Stream-It Saturday: Undeclared (TV)

In my continuing selfless service to the world (ahem), I'm always looking for the next awesome thing to stream. And, of course, I must share my finds with you fabulous folks. Hence, Stream-It Saturday.

Check out all my previous recommendations over here. 

At this point, everyone has watched Freaks & Geeks (is it bragging to say that I watched it when it aired?), but have you watched Judd Apatow's follow-up college-set comedy Undeclared? 

There are so many reasons to love this show, not the least of which are the incredible guest stars (more on that in a second) and numerous early 2000s references, but I love it because it reminds me of college in the most hilarious and awkward way. It's set on the coed floor of a college dorm (yep, I lived on one of those--it's where I met my husband) and if you lived in that sort of situation in college, you know how 1) naturally absurd it is and that 2) everyone is blissfully unaware of this absurdity.

The show centers around Steven Karp and his fellow freshman dorm pals, who are pretty representative every character I knew in college for sure. We've got dorky Steven who thinks he can remake himself as cool in college; Lizzie, who's got the boyfriend back at home and all the related drama; Marshal, who's kind of a lovable dumbass; Ron, who's always concerned about the beer supply; Rachel, who's nervous about leaving home but then becomes a party girl; and, of course, Lloyd the student from England whose accent makes him ridiculously popular with the ladies. 

One of my favorite episodes is where a bunch of the kids in the dorm are sexiled to the lounge night after night. It's so awkward and funny and perfect, and I'm just really mad that I can't find a video of it anywhere on YouTube. (Why must you fail me now, YouTube?) And there's the episode where some of the boys start trying to make money fast by trading stocks (I knew so many people who did this in college). And, of course, the incredible episode in which guest star Amy Poehler (who's so young and hilarious in this show as semi-crazy RA Hilary) hooks up with main character Steven's newly-divorced father, incensing Steven & Friends' RA, who takes out his jealousy on the kids, who, of course, have exact revenge by "monkey shining his ass."

Undeclared has some of the best guest stars, the aforementioned Amy Poehler being one of my favorites. But, Martin Starr's hilarious performance as one of Steven's friends from home, is another highlight, as is Jason Segel's recurring role as Lizzie's older boyfriend from back home. It's also fun to play a game of find the person who's famous now who has a single line of dialog in Undeclared. 

When I was getting reading to write this post, I queued up the show on Netflix and my husband and I accidentally ended up watching three episodes in a row, giggling like crazy. I imagine college is quite different now (it seems like dorm rooms are really nice and that technology has changed things quite a bit), but for us, there's so much that reminded us of late-1990s college life. 

It's funny, I'm not much of a fan of Apatow's movies, but I love what he did with developing television shows. I love that in both Undeclared and Freaks & Geeks he wasn't afraid to embarrass his characters in real ways, not just the glossy, superficial ways he does in his movies (Nick singing "Lady" to Lindsey is one of my favorite mortifying moments from Freaks & Geeks). 

Undeclared is currently streaming on Netflix.

The Trailer: