RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

qasdfghj The show began with a good deal of potential. However, I felt like the show had an identity crisis. It partly wanted to contain the substance of a drama with a more mature storyline like "Freaks and Geeks" and it partly wanted to become some sort of "Saved by the Bell"... it ended up leaning toward the latter. The later episodes became flatter and it became apparent the plot was reusing old familiar story lines and overall going nowhere. However, the first few episodes are enjoyable and worth a watch. If you're looking for other quality teen-college dramas, I recommend "Life as we know it".

zetes Apatow's followup to Freaks and Geeks was this Fox series, about college freshmen living dorm life. Watching this after F&G was probably a mistake, because it pales in comparison. Or at least it seems to at first. It's more sit-commy, and at only a half-hour, compared to the full hour of the earlier show, it doesn't seem to have the time to develop its characters. Over the first half of the episodes or so, I was thinking it was okay, but not too much over mediocre. But then I started to latch onto it, started to like its quirky sensibilities. It may be closer to a sit-com than F&G, but it's no Home Improvement or Full House. The show stars Jay Baruchel as Steven, a skinny, geeky kid who is attending a college so close to home his dad (Loudon Wainwright III) pops in to visit him frequently, much to his mortification. Lizzie (Carla Gallo) is the girl whom Steven falls for right off the bat, and who quickly submits to his advances to spite her obsessive, 25 year-old boyfriend, Eric (Jason Segel, who isn't a regular but pops up every couple of episodes). Lloyd (Charlie Hunnam) is Steven's British roommate who can bed pretty much any girl he sets his eyes on. Their neighbors are Ken (Seth Rogan) and Marshall (Timm Sharp), while Rachel (Monica Keena) rooms with Lizzie. Several famous guest stars pop up in the series, including Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler and Ben Stiller, all of whom are hilarious. A lot of the actors from F&G also appear, and it's a delight every time they do. Even though I did eventually like the show, I had problems with it. I really disliked the British kid, whom, for the longest time, I thought wasn't British but just feigning an accent. Turns out he really is British, but he's still mostly insufferable. The Rachel character was also pretty boring. Apatow's movies have been frequently criticized for lacking strong female characters, a criticism I do actually agree with. Freaks and Geeks, despite only having two major female characters, doesn't fall into that criticism, but Undeclared does. Lizzie and Rachel are mostly there just for sex, while the guys are usually involved in much more interesting situations. The show is pretty sex-obsessed. Of course, college freshmen are, too, at least the guys, and definitely some of the girls. But, I don't know, when I was lived in the dorm, the existence of sex was taken mostly on hearsay. The couple of people I did know who got laid in the dorms were either total jerks or ended up living out their time there very awkwardly avoiding the person or persons they slept with. I think the Fox factor was working here (F&G was on NBC, fwiw). The best episodes are the ones with Jason Segel, who is often accompanied by his co-workers from the copy shop, David Krumholtz and Kyle Gass. Segel was one of the best actors in F&G, and he's extremely hilarious here, especially the episode where he discovers that Lizzie slept with Steven.

Kevin-94 As someone with a deep affection for "Freaks and Geeks," I was looking forward to seeing this show on DVD. Although perhaps unfair to compare the two, I do feel that comparing and contrasting (in true college essay question style) highlights the shortcomings of "Undeclared."CHARACTER SPECIFICITY. The freaks and geeks of "Freaks and Geeks" had sharply defined personalities. By contrast, these people are very general types. The main character is a standard issue nerd. Seth Rogen seems to wander into scenes without a character to play. CHARACTER SYMPATHY. The kids on F&G formed little family units, and bonded and took care of each other. The "Undeclared" kids are basically all strangers to each other, and are as likely to compete or argue as to connect. EMOTIONAL PULL. F&G took place during high school, and the emotional vulnerability of the characters and their growing pains gave the show a warm emotional poignancy. Think of the episode where one boy discovered that his father was cheating on his mother, and how this, in turn, caused Sam to worry about his own family's stability. The college kids in "Undeclared" are a selfish, immature bunch interested in sex and beer, and they're far more difficult to connect with as a viewer. COMPLEX STORIES. Because it was a half hour longer, F&G had far richer stories and ideas. But even accounting for this, "Undeclared" still comes off pretty anemic in the story department. A typical "Undeclared" episode takes a small idea and does very little with it.HUMOR. F&G was hilarious. The episode where Sam wore the disco suit to school is a classic. Nothing in "Undeclared" can rival that level of humor.

llihilloh 'Freaks and Geeks' was a terrific show. It made it onto my favorite list. It was extremely funny, well written, it had a wonderful cast (and I mean excellent), and each episode was a delight to see. So, my question is, if I liked that show so much, how come I was absolutely bored out of my mind when I watched 'Undeclared'?Judd Apatow as well as countless others introduced up to the now always-missed by many masterpiece 'Freaks and Geeks', yet failed miserably when he attempted to pull off a so-called sequel to the teenage gang from 1981. I'm going to refer to 'Undeclared' as the sequel to the great show just because it tries to follow in its footsteps all the time. The problem with Fox's 'Undeclared' is that it has a cast that I cannot even begin to stand, writing that is unbelievably dull, and a direction taken in which the same episode seems to be repeated week after week.This cast is horrible. Jay Baruchel is one of the most annoying guys I have ever seen. His acting is unbearable as most of the cast's is, and he is so....unlikable. Seth Rogan, who I liked on 'Freaks and Geeks' and was glad to see turn up on this show, despite how awful it is, just doesn't work in the dorm as much as I'd like him to. Newcomer Timm Sharp is alright; I actually can tolerate him, to a degree though. There isn't much that I can say about Carla Gallo except that she is so wrong for the part. Loudon Wainwright is horrible and like his onscreen son as well as Gallo, amazingly annoying. What I want to know is how did all of these annoying actors end up on television. I'm surprised that I like Charlie Hunnam and Monica Keena as much as I do. Hunnam is funny with what he has to work with. He's cute and adds something that the others don't: simple, tolerable acting. I'd definitely see him in something else. Monica Keena, who I thought that I wouldn't like from the pilot, actually turned out to be one of my favorites. I wouldn't exactly call her funny, but she's just good in her role as Rachel. The writing is so dull and lame. Every episode from the very first to the finale was sadly written. I'm not sure what the writers were thinking, but all I know is that I laughed at the writing on this show...perhaps twice. Because the writing was so slow, the episodes of course would apparently be slow running also. To me, the series seemed like it was the same episode every week with just a line or two changed. The different plots; Eric and Lizzie and Steven's love triangle, and well, I guess that's about all, didn't change throughout the run of the show like it should have. This isn't entertaining, it's just stupid.So, what we have here is a mere duplicate of a terrific show except that, oh, yeah 'Undeclared' isn't terrific but very far from it. Apatow and the others just clicked when it came to NBC's gem but not on FOX's sleeper. Should have been better, could have been better, but never came close. Watch 'Freaks and Geeks' while staying as far away from this as possible. For once, FOX actually came to their senses and cancelled a show worth cancelling.(P.S. - the best thing about this show, alright the ONLY good thing was the guest star appearances. Jason Segel, David Krumholtz, Busy Philipps, Samm Levine, Natasha Melnick, Steve Bannos, Martin Starr, all related to 'Freaks and Geeks', were wonderful to see. Also, Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, and Ben Stiller, are wonderful as well were terrific.)