Above are two clips from what we watched in class today. Both are cringe inducing in their own honest ways (I think): Lindsey thinks she's protecting Eli, but it backfires: one of many things that backfires on Lindsay as she tries to shed her old "mathalete" persona for a new "freak" persona. The second is Angela swooning over Jason Catalano: he leans so well against the wall. What more do you need to fall in love with a hunky guy? It struck both Rick and I as being perfectly believable that Angela would fall for him. Silly, yes; adolescent, absolutely. But that's the point, isn't it?
After class, Mary was saying how she didn't understand Angela. Angela's bad choices—and she makes a few of them—didn't make sense to Mary, and maybe others of you. That's what I know I find so fascinating about the character. She's a lot like Lindsey Weir: it's as if both shows catch them in the exact same moment in their lives. Lindsay rebels—she smokes, she wears her dad's Army jacket, she quits the math team, she dumps her old best friend, she hangs with the wrong crowd, she skips Latin—and we see Angela do much the same. But they're very different, I think, in their respective episodes. Angela strikes me as being more passionate, more confused, more willing to do something harmful and hurtful to both herself and others (she certainly hurt her old best friend). There's something deeper, for me, in Angela's rebellion. Lindsey's stoner friends seem, at least in this episode, to offer no danger for Lindsey: Rayanne, on the other hand, is a mess. And Angela is basking in the attention their night-that-could-have-gone-really-wrong brings her at the end of the episode. Angela seems rawer, younger, more yearning for something more, something different, than Lindsey. And she does stupid things. As many people her age do. At least that's my take.
So:
1. Your reactions to both shows? What did you like—what stuck with you? What didn't you like, if that's the case—and why?
2. I commented above at my sense of the two main characters—how they compared and contrasted. What's your sense of both Lindsey and Angela? And why are they doing what they're doing? Why the big change, switch for them?
3. "High school is a battlefield," Angela declares in her usual dramatic way. Lindsay: "I hate high school." We're a long ways from Whitman High now. There are no Pete Dixon's: there's Mr. Rosso and the gym coach (and God, did I hate dodgeball in HS and JH); there's the teachers who Angela, fairly or not, can barely tolerate (and who many of her classmates actively ignore). There are no Keatings or Thackerys here: this is the world of "High School." And both shows focused more on the social life in school: maybe this is a reason many of your parents remember their social rather than academic lives when they remembered back. So what the two shows saying about life in HS for their characters? If you had to answer the question, "In both Freaks and Geeks and My So-Called Life, High School (or adolescence—they really can't be separated in either) is ____________," what would you say—and why? What specific details from both shows support this characterization?
See you guys tomorrow. We'll talk about what we watched today and then watch the pilot episode of "Friday Night Lights."
I really liked Freaks and Geeks. There were definitely parts that were fairly cheesy but it also had aspects that rang true and were very caring. I think the two scenes that stuck with me the most were the scene when Lindsey accidentally calls Eli a retard and he gets very mad, and the scene when Lindsey asks Eli to dance at homecoming. The scene where Lindsey calls Eli a retard stuck with me because all she wanted to do was be nice to him and keep others from being mean to him when she actually hurts him the most. I loved the scene where she asks him to dance because Lindsey was one of the only kids who saw Eli as a kid who deserved to have friends and be treated normally while everyone else just made fun of him. I did not like My So Called Life because I couldn't relate to any of the characters and it seemed like Angela was putting herself and her friends in danger for no real reason. Lindsey is never mean to anyone and her transformation, it seems, is largely because of her grandmother passing away, Angela on the other hand keeps lying to her parents and doesn't pay attention to people she is hurting and people she will probably hurt in the future. The 2 scenes that stuck with me from My So Called Life were when Rayanne almost gets raped and the scene where Angela apologizes to her mom and then falls asleep in her arms. The scene with her mom stuck with me because it reinforced the idea that no matter what your mom will always be there. It also stuck out to me because it reminded me of my mom. My mom and I don't have a relationship like Angela and her mom but the picture of her mom immediately forgiving her and trying to make her feel better reminded me of my mom.
ReplyDeleteI liked Lindsey, she obviously has some issues with her grandmothers death and that is probably a major cause of her change but she is never mean or hurts others. I didn't really like Angela because she didn't seem completely comfortable with the "new her" and there did not seem to be a reason for her transition. Her new friends are putting her in situations that she is not comfortable in and, in some cases, is in danger. She also tries to hide from them that she feels the need to get to class and they cause her to lie to her parents about where she is going and wether or not adults will be there.
High school is a confusing time that parents and teachers don't really remeber. There are multiple occurrences in both shows where adults made comments that were unfeeling and not understanding, Jeff the guidance counselor tries to guilt and bribe Lindsey into joining the decathlon team. After Lindsey refuses and he gives her her punishment for cutting class, he asks her why she is making him the bad guy. this is especially awful because he is supposed to be the adult who understands kids and school. His main concern is the decathlon team and her involvement in ti instead of her well being and why she cut class.
DeleteI thought they were both melodramatic, but I suppose that's television. Freaks and Geeks was funny and I really liked all of the characters- they seemed like real students to me- but the situations they faced felt forced. Maybe the writers are trying to show how the kids feel in high school, like they're forcing themselves to withstand the undesirable (to say the very least) circumstances that they have to deal with every single day of their lives. I liked Sam and his friends (because they're dorky and funny) and Jason Siegel's sweetness towards Lindsey in Freaks and Geeks. What really stuck with me were Lindsey's interactions with Eli because they were painful to watch; Lindsey was trying so hard to be a good person, but Eli ends up getting hurt. I'd seen this episode before and I have remembered that scene for years because of the confusing ethics of the situation. In My So Called Life, I liked Angela and Rayanne's friendship at the beginning (when it was "just for fun") and I got a kick out of her crush on Jason. What stuck with me were her thoughts and her analyses of the world around her. When going in to talk with her parents, she would recall all kinds of information about their lives and take all of that into perspective as she dealt with them. I didn't like Angela's fights with her old friend and parents because they are a stressful and familiar part of being a teenager.
ReplyDeleteThese girls are transitioning from who they were as children and preteens to who they will be as adults; basically, they're growing up. They're both unsatisfied and curious when it comes to life and their roles in it. For Lindsey, the questions go further than that due to the death of her grandmother, an event which led her to feel like there's no point to life. I relate with both of these girls because I understand wondering about these parts of life, the struggle in determining how you want to be seen and who you want to be, and the inability to figure out what the right thing to do is. They're doing these things because they're confused about the big questions of life and scared of the answers the might find.
The shows are showing the vigorous stress and change that occurs during the adolescent years of a person's life. I don't say the high school years because these shows delve into these girls' home lives. They fight and lie and cry with their parents and family, related or unrelated to what's going on at their high schools. I'd say that High School is tedious in both of these shows because Lindsey and Angela were obvious dealing with so much more than social concerns- they were thinking about philosophy, questioning themselves and their elders, and feeling disillusioned with life. After defending her brother from the bully at the very beginning episode, Lindsey blatantly states that she hates high school and later that high school sucks; for Lindsey, High School means dealing with her former mathletism, her old friends, trying to fit in, authority figures (like the terribly creepy Jeff), and playing cool for long enough to join the freaks. In the high school of the show My So Called Life, we either see Angela in the bathroom with her friends or dozing off in class, daydreaming about dreamy boys with top notch leaning techniques. The academics are not very important to her at all, excluding Angela's interest in Anne Frank. Otherwise, she's partying, interacting with her parents, or spending time with her friends outside of school, but she continues to face her interpersonal dilemmas in these circumstances.
I liked both of these shows. I think it was nice to see two shows that focused on a female lead. I really enjoyed how in both shows, we see the opposite side of high school. Though we saw it a little bit in the breakfast club, the social outcast perspective was shown in both of these shows. I liked how in both shows, they were not super popular. I think it is also that Lindsey and Angela’s main goals were not to become super popular. They faced real issues with fitting in, peer pressure, their parents etc. that made both shows relatable. The scene where Lindsey goes to Nick’s house and he shows her his drum set stuck out to me because of what he said. He told her she needed to find her passion. That stuck out to me, because I think that all teenagers go through that need to find something that makes us happy. We do not who we are yet, and it is important that we find things that bring us joy. In My So Called Life, I can relate with the scenes where she disagrees with her parents. I know the feeling to be in constant conflict with parents. I think the scene where she crawls back to her mother is relatable, because as much as all teenagers from our parents, we still need them. I enjoyed both shows, but at times I found the main characters in both frustrating. I think they could be a little over dramatic at times, but I suppose that is just television for you.
ReplyDeleteLindsey and Angela both want freedom. They both strive to be different, to rebel, to change who they were in some way. I also think that both of them often do not realize how much they hurt those around them. Whether it be their parents or old, close friends, they have a large impact on other people’s lives, and they have the ability to hurt those around them. I think they are both rebelling because they want independence. I think that both Lindsey and Angela’s parents are used to very sedated children. They are used to the kids that do what they are told and do not fight back. I think in these teenage years, they wish to free themselves from the restrains their parents have on them. I do not think it is solely their parents though. In Lindsey’s case, she just witnessed how even if you are the best person, there is no hope through the death of her grandmother. That lack of hope pushed her to not have the need to care to be good anymore. In Angela’s case, she became friends with people that take a lot of risks. I think the friends you make especially determine your actions.
In both Freaks and Geeks and My So-Called Life, High School is complicated. We see Lindsey’s struggles to bridge herself from this lame geek to a freak, but a freak with friends. She wants freedom from her parents, her old friend, and the label “mathlete.” I think with the division of her old self and the person she wants to be, her life gets complicated. She is trying to separate different identities, but both of them are her identities. With Angela, we see a similar scenario where she is striving to make herself “better.” She wants to become a new her. We see that with the dying of her hair. She wants to erase her old self to create an Angela 2.0. Both of these girls are rebellious, but they are also sacred. As teenagers, they are trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be. I think that is why high school is so complicated. High school is a fight for identity, but no high schooler will ever find out who they truly are. I think both of these shows show the complicated process of searching for identity. I think that does not just occur in these two shows, but in all of the films we have seen.
I liked Freaks and Geeks better than My So Called Life. I liked Lindsay a lot better than Angela and I enjoyed watching Lindsay screw up more than I enjoyed watching Angela do it. I feel like when Lindsay did it, she realized pretty quickly that what she'd done was wrong, and I think she knew where here problems were stemming from, even though she wouldn't tell them to Jeff. Angela, on the other hand, seemed a lot less connected to the people around her. So when she messed up, she didn't get it quite as easily, which was less pleasant to watch because I could just see how horribly wrong things could possibly go for her. Something that really stuck with me was the way Lindsay treated Eli. She was so compassionate and even though she did offend him and cause him to break his arm at one point, she had good intentions the whole time and she was really just trying to protect him.
ReplyDeleteFor Lindsay, I feel like what happened with her grandma dying probably had a lot to do with why she's choosing to change her persona. I think Angela just wasn't happy with her life as it was playing out and wanted to do something different. I can see where Angela is coming from about this because a change of pace is sometimes necessary. Like she said, she was just fulfilling the ideas of her that other people had, and didn't know whether that was really her.
In both of these shows, high school seems to be a place where they're having to deal with figuring out who they are and who they want to be and what they want to do, while at the same time staying within the parameters set for them by themselves and their peers. We see Angela talk about the parameters when she's talking to her teacher about why she quit yearbook and dyed her hair. And Lindsay seems to experiencing people's ideas of who she should be thrust upon her when Millie and Jeff are trying to convince her to become a mathlete again.
I liked "Freaks and Geeks," but I hated "My so-called life." I'm not sure if the reason is film-wise or story-wise, but "My so-called life" had a very depressing flavor to it. Angela seemed to have a lot of difficulty undergoing troubles in her life. She seems unaware of her mistakes and therefore does not know how to solve her problems effectively. She also appears very distant from her friends in spite of her closeness, and her friends also appear to have negative influences on her personally. Conversely, "Freaks and Geeks" had a very comical flavor to it, and it had more color and dynamic both film-wise and story-wise. Lindsey appears to be a very academically involved student who is liked by her teachers and friends. She shares very close relationships with her friends and family while experiencing positive influences from them, and her teachers look out for her when she undergoes some sort of trouble. Reciprocally, Linsey also cares deeply about people around her, whereas Angela seems absorbed in her own world that does not exist. Something that really stuck to me from "Freaks and Geeks" was the dance scene where every character were able to find someone willing to accompany them throughout that one evening in their life.
ReplyDeleteBoth Lindsey and Angela are rebellious in their natures, but because of their different life conditions and overall personalities, each character experiences different results from their behaviors. Lindsey lives in an environment where she is supported by her friends and teachers even though she acts out against them. She is also an exceptional student and outgoing person, and that shows that while she makes mistakes, her intelligence and careful observations guided her through troubles. Angela, on the other hand, lives in an environment where she is not supported by many of her friends and teachers. She appears to lack the attentiveness of Lindsey, and once she faces a certain obstacle in her life, she seems to have trouble making correct decisions.
For Lindsey, the death of her grandmother had influenced her once she learned that people who are good do not necessarily receive good, and this made her doubt whether her values and attributes have any benefits on her in life. She probably quit academic decathlon because she felt her exceptionality as a student would still make her life the same as other students, and she decides to dress sloppy once she realized her wealth and resources did not gain her happiness. In other words, she began to question the injustice she felt behind her grandma's death, and her view on people in general changes. She believes that Sam could beat Alan because Alan's toughness won't necessary guarantee him victory, and she befriends Eli because she feels there is no point in letting his suffer socially.
In Angela's situation, her life as a whole had provoked her to rebel. She dyes her hair to upset both her mom and her friends, and she behaves rudely in the classroom because she hates the reality of her overall school life. Unlike Lindsey, she is not a popular student who is warm-heartedly accepted by many people, and she decides to play with her own life by going out with her friend to a risky social event one evening.
In both films, High school appears to be a difficult period in life during which adolescents meet different people and are forced to cope with their difficulties independently. As students grow older and interact more with different people throughout the years, they began to expand their perspectives on the society they live in and way it is controlled by humans. Yet High school is difficult exactly for this aspect. In both films, characters all make many mistakes throughout their journeys and encounter unpleasant situations that tend to cripple their hopes and leave them despondent. They are then forced to respond quickly and make wise decisions about what to do, and they continue to make many mistakes along the way as they learn.
I liked Freaks and Geeks a lot, but I wasn't crazy about My So Called Life. The reason I liked Freaks and Geeks is because all of the characters had something likable about them, but they weren't perfect either. Lindsey may not be making the best decisions, but she really cares about the people around her, and wants to stand up for them. The burnout boys may be kinda weird, but as we saw during Nick's conversation with Lindsey, at least he is a big softie on the inside. I wasn’t crazy about My So Called Life because none of the characters seemed to have any redeeming qualities, save a few. While I know Angela is going through a teenage phase, she doesn't really seem to have any personality other than angst-filled adolescent. We don’t really see any other side of her. Her old friend seems very annoying and selfish to me, and Rayanne is, as you said, a mess. Normally I would say My So Called Life is more realistic, because in real life people can be more unpleasant than not. But the fact that I don’t really like anyone on the show makes it unrealistic for me; not everyone in real life is unlikeable. Besides her mother and father, the characters all seem flat to me, like they only have one persona. Plus, it’s kind of a downer to watch a show about a bunch of angry, annoying people who are all at each other’s throats.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the difference between Angela’s rebellion and Lindsey’s rebellion, is that Angela is acting out because she’s bored and simply doesn’t like how her everyday life plays out, while Lindsey is acting out because she doesn’t like her image. Angela’s reason for leaving yearbook is because she thinks its pointless and a lie, and I think she left her old friend because she wasn’t exciting enough. She wants to live a little! It seems to me that Lindsey is rebelling because she doesn’t want to be the perfect daughter anymore. She feels like she is just a product of her parents, not her own person. It seems to me that Lindsey is rebelling more against her parents than Angela is. In Angela’s case, she is trying to have fun but her mom keeps getting in the way. Lindsey is really trying to distance herself from her parents.
In both Freaks and Geeks and My So Called Life, high school is complicated. In both shows, the main character has to decide between getting on adults’ good side and having the social dynamic that they want. They have to please everyone while also dealing with their own feelings and wants. Lindsey really doesn’t want to be a mathlete anymore, but she can’t quit with out disappointing her parents and teachers. Angela wants to explore, but its hard with her mom breathing down her neck. These two girls are both stuck in some pretty sticky situations.
I liked Freaks and Geeks as something to watch when I'm incredibly bored but also not willing to put any effort into thinking. It was funny, light, and overall, enjoyable. It wasn't something that I plan on watching avidly for the next couple of years, as some shows are to me, but I may go back to it at some point if I need something easy going that I haven't seen before. The good thing about it is that it did have a plot, which many TV shows seem to lack. It was different from many shows in that, even though I haven't seen more than the pilot episode, it probably has a plot that stretches beyond one episode. It was cheesy, but it was funny, not just painful to watch. I'm not sure how I feel about My So Called Life. Angela was definitely a more developed character than Lindsay, which was good to watch, but it was very hard to watch her make the decisions she made so quickly (she just decided to die her hair, went out with Rayanne two nights in a row. She made some bad decisions, which was hard to watch, but it was harder to watch her make these bad decisions without thinking them over fully. Overall, the episode was interesting enough, but it was hard to watch because of Angela's decisions.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that Angela has a deeper meaning to what she is doing. Lindsay clearly knows that she wants to rebel, but she doesn't seem to have a definite reason for doing so. She watched her grandmother die, which would have been hard, but her parents haven't done much bad for her, so her rebellion, I think, is more about herself than her surroundings. She rebels against being a mathlete, but even that is her rebelling against herself. I don't think she knows who she wants to be yet, and this is her way of figuring it out. Angela, on the other hand, is rebelling against her mother. She does not like her mother, and she wants to show it as much as possible. She does what she does to make her angry. While Lindsay appears to be rebelling just to rebel, Angela is rebelling because she isn't okay with the world that she lives in, and she wants to make subtle (sort of) changes to it until it fits her liking.
I think that both shows are saying that learning in high school is important, but the most important part about adolescence (and consequently, high school) is figuring out who you are. Both Lindsay and Angela are doing just this in their respective worlds. Both shows mention classes briefly, but they clearly aren't what's important to the girls. Their main focus is their social life (or at least their main active focus is social life). I think that in both shows, high school stands as a breeding ground for drama, but this drama doesn't have to occur. In My So Called Life, Rayanne is the source of most of Angela's drama, but Brian also causes some problems with her, along with her old friend, and, of course, Jordan. The interactions between these people and their groups of friends causes drama within the school, and this leads Angela to make decisions about her life. It's the same in Freaks and Geeks, but the friend groups are much more obvious: the geeks, the freaks, Alan and his crew, Millie and the decathlon crew, and Cindy and the cheerleaders are the notable groups in this episode. They clash often, and this leads Lindsay to believe that she can't be part of two groups (which is probably true in her environment, where the groups are so definite). She makes decisions about who she wants to be friends with based on how each of the groups acts and reacts to the other groups.
I liked watching both, but I think I enjoyed the first one (Freaks and Geeks) more because I found it more comical in some areas. I liked that they showcased a high school experience that was quite dramatized (to me) but that did a great job of capturing the ideas, stereotypes, groupings, pressures, desires of teens in high school. I liked the main character and how the episode revolves around her curiosity as a teenage girl and the interactions she has with people. I also liked how the episode jumped back and forth between her story and her brother’s. I thought this was very clever. A scene that really stood out to me was the clip posted above where Eli stands up for himself when he feels Lindsey is wrong. I didn't like what she said and the way she said it, but in a general sense the scene showed how everyone in high school is trying to gain some sort of acceptance—in Eli’s case, it’s that he wants to make those boys laugh because he wants them to like him. In Lindsey’s, it’s that she wants a shot at hanging with the “cool kids.”
ReplyDeleteI felt Angela to be a very complex character. She also wants to, like Lindsey, make a change and see what it’s like to run free a little, go wild, and though she may do it for the image, she also seems to have philosophical reasons. For example, when she explains to the teacher that perhaps we are all acting as someone…how are we supposed to know who we are “supposed to be.” I liked that scene along with the scene where her neighbor tells her to give up the act and she says, “aren’t we all acting?” I think she has a point. People shouldn't judge one another based off of new changes they make, people can and will get involved however, if those changes are having a negative effect—which in this case with Angela, it was. With Lindsey, the change she undergoes is for the most part innocent, from what we see in the first episode. She does however appear to be leaning further and further away from her old friend who advises her to stop what she’s doing. Angela does this too, and I think both characters do it because they feel a sense of being held back, and they are tired of it.
High School is tough. It’s a time where you have to piece everything together. You have to learn how to balance all aspects of your life—home, work, friends, etc. It’s challenging, and being a teenager doesn't make it much easier. It’s a place where you’re influenced by any and everything that goes on around you. It’s a place where you have to make decisions on your own and since we are teenagers and some of us use snap judgement, those decisions can at times not be very good ones. For most, it’s hard to balance everything and feel content. Home and school begin to flow into each other even though teenagers try so hard to keep those two ”lives” apart. It’s overwhelming. A lot is thrown your way and you are expected to take it in stride and that’s a real challenge. I think the home life/school life dilemma was something that appeared in both episodes, more strongly in Angela’s case. It’s definitely a realistic issue she faces with her mom and between the parents themselves as well (ie: the mom saying “I’m always made out to be the bad guy.”) So I’m glad they stuck it into the episode.
1. I definitely enjoyed Freaks and Geeks more than My So-Called Life, although I liked them both. The scenes with Lindsay and Eli stuck with me the most and I’ll be honest, I almost cried during the “retard” scene. It was so heart-breaking for me to have to watch the catastrophe that was that interaction. Lindsay was just trying to defend and protect Eli from his “buddies” who were bullying him and one word was all it took to trigger a meltdown and for him to fall and break his arm. I feel like most of what Lindsay did was meant in a good way but was just a complete flop. I liked My So-Called Life less than I liked Freaks and Geeks, but mostly because the actors were less familiar and Angela kept making horrible decisions and that really made me frustrated with her.
ReplyDelete2. Both Lindsay and Angela were going through what all teenagers go through at one point or another; they aren’t satisfied with their lives or friends or personalities and they simply change themselves. They both started hanging out with different people and did different things with their appearances They were both learning about themselves and about their friends and deciding who to be now rather than later.
3. In both shows we see that High School is difficult and complex and confusing. Both girls are crushing on a boy (who is, as boys are, missing all romantic hints or cues), both girls are figuring out who they are, and both are struggling with their parents. Both Lindsay and Angela are also testing the waters and testing the limits of their parent’s patience and the support of their friends and peers.
I really loved Freaks and Geeks and really disliked My So Called Life. Freaks and Geeks is comical and has so many characters, many of which we were already seeing, in the first episode, more than one side of. I actually really liked Lindsay and found her easier to understand and more well rounded than Angela. In the show we see Lindsay do some pretty shitty things (the way she treated Millie), but we also see her stand up for Eli and her brother, showing that there are still parts of the old Lindsay left. Seeing the ending of everyone dancing together was so promising, and it showed, to reenforce Mr.Rosso's quote "If the worst thing in your life is somebody makes you go to a dance, then I’d say you have a pretty good life." High school can suck, but I think this show demonstrates that its not your entire life.
ReplyDeleteI found Angela's character kind of confusing. The show, to me, was almost set up to be a movie. So much happened rather quickly in one episode with very little backstory. Her actions didn't correlate totally, and I was completely bewildered by her and her old friends friendship. Her character, to me, was more stereotypical than relatable.She and Lindsay both ditch their friends and rebel in an attempt, in both cases, to bother their parents, but I found Angela's actions unrealistically extreme. Both of them are tired of leading "boring" lives and make new "bad" friends that they hope will make their lives more interesting. They feel like they are changing and their friends are not. Maybe it was the lack of comic relief, but I found the end of My So Called Life awfully depressing.
High school is a time for change. People want to become something in high school, experiment with new identities. Both girls left their friendships because they felt like they weren't themselves around those people. However, both movies make clear that these girls are very different from their new friends as well. No one knows who they are in high school, but everyone is in the process of searching.
I loved Freaks and Geeks. It could possibly be the actors that influenced that, but there was also a comedic value to it that I really enjoyed. My So-Called Life didn’t have as much comedy as it did drama, which may have been the main deterrent for me. I just felt like Angela was constantly doing stupid things, not owning up to it, and whining about everything surrounding her instead of thinking objectively about anything. I understand the want to get out of the house and away from your parents, but she just seemed so incredibly ignorant and just went with the flow of whatever Rayanne wanted to do. I felt like I just kept hearing her say I don’t know all the time and never had an opinion of her own! Lindsay’s rebellions, though similar to Angela’s, didn’t seem as stupid since she wasn't in any inherent danger. She also seemed to know what she was doing and understand that she was rebelling against her old persona instead of Angela’s confusion. Along with that, Lindsay stood up for herself and did what she believed in. She didn’t follow the crowd or let herself be pushed around and fall into a bad position like Angela.
ReplyDeleteLindsay’s change was much more cut and clear to me than Angela’s. Lindsay felt a traumatic loss in her life with her grandmother dying, and I believed it scared her into realizing she didn’t enjoy the way she was living. She possibly realized life is short and you should do what makes you happy, and she is trying to figure that out. Also she could potentially be rebelling against her father who believes if you do anything out of the ordinary you will die. Angela, on the other hand, seems to just be rebelling in general. She feels confused and is attempting to figure out who she is and what she wants, though they are very petty wants at the moment. I am not a fan of her falling for the leaning guy. Jason? He just seems so shallow and almost foreshadows the poor path she is taking herself down.
Complicated. This is a time period where everyone is attempting to figure out who they are, what they want to do with their lives, who they fit in with. There is such a change that goes on in high school, a really uncomfortable one, where you begin to see how immature and ignorant you were. Basically, it is a huge time period for growth. College is another one, though high school is when everything really starts to change. You decide who you want to be friends with, who you want to be. Or you just are testing out who you may want to be and then continually change until you decide. On top of this change, you are dealing with the stress of school, friendships, college, parents/home life. There is just too much going on during high school. I think in My So-Called Life the disgruntled home life is very apparent. She sees her dad cheating on her mom, her mother is extremely overbearing and she is dealing with an annoying younger sibling who is attempting to be the better daughter. This complicated home life is also shown for Lindsay when we learn that her grandmother recently passed and her father is a little strange/overbearing as well.
I love Freaks and Geeks. I hadn't seen it in a few years and I had almost forgotten how hilarious it is. At the same time I also enjoyed My So-Called Life, but not nearly as much as Freaks and Geeks. Both shows do a great job of portraying social elements of high school like peer pressure, cliques or "friend groups" (as we call them at Paideia) and doing whatever it takes to be accepted. What really separates the two shows is that Freaks and Geeks is a lot funnier and easier to watch. The guys Lindsay tries to hangout with are hilarious and you can tell that her "mistakes" really aren't that serious. However, In My So-Called Life, Angela mistakes and changes are more serious than Lindsay's. The crowd she's trying to impress really could take her down a bad road and we see the pain and stress her choices cause her family. What stuck to me the most out of the two shows was how Lindsay's dad kept relating the mistakes people made in life to their subsequent deaths. I thought that was absolutely hilarious and ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI really like Lindsay's character. She's really a smart, funny and caring girl. It's clear that she wants to rebel like many other teenagers, but I can't really see her motives for doing so. It's clear that her grandmother's death had a major affect on her, but I can't see why that would push her to change so much.I think she just got tired of her image and no longer wanted to be considered a geek. On the other hand, I was not a fan of Angela. It's clear that she's definitely going through a tough time. Well, she thinks she is at least. It seems like she has supporting parents. Her dad is a bit of a pushover, but that's not even that bad. Since she doesn't have anything bad going on in her life to cause her to rebel, it's clear that she's just doing it for herself-- and to piss her mom off.
High school is confusing. You have to figure out a lot in high school such as, who you are and how to survive socially and academically. In both shows, the protagonist is forced to decide whether they want to stay true to themselves or completely change their identities just to fit in with new crowds. This is a really common thing in high school because everyone wants to feel accepted by somebody. Some people get too caught up in popularity and cliques and forget who they really are.
Generally, I like both shows a lot. Freaks and Geeks was hilarious and was the perfect over-dramatized depiction of high school, but lacked a more relatable side. My So Called Life was possibly more relatable, but a bit confusing and dramatic. Nevertheless, both shows were over the top, which in my opinion is what makes great television. In Freaks and Geeks, I loved the relationship between Lindsey and her brother. You could tell they really looked after each other, despite their differences in personality and social group. In one of the first scenes where Lindsey stood up for her brother, you could tell that he was appreciative of what she did, despite the fact that he said he could have handled it on his own. I also loved how when Lindsey asked Eli to dance at Homecoming, the blonde girl who had been mean to her earlier noticed, and judging by the look on her face she almost seemed to admire Lindsey. In My So Called Life, there were times when I really disliked Rayanne and how much pressure she put on Angela to do things she didn't truly want to do, and there were times when I loved her fun personality. I've had friends like that in the past, ones with love-hate relationships.
ReplyDeleteLindsey and Angela parallel almost identically, especially with the so-called "teen angst" phase that they are going through. To me, Lindsey is more genuine and down to earth. Everything she does happens with an understandable cause. As for Angela, I felt like I never understood or found out why she did the things she did. I also felt like the whole time, she was just complaining about how bad her life was, and brought her feelings down on others. Lindsey, despite the fact that she was acting like a complete teenager, seemed more positive and was trying to do the right thing for the people around her. One thing they both had in common was their inner goody-two-shoes. When Lindsey was asked to ditch class, it took a lot of persuading. She also refused to ever lie to her dad. Angela might have missed her old friend, and maybe even the Yearbook Club.
In these two shows, high school is filled with pressures, embarrassments, reputations, friends, and growing up. The entire high school experience is inevitable, and it's hard. It can suck to take on more responsibility, but it can also be really fun to experience new freedoms and privileges. Finding the balance is what's really hard for high school students to face.
1) I thought both shows were good. I probably liked Freaks and Geeks a little more than My-So-Called-Life simply because of its humorous aspects. However, because the first used humor a lot, it definitely had a more artificial feel than the second in terms of accurately representing high school. One part that stuck out to me was when Linda was dancing with Eli and the two were really happy, which made the mean bully girl jealous even though she would never have dreamt of dancing with Eli. I thought it was a great subtle message to break away from the crowd and make your own fun.
ReplyDelete2) I liked Lindsey more than Angela. Both, I thought, were rebelling in their own ways. Lindsey though, showed more compassion for people. For example, she sticks up for her brother and goes dancing with Eli. Angela, on the other hand, is rude to most and even leaves her (former) best friend out to dry. I thought it was interesting how both of their rebellions involved them altering their appearances. With Lindsey, it was her wardrobe and with Angela it was her hair. I think that they’re rebelling because they both feel as though they shouldn’t be forced into one type of persona and don’t want to be grouped into a certain type of people. Even Angela said that she hates how people put on masks just to fit in. I think that’s why they both tried to change who they were just to escape the social stereotypes that high school was surrounding them with.
3) In the two shows, High School and adolescence is a harsh learning experience. Obviously it’s a learning experience through the academics but I felt as though the movies dealt with more of the social learning experiences. I think that it shows the difficulties and harshness through the characters experiences. Every one in the films has some sort of rough time, for a variety of reasons, big or small. For example, Lindsey’s brother and his friends are all small and get picked on. However, they go through a learning process and fight back against their bully. Obviously, Lindsey and Angela go through a rough time with their rebellion but learn along the way and begin to find themselves and grow more comfortable with who they are.
I loved both Freaks and Geeks and My So-Called Life. Freaks and Geeks was hilarious, showing the challenging aspects of high school while also managing to be light-hearted. It also was full of great characters, like Sam, the nerdy brother who loved watching movies but “got in” with a cheerleader, Jeff the guidance counselor, the smoker group, Kim the bully, and Allen the bully who always claimed “you’re dead” without doing anything. I liked how even though it focused on Lindsey, it managed to show all different types of people in high school and their stories, funny and misguided. My So-Called Life was definitely a lot darker than Freaks and Geeks, but I thought it was important in its own way, Rebellion is rarely pulled off as innocently as Lindsey does, and I liked how we got a view into Angela’s real thoughts, which were very honest to me.
ReplyDeleteI think Lindsey and Angela’s motives are different, however, they both feel deeply trapped and want to get a taste of “the other side,” a lifestyle which they perceive to the be more fun, relaxed, and adventurous. I think they do want to retain their friends, but they just want to try something new, and in such rigidly structured friend groups, it’s hard to mix and mingle. Lindsey was with her grandmother when she died. Her grandmother, apparently, was very scared, saying “I’m not ready,” and when Lindsey asked if there was a heaven or higher power beyond, her grandmother replied “No, there’s nothing.” I think Lindsey couldn’t just keep doing the same things she was doing, like mathletes or academic activities, just pretending everything was perfect and that she hadn’t changed. I think she really needed to show the conflict inside of her, by smoking a little, or hanging out with other people. Maybe she also realizes that life is short, and she herself might not be ready to face death, so she has to complete a few things. However, Lindsey is still the same Lindsey. She sticks up for the underdogs, and to a non-academic degree, isn’t that bothered by what others think of her. I think also her school setting, life, and way things turn out make it different. Her school is decent, and the smoker kids she hangs out with are actually all wiling to accept her and funny and nice. She also has her little brother, who I feel if Angela had someone like, she’d be a lot different. I also think Lindsey is going through the same things as Angela, we just don’t hear her thoughts as much. Angela is definitely more intense, though and gets in with a much more dangerous group of people. She lets a lot of things slide and she finds danger to be comforting almost. However, you can tell when she apologizes to her mom that she is still sensitive and will try to make better choices.
High school is hard and also what you make of it. You have to navigate being successful socially and academically and worry about conforming to the norms and standards that are “cool.” In Lindsey and Angela’s situation, once you’re in a group, you’re kind of set there. Crossing over friend groups doesn’t really happen; you have to choose between the two. You also change so much in high school, all the time, and it’s very confusing.
I can definitely see why My So Called Life was cancelled. After a few minutes in the show you could pretty much predict that Angela would make a bad decision and change back into her previous self. Nothing really exciting happens in the show—maybe when Angela finds her dad with another woman—but we don't get to see that part in the first episode. The show uses a common formula for having a teenage girl going through some sudden change in how she acts, who she hangs out with, how she treats her parents, but there is not much creativity at all in the show. Freaks and geeks, on the other hand, is very creative. The show has much of the same substance as My So Called Life, but it is much more fun to watch. The scenes of Lindsey finding herself and experimenting with her life are mixed with scenes of her little brother trying to survive high school.
ReplyDeleteIn Lindsey's case, I think she is just bored with life. Life as a mathlete has gotten old for her, and she is fed up with the people at her high school, so she wants to broaden her horizons and try new things and hang with new people. There is also some stuff with her grandmother the show mentions. Angela's change is different. She is bored of her life as well, but she changes in an attention seeking way. She doesn't as much care about changing herself as changing what people think of her, and she does that by dying her hair and hanging with a new crowd. I think these two characters are very different. Lindsey doesn't care at all what people think of her—she changes for herself, while Angela changes for others. Angela changes into someone she isn't, while Lindsey changes into someone she is.
In both of shows, high school seems like it kinda sucks. Lindsey and Angela both struggle with finding their own identities, and the high school setting seems to hurt rather than help.
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ReplyDeleteI’ve seen the whole first season of Freaks and Geeks and absolutely loved it. I found it hilarious, realistic, and relatable. However, this is not how I felt with My So-Called Life. I felt very uncomfortable watching the episode, especially viewing Angela’s actions. I felt that the show, and what happens during the episode, was very dramatic and somewhat boring. As we talked about in class, the show isn’t really meant to be a comedy, but is just a show following a teenage girl and her problems. I also felt that it was hard transitioning from a show like Freaks and Geeks, where we are cracking up at the actions of James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Jason Segel to watching the uncomfortable life of Angela and her friends.
ReplyDeleteBoth Angela and Lindsey are going through what a lot of teenagers do during high school: a transition into a new persona. This can include the act of rebelling. Lindsey is ditching the persona of the geek to rebel against her parents to become a “freak.” Angela might be fed up with her former friendships and lifestyle and is looking for more adventure. Both Lindsey and Angela reach out to different kinds of people to support their transition.
High school is a time of confusion, realization, and complications. As seen in these two TV shows, friendship difficulties are prominent in high school kids’ lives, which can make their social lives complicated and stressful. As I said above, Angela and Lindsey, like many other high school students, are transitioning to become different people, which is a sense of realization of who they really are. All of this, with high school academics piled on top, can cause a sort of confusion and difficulties for high school students.
I like Freaks and Geeks better than My So-Called Life, but I didn’t hate My So-Called Life. Freaks and Geeks is so funny, and it captures high school in this awkward but accurate way. I found My So-Called Life not very funny and kind of whiny, but still pretty entertaining overall. A scene that stuck with me from Freaks and Geeks is the amazing, oversized drum set. I’ve seen this episode a couple of times before, but I always love that part. Nick is just so excited about his ridiculous drums.
ReplyDeleteBoth seemed to accurately capture the awkward moment of switching friend groups and trying to somewhat reinvent yourself in a setting where you already have an identity—it’s uncomfortable, it’s cringeworthy, I’ve been there and I think both shows got it right. But I think Lindsey Weir is a more likeable person, and you don’t really judge her (or at least I don’t) for the things she does, even if they do lead to some uncomfortable moments. Angela is less understandable, her actions less justifiable. She complains about her mom and fantasizing about stabbing her, but why? She dumps her old best friend, but we never see the friend do anything to deserve dumping. It’s clear that Angela feels angsty and she wants to reinvent herself, but it’s harder to root for her when there is no obvious reason for such angstyness and she handles things so insensitively.
I think both shows are making a statement that high school itself is unpleasant—in Freaks and Geeks we see bullies, boring classes, and mean/weird teachers. My So-Called Life, we also see some of those boring classes and not very friendly teachers. I think regarding adolescence in general, the shows are not so much defining it as unpleasant but more as complicated. Angela and Lindsey seem to enjoy themselves at times, but they also often seem confused and frustrated.