For a gritty, realistic depiction of the pains of adolescence, you need look no further than Paul Feig’s brilliant Freaks and Geeks.  The series followed the trials and tribulations of high school misfits over the 1980-1981 school year, as they navigate the complexities of teenage life.

The central characters are Lindsey and Sam Weir, siblings assuming the roles of freak (Lindsey) and geek (Sam). Lindsey is a senior who has been a model student and obedient daughter but after the death of her grandmother, she’s started questioning her path in life. She drops out of the Mathletes club—where she was a star competitor—wears her dad’s old Army jacket everywhere and starts hanging around the school’s slackers. Sam is her younger brother, just entering high school, burdened with an interest in all things sci-fi and seems to be terminally unhip. The Weir siblings’ parents, the hapless Harold and Jean, are at a loss to explain Lindsey’s sudden personality change and can’t understand the myriad new problems Sam faces as a freshman.

Lindsey’s pot-smoking, hard-drinking new friends are bad boy Daniel Desario, bad girl Kim Kelly, ditzy Nick Andopolis and sarcastic Kevin Miller. Lindsey at first befriends the group because of her crush on Daniel but goes on to establish meaningful relationships with all of them. Left by the wayside is her childhood friend Millie, a religious good girl and fellow Mathlete, who is hurt by Lindsey’s rejection but remains her friend. Sam’s cohorts are fellow freshmen Neal and Bill, deemed uncool by the rest of the school and often the subject of pranks and practical jokes.

Sam suffers bullying (by an older girl, how humiliating!), an unrequited crush on the popular cheerleader and a general inability to understand the adults around him. He faces many conflicting situations but, like Lindsey, he has a strong sense of right and wrong, which never leads him astray.

Critics doted on the series, praising its authenticity and deep character development but due to various scheduling shenanigans, Freaks and Geeks couldn’t gather a solid audience. It was canceled after only 12 episodes had aired, leaving the other six to be broadcast at later times, on other channels or not at all. DVD release would come four years later and fans finally got to see what happened to Lindsey, Sam, Daniel, Kim and the rest of the gang.