battlefield television

it kills me that judd apatow's most successful venture is "40 year old virgin." that was such a crappy movie; now judd's name has been sullied. his actual deserving of accolades masterpiece, freaks and geeks, came out in 1999 but was cancelled after one season; because everything great must die young. his follow up, undeclared (2001), is much sillier and generally not as beloved as freaks and geeks. still, it was a critically lauded show -- and also cancelled after one season.

popular (1999) came out the same year as freaks and geeks, and lasted two seasons. this last point is criminal because despite being a good show, popular is not a classic like freaks and geeks, yet it went on longer. popular probably lasted one season longer than freaks and geeks because it was on the wb, an up-and-coming network who took a few more chances and had a bit more patience. not enough patience however, since popular ended up being cancelled after two seasons; in the middle of a cliff hanger no less, and with a third season originally promised to the creator. too bad, so sad.

having just watched the first disk for both shows, i have to weigh in: which show is better? undeclared or popular?

first, the two shows have separate settings. undeclared is set in college, popular is set in high school. classic college based shows: felicity. classic high school based shows: freaks and geeks, my so called life, wonder years (junior high), and 90210 to an extent. high school shows tend to deal with popularity and how to achieve/maintain it. college shows tend to revolve around finding yourself or looking in the mirror and making that change.

undeclared sort of takes a high school slant on college. the main character, steven, is a dorky guy who is concerned with being cool in college. of course, it doesn't dwell there, otherwise undeclared would just be sam weir gone to university, and they could have called it freaks and geeks 2: still dorky.

but luckily, steven gets laid in the first episode, meets some cool friends, and the whole issue of him not being cool is essentially dropped. the rest of the series starts to segue into slice of life college moments. boyfriend of the girl steven slept with visits; steven needs to find an on-campus job when his dad can't pay tuition; a late night support group of students confined to the common lounge while their roommates get it on, etc.

the problem was, after a few episodes, you had all these characters and amusing situations but there seemed to be no purpose to it all. perhaps it's a meta-critique of college in general, but i doubt it. there was no strong unrequited romance, no strong story arcs, and not enough direction or insight into the characters. sure it was funny, but was that it?

on the other hand, popular sucked me in with shocking revelations at the end of each episode (a technique perfected by grey's anatomy) and the continuity of the characters and situations froced me to continue watching. in the beginning, you don't really see anything fresh in storylines like: will the cool girl and uncool girl get along? can the fat girl become a cheerleader? will the star quarterback choose the school musical over football? but by episode five i was lusting for the second dvd just to know what happens.

popular is your typical cool kids versus uncool kids story. everybody loves the cheerleaders; nobody pays attention to the geeks/weirdos/nerds/fat people. classic tale, can't really fuck it up. the first two episodes of popular were a little rough for me. it was a bit like a high-schooler's ally mcbeal type of show (swinging wildly between silly montages and then "deep" scenes), but with obvious caricatures and stereotypes, and no entirely likable characters. by the third episode however, i was starting to dig the show. it was witty, mean, and they stopped hammering you over the head with big moral punchlines. i liked it. a lot.

i'll probably end up watching both shows through the first season just to get a fuller grasp of everything but i think i like popular better, simply because it has the better lines. if a girl refering to someone as "mary tyler whore" doesn't make you laugh, then we have different senses of humor. undeclared and popular are both definitely comedies first, dramas second (similar to scrubs) and i'm not normally a huge fan of shows like that; i prefer my shows to be witty, observational, touching, and without overt silliness. but hey, both popular and undeclared are light years ahead of anything on television today.

with my so called life in 1994, felicity in 1998, then freaks and geeks, popular, and undeclared in the 1999-2001 range, those seven years may represent the epoch of television teen angst -- before everything became the oc and about who hooked up with whom. throw in gilmore girls, dawson's creek, party of five, plus others i'm surely forgetting, and you're looking at the best era to have been stuck in front of your television -- and stuck you were because it was pre-tivo.