Freaks and Geeks Episode 6 ‘I’m With The Band’
Directed by Judd Apatow
Written by Gabe Sachs & Jeff Judah
Originally aired 11/13/99 on NBC
At its core, ‘I’m With The Band’ is about fear. Fear of failure, fear of exposure… and most of all, the fear of the unknown, as seen with the two focal points of the episode: Nick and Sam, finding a genius balance between the depressing (Nick) and the hilarious (Sam). The dichotomy is necessary: for all the realistic and painful things we can all see waiting in the shadows for these characters in the future, there’s none more heartbreaking on the entire show than Nick Andopolis.
For Nick, his biggest fear in the world is turning out like his hard-ass dad, who never cracks and a smile and holds a particularly low opinion of his son’s academic and non-academic pursuits, particularly his noisy drumming (which we get a dose of in the classic cold open of him jamming on his 29-piece set). Mr. Andopolis is a career military man – which means by default, Nick was doomed to a life in the military from an early age. But even as Nick’s future is being decided for him, writers Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah don’t hold any punches with Nick and his idealistic views of the future – along with Lindsay’s, who is still living in the upper middle-class clouds, even after getting such an ugly insight into Kim Kelly’s home life. What Lindsay doesn’t understand is that even though Nick might work hard and practice his ass off, music is not a math problem. Like the attitude of Nick’s father towards the world, there are just some things that are the way they are. Nick’s father is a military hard nose, and Nick Andopolis will never be a star drummer (especially when the rest of his ‘band’ isn’t trying to become a serious musical act).
‘I’m With The Band’ builds a foundation of disappointment for Nick, then sits back and watches as Lindsay tries to shoot her way through it with optimism. Even when Daniel points out to Lindsay that Nick’s father is right – he’ll never be Keith Moon, and he’ll never have the grades to get into a good college – and that she should “let him have fun while it lasts”, she holds onto the belief that a dream is a dream, and they can always become reality. It doesn’t work, of course, and leads to the saddest scene in the series – Nick’s audition with the “top working band in Detroit”, Dimension (featuring Paul Feig and a few of the show’s crew on guitar). In another beautiful parallel to what Sam is going through, Nick fully exposes himself and his drumming ‘talent’ to the band, and absolutely bombs: even the groupie in the corner of the audition room is laughing at Nick’s inability to keep up with the pace of the song (again, Nick’s inability to keep up with the curve dooming him to his inevitable destiny). I mean, he’s just fucking awful, and director Judd Apatow wrings every painful second out of Nick’s humbling experience where his imagined talent runs full speed into the brick wall of the cruel world.
And if shattering Nick’s dreams wasn’t enough, Lindsay makes matters even worse when she kisses a depressed Nick outside the audition, in a desperate move to make him happy. It shows us that she’s really learned nothing from what he just went through: we can all tell by her responses to Nick’s uncomfortable compliments (he tells her she’d look good in the dress Millie wears for her Oklahoma ad) that she’s not as interested in him as he is into her, and kissing him only presents him with another dream that will never come true to him. This will play out over the next few episodes, but even in that scene, it feels like a another misguided attempt for Lindsay to “help” a person whose life she doesn’t really understand.
For all intents and purposes, Sam’s plot in the episode is exactly the same as Nick’s, the only difference being the humorous slant of the premise. Both Nick and Sam are exposing themselves in this episode: Nick’s exposing himself to the reality he’s been trying to ignore… and Sam’s just trying to expose himself, nervous to get naked in the locker room. He even gets the same kind of encouragement: where Lindsay praised Nick’s questionable drumming skills, Lindsay’s parents try to tell Sam that his body is beautiful and something to be proud of (trust me: every awkward teenage boy knows their body is anything but beautiful) – and the result is just as embarrassing, but a lot funnier: Sam gets locked out of the locker room by Allen, and has to run out of the school naked and down the street to go get clothes.
In the end, Freaks and Geeks reminds us that even when teenage life gets depressing as fuck, there’s one thing that, for better or worse, will always be there to fall back on: friends. Aftering hearing of his failure, Daniel, Ken and Sean get the band back together – and Sam’s streaking session earned him a bit of infamy (and some attention from Cindy), reminding Sam of the reason why Allen picked on him in the first place (he was jealous). Sure, Sam gets a happier ending than Nick, but there’s a distinct reason for that: Sam’s situation in life (freshman in high school with loyal friends and a great family) rightly gives him hope for the future – Nick’s already in that future, and there’s nothing there but an application to the Army and the end of his drumming career.
Although it puts nearly every other character in the background to it, ‘I’m With The Band’ is a remarkable bit of television, as funny as it is emotionally affecting in the moments where Nick has to deal with the inevitability awaiting him after high school. Segel’s performance is fantastic, and the script really doesn’t cut any corners in depicting a teenage life that won’t have a happy ending. As an audience, that’s why we hold onto the final frames of the episode: it’s the last time we’ll ever see Nick living in a world where he can still feel his dream, a moment we all wish we could’ve hung onto in our youths.
Other thoughts/observations:
– Nick has to wear shorts when playing drums… he just doesn’t feel free otherwise.
– apparently the drama club at McKinley are big fans of Oklahoma.
– Daniel doesn’t want to be in a band called Anarchy’s Child; his reactions to Lindsay’s prospective band names always crack me up.
– Kim knew Lindsay was a slut.
– Oh hey, welcome back Ken. No explanation on where he’s been, but he’s back to being a dick, sitting at the lunch table and spitting seed shells all over the place. – there’s a great image of the gym class playing with an “earth ball”, and the students commenting on how it’s white, and doesn’t look like the world at all. It’s like Nick: he can see himself being a professional drummer – but what he calls ‘drumming’ really isn’t drumming at all, is it?
– after hearing Sam’s lies, Coach Fredricks tells him “Fine, go to the nurse’s office – pick up your Academy Award on your way over.”
– Nick loved Dimension live (“They blew Tull off the stage!”), ever the optimist; Daniel shatters that dream by pointing out they got booed off the stage the night he saw them (a fact confirmed by the band themselves).
— Randy