I just have to put my two cents in. This show is without a doubt my favorite, and I normally hate television.<br /><br />But this is worth seeing. Some of it is absolutely hysterically funny, some of its is brutally real and part truly touching. The characters are uncompromisingly written and acted, and the storyline doesn't ring false once.<br /><br />I read a review that said that F&G didn't feel so much like a show about the 80's as a product of the 80's. And they were right. There's still " 70's stuff" everywhere and traces of the 60's, if you pay attention. I love this. Its not like the ball dropped on January first in 1980 and everyone across the world immediately stripped down and had a nudist party to burn all there 70's cloths and and any other belonging they may have acquired over the past 10 years.<br /><br />The writing is perfect. The script has its fair share of one liners but the humor never feels forced and the writer possesses the useful talent of setting up situations where we are not entirely sure whether to laugh, cringe or cry.<br /><br />And the acting is very good too. The casting directors must have been up for a year to find a cast so talented and completely unknown across the board. They also did well to cast teenagers who actually look like teenagers, almost unheard of in the world of " One Tree Hill" " Gossip Girl" etcetera. I'm fully aware there will be a fresh set of 25 year old playing high school students along shortly. I can barely keep up.<br /><br />But the kids in Freaks and Geeks look like they just wandered out of 6th period, and didn't get much sleep last night.<br /><br />Linda Cardenelli is luminous and doesn't worry about always being likable, only about always being relatable, and does exquisitely.<br /><br />A young Seth Rogen provides some dry humor for most of the earlier episodes, and shows some genuine dramatic talent during the latter ones.<br /><br />John Francis Daley spends a lot of his time on screen gazing around him with wide eyes. But unlike a lot of young actors who do this, he gives the impression of absorbing everything around him, being exposed to new things every second. So much so that you kind of wish you could protect him from some of it. In scene where he and his friends get hold of a porn movie he is almost devastating.<br /><br />Martin Starr and Samm Levine are, there is no other word I can use, perfect. Martin Starr is worth watching the show for on his own, perfectly sweet and socially awkward. Samm Levine however, gradually gets under your skin as a kid with to much self confidence to be entirely believable.<br /><br />Jason Segal is good, too. Sweet at the beginning and slightly scary as the series goes on. But I guess thats to his credit.<br /><br />James Franco brings alittle extra to the traditional bad-boy role. Intill this year I would have said that this and his role as James Dean were the high points of his acting career. He's probably the only kid in the cast who's alittle to beautiful, but he makes up for it by showing us a character who's a bit to broken to try as hard as he can at anything. He also interestingly alternates with Linda Cardenelli in the role of the straight man. And does so to perfection when he's called on to. He and Busy Phillips are devastating in their portrayal of two kids who don't stay together some much because they like each other, but because they need each other desperately. Who cling together for support, love, sex and everything else good in their lives.<br /><br />Altogether, its perfection as far a TV series' go. Almost anyone can probably relate to at least one of these characters, and get something out of this show. highly recommended.