It’s going to be hard to speak critically about an episode of television that begins with Martin Starr dancing—nay, having a spasm—to an especially silly disco song, yet “Noshing and Moshing” is an episode of Freaks and Geeks that takes its characters so some especially dark places. In one corner we have Neal, who is still bent out of shape over his father’s infidelity; so much so that it’s distracting him from his studies and driving him toward a new, dangerous endeavor: ventriloquism. In the other corner, Daniel has grown increasingly frustrated with his current way of life. At this point in the series, many of the characters are starting to realize what their true identity is meant to be. Yet Daniel—a kid who at first seemed to be rather sure of himself—is now lost in the metaphorical sea. His mother seems to expect him to be the patriarch of the family, Kim breaks up with him, and overall he just seems tired of it all. While Neal is venting his frustrations through his new dummy (sorry, figure) Daniel decides to explore a new group of friends: the punks.
As established previously, the general thesis of Freaks and Geeks is that high school is a brutal, horrible place. In “Noshing and Moshing,” Lindsay even goes so far as to say “this school turns people into idiots.” I don’t know if that’s necessarily true, but it certainly has the potential to drive them completely bonkers. It sounds cliché to complain about high school as a place dominated by cliques, but it’s true. If you don’t have a group in high school you end up being no one, and if you flirt with the idea of joining another group it’s only going to end in mockery. For instance, when Daniel drives up to take Ken and Nick to the “punk club” his new intentionally abrasive looks illicit nothing but laughter. Daniel may have been tired of his normal freak ways, but his attempts to branch into something new aren’t met with open arms.
Oscar-hosting gigs aside, James Franco is a great actor, and to this day I maintain that his work on Freaks and Geeks is some of the best stuff he’s ever done. Particularly in the later episodes, Daniel turns out to be one of the characters who most desperately needs a new group or clique. He may find such a group in the series finale “Discos and Dragons,” but for now he spends much of his time looking for something he can’t quite find. He grows attracted to Jenna (Shawnee Free Jones), a local cashier who has a… unique punk rock look. While it may not be a wholly physical attraction, he may be more drawn to the fact that she’s willing to let her personality completely hang out. Daniel has spent much of his life hiding behind his own freak façade, and now he thinks a new punk lifestyle may finally liberate him.
The problem is that you can never force changes like this. When he goes to spend his night in a punk club, he is clearly what can best be described as a “poser.” When he bumps into a random dude who spits beer into the air, he is greeted with a scream. When Daniel tries to scream back, it sounds hollow. When he goes through physical pain, he doesn’t meet it with the necessary punk attitude. When someone brings up the idea of “posers,” he is overly defensive. His attempts at getting a piercing fall through in horribly painful fashion. The club is not a place where he’s supposed to be, but he’s desperately trying to fit in. Daniel Desario is not a punk, no matter how hard he tries. He may want to be done with his lonely life as a freak, but this is not a viable option.
Meanwhile, Neal continues to be a ticking time bomb that is about to explode. He has long been a character whose decisions are misguided, but he has now chosen to vent all of his anger through his annoying new dummy (figure!). The result is him walking around the school taking roast-worthy shots at everyone he sees and putting himself in situations that may result in physical harm… or an ‘F.’
To make matters more interesting, his older brother (David Krumholtz) has returned from college to visit the ol’ high school stomping ground and say hello to his friends and family. It’s obvious he has the same sense of humor as his brother; he just happens to have matured a bit more. When Neal asks his brother what he should do about their father’s womanizing ways, he is told to just let it go. Even though their father may be doing a lot of dumb things, his brother believes it’s not worth breaking up the family over. Neal may not be totally convinced, but he goes along with it.
Big brother Schweiber also makes quite the impact in Lindsay’s life. When she runs into him at the school, she immediately develops something of a crush on him. They meet up again at the aforementioned Schweiber party that night, only to get friendlier and end the night with a kiss. Neal—having had a crush on Lindsay for years—isn’t the biggest fan of this new development, and it just about sends him over the edge into cringe-worthy madness. When he goes back to his father’s party, he brings out the dummy and verbally craps all over his father. He runs off to his room in a huff and ends up telling his mother everything he knows about his dad's wrongdoings. It turns out she already knows—or so she claims—and that they’re just trying to get through these last few years while Neal is still in high school.
If there’s a theme to this episode, it’s that things may not be ideal, but you may just have to put up with them anyway. That may seem like a darker tone than most network television shows are comfortable with, but that’s just the kind of show that Freaks and Geeks was. Daniel has just about entered the world of full-on self-hatred, yet he finds himself back in the arms of Kim at episode’s end. While Neal has grown frustrated with his family—what with his parents' marriage falling apart and his older brother taking the woman of his dreams—he sits on his bed after all the hubbub and is able to let out a laugh. All episode everyone has been telling him how much worse things could be, and he comes to the realization that maybe they’re right. His family still loves him, and his best friends remain at his side. And let us not forget his loyal dummy (FIGURE!!!) Morty.
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