Dirk Recommends: Undeclared

Hot on the heels of his cult-failure Freaks and Geeks, writer-producer Judd Apatow regrouped and came back with the college-set comedy Undeclared which also attained cult-failure status and got cancelled before all its episodes had run. Thanks to power of DVD, you can now pick it up pretty cheap from Amazon.

The concept is simple enough - freshman Steven Karp (Jay Baruchel - on movie screens now in Tropic Thunder) goes off to the University of North Eastern California and has colorful roommates and neighbors in his dorm. His thespian roommate - that's means "actor", not a girl who's into other chicks - Lloyd (Charlie Hunnam), is an English babe magnet who frequently leaves Steven banished to the suite's couch or rec area with the other "sexiles". Across the suite are Ron (Seth Rogen - currently in Pineapple Express) and Marshall (Timm Sharp), girl-challenged wiseacres with enough issues between them to open a magazine stand.

Across the hall is a suite of girls: Lizzie (Carla Gallo), Rachel (Monica Keena) and Tina (Christina Payano). Steven has a crush on Lizzie, most likely because they hooked-up in the first episode. Complicating this mutual attraction is her emotionally-unstable/borderline-stalker older boyfriend, Eric (Jason Segal - Forgetting Sarah Marshall), who manages a copy shop when he's not leaving paranoid messages on her phone.

Unlike the tragi-comic Freaks & Geeks, Undeclared is more like a sitcom, but without all the lame sitcom conventions. The DVD comes with a sick amount of extras (e.g. every episode has a commentary) and other than a cruddy transfer, it's pretty deluxe.

If you hate sitcoms for their lameness, join the club - other than NBC's Thursday night entries, I don't watch 'em - but this is smarter than your average bear's sitcom and is thus DIRK® APPROVED! Check it out, yo!