Undeclared

In 2000 and 2001, Fox aired a short-lived series called Undeclared. It followed five freshmen starting college at a mediocre state school in California. The show's storylines don't scream originality -- episodes of overindulging in beer, sloppy sex, getting fucked up by existentialism, bickering roommates -- but the writing is pitch perfect, and the actors are so natural and understated that the tone sometimes approximates the character-based deadpan of The Office. Plus, it will make you pine for your own 1990s misadventures, not least because its soundtrack includes OMC's "How Bizarre."

As much as I liked Undeclared when it aired, I haven't thought about it much until today's impulse buy at Tower Records. It's the best $50 I've spent on DVDs.

On top of its writing and acting, the episodes included non-annoying cameos by Adam Sandler, Will Ferrel, Amy Poehler, Fred Willard and Mary Kay Place. It was created by Judd Apatow, whose Freaks & Geeks was loved by people other than me. (He also was responsible for the 40-Year-Old Virgin, which I'll see someday.) And in a development that threw egg all over my face, early Cole Slaw Blog whipping boy Rodney Rothman worked on the show as its supervising producer and writer. Oh, Rodney, I'm so sorry for the mean things I wrote in our early days, even if I do think the novel sounds self-indulgent.