Undeclared: The Complete Series DVD Review:

When fans of Freaks and Geeks were devastated by the cancellation of the show after only one season, executive producer Judd Apatow moved on to make Undeclared. Undeclared had all of the elements which had made Freaks and Geeks such an acclaimed sleeper set in college instead of high school and as a half hour show rather than full hour. Unfortunately it seemed to be too similar to Freaks and Geeks and was also cancelled after only one season. Apatow has moved on to write and direct The 40 Year-Old Virgin, hopefully with more success but the same humor as he has had in the past.

Undeclared follows Steven Karp, a skinny freshman attending college with the hopes of reinventing his image. Steven has heard that sixty percent of all married people met their spouse in college and he hopes that this will be the case for him as well. Unfortunately college is a little more complicated than he expects, which he discovers after losing his virginity to a girl with an obsessive boyfriend and discovering that his parents are getting a divorce. Along with Steven are his three roommates, Ron, Lloyd, and Marshal, each completely different from the other living in the same dorm room together.

What makes the show so likable is the characters which are perfectly cast. Most shows like this feel the need to cast a group of older heartthrobs with the hope that it will boost ratings (which there certainly seems to be some truth to considering the success of the show) but Undeclared is filled with an assortment of fantastic characters which look about the way you would expect them to look in real life. They are not former models and most of them even look their own age, something rarely done. This truth carries out into the story as well with a picture perfect image of what it feels like to be at the bottom of the feeding pool in college.

All seventeen episodes from the series, which includes an unaired episode, are fit into a four DVD box set. There is also a bonus director’s cut as well. Perhaps the most impressive feature in the set is the commentaries. There are eighteen commentary tracks with directors, writers, cast, and of course Judd Apatow. Other special features include deleted scenes, auditions, outtakes, reahearsals, an unreleased script that would have been filmed for the second season, and a Q&A from the Museum of Television and Radio. The box set also comes with a 28 page book as well.



Ryan Izay