[DevSop]

My personal toughest choice in the first round as Judd Apatow's Freaks & Geeks is a classic show that was before its time, the #28 Freaks and Geeks going up against a show that was never given a true chance, Aaron Sorkin's #37, Sports Night.


#28. FREAKS & GEEKS




vs.


#37. SPORTS NIGHT

[Lucky]

These are the weirdest cast shots. I could pick out every member of Sports Night easily and yet almost all of them don't look like who they are in that shot. And the same holds true for a bunch of other ones you've put up. Its meaningless, but its just weird. The airbrushing in these shots must be HIGH.

[Stu]

I find it funny too how all the modern cop show photos so far (Homicide, Law and Order, NYPD) are all full of gloomy faced people while the older shows, like Heat of the Night and Hill Street are all cheery types.

[The Canadian Content]

Despite OpTard's opinion, Sports Night is one of the finest shows to ever have aired. It's availabe relatively cheap on the DVD, and I highly recommend it.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Apatow > Sorkin

[DevSop]

But isn't a Sorkin drama show > an Apatow drama? This is tough for me though because I'm a big fan of both shows, but I may vote depending on which one did better in comedy and let the other one try here.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Didn't watch either. I'll wait and read the arguments and then cast my vote.

[BC]

I liked both shows, so this is tough. It comes down to which I could watch repeats of. Sportsnight wins. I have no desire to see the Freaks & Geeks episodes again.

[DevSop]

Closing these polls either late tonight or early tomorrow, make sure you vote if you need to.

[DevSop]

Sports Night moves onto Round 2.

[Lucky]

I don't feel like starting a new thread so I'm just going to say this in here where it will probably get missed and ignored just so I say it somewhere.

I've finally watched Freaks & Geeks after YEARS of people ranting about how brilliant it was and how ahead of its time it is and all that. And I must say, meh. Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable show and I do probably wish it had gotten more than one season to do its thing. But it also seems kinda limited and I'm not sure it could have had much life beyond a couple of seasons before it got stale and silly (as is the case with all high school/college shows because the kids HAVE to grow up and the show either changes drastically from what worked or becomes stupidly frozen in time, see That 70s Show). And nothing about it strikes me as really "brilliant" or "classic" or anything. Its just a good show with some likable characters in very real situations. But its not a show I feel like I watching again and I can't say I ever had the urge to sit watching hours and hours of episodes in a row like I do with many other episodic TV shows.

I did learn some things.
- Apatow's a better writer than I give him credit for. His films feel too over the top for me some times. He tries to throw some real situations in there and some drama but its all framed with crazy characters. But this show felt much more real and down to Earth and gave me more respect in the guy's ability.
- I remain clueless as to why James Franco gets ANY love (besides maybe being hot if he is). I have yet to see one performance from him that was in any way memorable, and mostly he seemed like the biggest anchor on the show. And that's an impressive feat on a show that includes Busy Philipps.
- I remain unimpressed with Seth Rogan. He can be an amusing sidekick as the big dumb stoner but meh. I don't know why I know his name when I should be saying "Hey, its that kinda fat dude from those movies!"
- I remain sure that while he's nothing special Jason Segal is the best of this bunch. I mean he's goofy and its not really my thing, but he's at least memorable and has character. I would like to see him try doing something that isn't silly and goofy though before I dub him talented. But he's definitely better than his buddies.
- Linda Cardellini is fucking gorgeous. My God she has an amazing smile that just lights up the screen. Why the hell isn't this chick a star? She even seems to be a fairly decent actress at that time (at least better than any of the rest of these "kids"). Checking out her resume has me considering watching ER for the first time since I found out Maura Tierney was on that show. Why the hell is the woman's biggest film role the ugly chick in Scooby Doo?

Ok, I'm done.