By Jasmine Kim

A lot of the time, TV shows are hit or miss. And sometimes, shows get cancelled after a single season. But one thing is for certain: regardless of if the show is good or not, there will always be a fan-base that wishes the show went just a little bit longer.

Freaks and Geeks

Before Judd Apatow became a household name associated with inappropriate yet hilarious movies, he was a weird TV show producer that found and groomed awkward teenagers that went on to become huge actors today. In the amazing single-season show Freaks and Geeks, we see James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel as awkward stoner high school students just wanting to get high and avoid typical teen drama. The season follows a nerd girl named Lindsay that just wants to be cool, and her path to reaching out to the cool, artsy group of burnouts that wear oversized jackets and smoke cigarettes behind the gym. The show also focuses on Lindsay’s little brother Sam, his weird group of friends, and issues of high school bullying. The great thing about this show (besides seeing Franco, Rogen and Segel go through the awkward stages of puberty and cackle at the fact that their awkwardness will be remembered forever) is that this show is timeless. Even almost 15 years after the show’s cancellation, it still finds its way into our lives through memes, gifs, and one-liners. The show is entertaining, too. Lindsay goes through family trauma and deals with parents that will always forever be embarrassing, as well as dealing with the peer pressure that comes with trying to be cool. It’s also great to see how Judd Apatow evolves from such innocent and standard ideas like this to the kinds of movies he makes today. If you’re interested, this show is on Netflix and has eighteen forty-minute episodes, so kill some time and check it out.

Undeclared

This show was also created and directed by Judd Apatow, and was his second attempt at doing something normal and mainstream. Instead of being a show about high school students, this series revolves around college freshmen and their first semester at a state college. Seth Rogen and Jason Segel are also in this show, along with the awkward and less famous Jay Baruchel. A young, British, less buff, surfer boy Charlie Hunnam is also a main character in the show who will swoon the shit out of you, even though he wears a shell necklace and flip flops. But don’t deny it, readers, we all know that we loved that look back in 2002. Amy Poehler, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell and Jenna Fischer can also be spotted in this series, and they won’t fail to make you laugh at the ridiculous characters they play. The show deals with binge drinking (encouraged by Rogen, of course), long-distance relationships, the freshman fifteen, rushing, and being away from home; all issues that freshmen face and will face. Main character Steven deals with parents that just got divorced, living with a roommate that brings girls home all the time, and falling in love with a girl who is dating an older guy. Like Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared is about finding yourself, finding a group of friends that really accepts you for who you are, and learning that you can find good things in the most unexpected places. Check this show out on Netflix too; it only has seventeen 25-minute episodes.

Party Down

This show is about a catering company and the different adventures they have every time they cater a party. A pre-Parks and Recreation Adam Scott, a post-Mean Girls Lizzy Caplan, and a mid-Glee Jane Lynch come together as wannabe Hollywood actors who find themselves in a catering team in order to make the pocket money needed to survive. The weird guy from Freaks and Geeks, Martin Starr, plays a screenwriter that has a strange obsession with sci-fi and reminds me of Dwight Schrute from The Office (my fav show of all time). This strange combination of characters, all forced to wear the exact same uniform that consists of black slacks, crisp white button downs, and pink bowties, lead to a sense of reality that the audience can’t help but connect to. There’s even a short-lived romance that buds in this series, and the pre-Parks and Recreation Adam Scott will quench your thirst of the cute dorky looking skinny guy with a great personality. Lizzy Caplan also looks like a babe in this show, which is a much better look than the Lebanese-Lesbian goth girl Janice from Mean Girls. They smoke pot, get drunk, and bend all the other rules while dealing with a freaky boss and posh party guests, trying to make the best of their time working with people they don’t ever want to meet again. If you have worked in the food industry, this show is the show for you. You can watch shit hit the fan and laugh while seeing all your dark thoughts about dealing with horrible customers and coworkers come true in these 20-minute episodes stretched across two very short seasons. Check the show out on Hulu.

Clone High

I personally don’t like cartoon shows, because they’re either too kiddish or too bizarre. Clone High, though, took such a unique spin on cartoons, that you can’t help but watch the entire season. The show revolves around a high school full of students that are clones of previously great people, and how they would have been if they all went to the same school. The main character is an awkward Abe Lincoln, his friends wannabe-cool-guy Ghandi and goth Joan of Arc, and the most popular kids in school, JFK and his cheerleader girlfriend Cleopatra. There’s a weird love triangle in the show, as per usual with all shows about high school kids, but it’s just strange to see all the greatest minds in the world come together in one place at the most awkward time of their lives. The show deals with adoptive parents, a crazy scientist who brought all these people back to life and is their school principal, unrequited love and standing up for what you really believe in. It’s also just entertaining to listen to teenage JFK talk with his weird yet amazingly accurate accent, even if you can’t understand anything he says. Don’t worry if you’re not good at history; the actual historical stories play a very, very minimal role in the series. I watched the whole series on YouTube and the quality wasn’t as bad as you’d think.