On the heels of Freaks and Geeks on DVD comes the follow-up project from producer Judd Apatow - Undeclared. This very funny series about college life features the same insightful humor and honesty that won fans and captured everyone’s imagination in Freaks and Geeks. Seen on Fox in 2001-02, Undeclared is the story of Steven Karp, a kid who grew seven inches over summer, changing from scrawny high-school nerd to potentially handsome college student. He and his roommate, friends and fellow freshmen help each other face the freedoms and responsibilities that come along with being away from home for the first time.

CRITIQUE

Undeclared is another one of those shows canceled prematurely by its network (Fox shuffled episodes and aired them out of order, which surely confused viewers), because the more episodes I watched the more the show grew on me and I was able to identify with the characters. At the halfway mark I was invested in the characters and had a lot of fun watching their college escapades and things (partying, relationship issues, commitment, friendship, overcoming sickness, etc). The writing was not as consistent as I would’ve liked (there are some glaring continuity issues with the main love triangle), but the majority of the stories were engaging and fun to watch, which also goes to say the acting is important and here the actors performed quite well, not to mention each character was very well cast and the actors were convincing in their roles.

I could go into more detail about the different stories of the 17 episodes in the series, and list my favorite moments and such, but I’d rather you experience them for yourself. Interestingly, Undeclared featured some interesting cameos by the likes of Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, and Adam Sandler playing himself, but also noteworthy are the guest stars (among them Jason Segel, Jarrett Grode, David Krumholtz and Kyle Gass) who gave it their best and rounded out the show’s cast of characters nicely.

THE VIDEO

Shout! Factory presents Undeclared in 1.33:1 fullscreen format. This is pretty standard stuff, nothing great but not a bad presentation either. The print looks fine as there is a bit of grain here and there, as well as a little bit of noise. The colors look good but aren’t too vibrant. Overall, it’s what I expected.

THE AUDIO

Shout! Factory presents Undeclared in a nice English Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation as well as a good 2.0 stereo track. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The 5.1 track makes good use of all the speakers; the music sounds loud and clear.

THE EXTRAS

Audio Commentaries on all 17 episodes featuring select participants including creator Judd Apatow, some episode directors, and cast members Jay Baruschel, Carla Gallo, Charlie Hunnam, Monica Keena, Seth Rogen, Timm Sharp and Loudon Wainwright, as well as guest stars Jason Segal (Eric) and Jarrett Grode (Perry). The commentaries I sampled (six episodes) were fun to listen to with lots of random discussions and the occasional on-scene references. Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen tend to dominate their tracks and veer off more into tangents than the other participants, but overall the commentaries are fun to listen to (even though they aren’t always informative or scene-specific).

Moving on, we get unaired footage for every episode, which is very cool. These are a combination of deleted scenes, extended scenes and alternate takes. The total time for the unaired footage exceeds 45 minutes. There’s some good stuff here.

The rest of the extras are located on the fourth disc. We get auditions of the cast members (ranging between 2-4 minutes in length), yet Seth Rogen was already cast as his character (and helping with the reading of the actors). It’s nice to watch these. Also featured are several rehearsals with some of the actors performing scenes filmed with a video camera.

The Museum of Television and Radio Q&A is a good, informative program featuring the stars and creator discussing the show and many things about it. Ironically, this session (which lasts close to an hour) was recorded shortly before the network cancelled the show.

Loudon Wainwright: Live features the actor in a live club performance. This wasn’t for me, but others will most likely enjoy it.

Rounding out the extras is an unproduced script (titled Lloyd’s Rampage) that would’ve been the first episode had there been a second season. This will be very interesting to fans of the show; I found it a decent read.

The packaging of the 4-disc set is very nice with the inside flaps of the digipak featuring Polaroid photos of cast members (found under the discs). Included is a highly informative and simply great 28-page booklet that lists all the episodes with synopsis, credits, etc., as well as an introduction by Judd Apatow and an essay by Jay Baruschel.

FINAL THOUGHT

The more of Undeclared I watched, the more I liked it. When it was over I wish there could’ve been more, but in the end I was very satisfied with what I’d seen; I laughed on many occasions and simply had a fun time. This DVD comes highly recommended.