Formative Performances: Busy Phillips in “Freaks and Geeks”

[Women’s History Month, Day 13]

You know what’s an amusing exercise? Watching an episode of Freaks and Geeks and counting the number of famous people in it: Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, Rashida Jones, and Professor James Franco, to name a few.

You know what’s another fun exercise? Watching Freaks and Geeks, period. It is just the best show ever. The writing is wonderful, the characters are so well-defined, and the performances are great. I almost feel guilty singling out one performance from such a wonderful cast, but I can’t in good conscience write about acting in Women’s History Month without talking about Busy Phillips.

Busy Phillips was never nominated for an Emmy while on Freaks and Geeks. Neither was any other performer on the show, which is just ludicrous, but it’s especially ludicrous in her case, because “Kim Kelly is My Friend” is the kind of episode that’s just made for Emmy awards. She shows such an impressive range of emotion in forty-five minutes and makes Kim’s pain both moving and hilarious. “You’re like my only friend, Lindsay – and you’re a total loser! No offense,” is just one of my favorite moments in TV history. I’m including nine whole minutes of this episode for you to enjoy, and marvel at Busy’s greatness. (Linda Cardellini and Becky Ann Baker are also great, as are the male cast members, but this episode really belongs to Busy/Kim.)