The Year of The Sopranos
Adding up '99
by Robert Lloyd

Best of breed in the broadcast-network class is Freaks and Geeks (NBC), Paul Feig and Judd Apatow's funny, affectionate and now and again heartbreaking portrayal of life on the fringes of high school society in 1980 Michigan, which takes the almost un-American position that people actually are limited by their limitations. I have a major soft spot -- nearly a sinkhole! -- for its more-or-less star Linda Cardellini, one of the season's several deep, troubled and less-than-perky young women, along with Heather Matarazzo (Now and Again), Julia Whelan (Once and Again), Anne Hathaway (Get Real) and Shiri Appleby (Roswell) -- all decent series, by the way, and worth a look.