Last week I watched FREAKS AND GEEKS for the first time.
I'm an embarrassment, I know. I apologize to the pantheon of comedy gods, the 1980s and the Li'l Baby Jesus.
I was really impressed with the pilot, written by Paul Feig. It was not at all what I expected, far less an SNL/John Hughes take on the 1980s, much more grounded.
And so for the next few days I'm going to point out some writing choices I really appreciate from it. Then on Friday I'm going to head back to the finale of EUPHORIA.
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There's a great moment late in the FREAKS pilot where our favorite freshman Sam Weir ask upper classperson Cindy Sanders to go to the upcoming school dance.
Going to the dance is not Sam's central storyline in the pilot, but on a couple prior occasions he has gotten indications that maybe Cindy would not reject him if he asked.
On his way to what we think is the climax of Sam's main pilot story, dealing with Alan the Bully, he runs into Cindy, and instead of joining his friends he stops on impulse to ask her. And it's your classic high school scene, lots of hemming and hawing and awkwardness that we love to watch because we have all been there.
Feig breaks the moment into three parts: First, they meet and there is awkward conversation where Sam asks what Cindy--who is dressed in her cheerleading outfit--is doing, and she laughs and says she's cheering at the game. Nice job, Sam.
In the second beat, she notes that she has to go, but as she walks away he calls her name, she stops, and then he can't get the words out.
So it's your classic three beat structure, with each successive beat including a reminder by Cindy that she has to go, putting further pressure on Sam and also increasing the sense of him kind of screwing this whole thing up (although not too heavily).
And the scene is broken up by cutaways to Sam's friends Neal and Bill confronting Alan, which is also a scene about summoning courage. Interestingly, they take their leap before Sam does, right at the end of their first beat.
And that actually ends up serving Sam's story line really well. Their fight with Alan becomes a way of externalizing the battle going on inside of Sam.
(Also, it is hilarious.)
It also allows his struggle to go on longer than it probably could have on its own. Or let me put it this way--if Feig had stayed on Sam the whole time, the struggle probably would have had to get absurd to keep things from losing steam. Which might have been funny, but it wouldn't have landed emotionally the way it does.
After all that, Cindy says no. But it's interesting, it doesn't feel like a failure. The way the scene is set up, the battle is in the quest to ask, not in the answer. Having taken his shot, Sam has succeeded.
Feig gives him a little reward for his courage, too, in the form of Cindy offering to save a dance for Sam. Which then becomes in the final scene this wonderful little reprise--they go out on the floor, and at first Sam just stands there and is unsure.
For me part of the lesson is Feig's brilliant use of intercutting to extend and externalize Sam's conflict. It's just a great idea.
But the scene is also a reminder about remembering where your story really lives. Sam's journey in the pilot is not about Cindy or Getting a Date; it's about the battle to be courageous. Keeping focused on that struggle generates all kinds of empathy and delight.
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Interesting side note: In the original script for the pilot, this sequence goes really differently. During the Homecoming game, Cindy sees Alan picking on Sam, and Neal and Bill step forward, getting ready to fight Alan with him. Then Cindy steps in with the other cheerleaders and calls Alan out, shutting him down.
And it's out of that experience that Sam gains the courage to ask her.
It makes more sense structurally; it is a bit weird that after an entire pilot about Sam and his friends being bullied, he's not there for the climax of that story at all.
But I much prefer how they shot it. It gives Bill and Neal agency of their own; they actually choose to fight Alan. And the way they shot the pilot makes things much harder on Sam. He doesn't have Cindy having just helped him there to stoke his confidence. He has to take the plunge on his own.
TOMORROW: THE COOL TEACHER
