening journal will focus heavier on diegetic components: the encoding of the show’s characters through some incorporations of visual and aural components, and how these characters function in developing themes and ideologies, …show more content…
Eli and Lindsay, for example, experience the totality of their relationship within the pilot. Even some of the cinematography supports this character-centric notion; notice that in several instances, shots are established with close ups of a character, then slowly pans out to a long shot of the scene’s setting. However, many enigmas are granted the opportunity for serial development, such as Sam’s unresolved conflict with his bully Alan, Lindsay’s conflict with Kim, and possible romantic subplots. Most importantly, the central focus of the show is the exploration of identity, expressed especially through Lindsay. She is an “other” desperately trying to reinvent herself, and the viewers get a glimpse of why she does so from her conversation with Sam in her bedroom; the passing of her grandmother motivated a major change in her outlook on life. It is a serious moment amidst the largely humorous material in the episode, and it is immediately known that Lindsay’s struggles are too complex to be contained in one