"Last chance to join me for the most fantastic Left Behind party ever!" Dale tells roommate Rusty.

But I hope my 17-year-old college-bound son makes friends with someone just like Dale. Because without students like him (and, let's be honest, even with 'em), Greek's quad-level view of college life makes parents like me tremble in our outdated Birkenstocks.

Fratatouille
Greek, now in its second season, revolves around the happenings at three campus houses: blue-blood frat Omega Chi, Animal House-esque Kappa Tau and hoity-toity sorority Zeta Beta Zeta. At center stage stand Casey Cartwright, the beautiful blond queen bee of ZBZ, and her fresh-faced freshman brother Rusty, who pledges into Kappa Tau and falls under the tutelage of frat leader Cappie—described by Omega Chi head Evan as a "flaky, alcoholic degenerate."

"I'm not an alcoholic," Cappie counters.

Most everyone we meet belongs to a Greek house. Most everyone, that is, except for Dale, who actually solicits signatures to ban the university's Greek system.

"From Dionysus to your present-day acolytes, the Greeks have embodied nothing but sacrilege and lust," Dale calmly tells Rusty. "I can't just stand by."

And, while Dale might not be giving the ancient Greeks a completely fair shake (I think Plato, The Iliad and many of those nifty urns might deserve a bit better), he's pretty persuasive when it comes to Cyprus-Rhodes' modern-day take on Greekness—a place that makes ancient Delphinian oracles and Spartan boarding houses seem, perhaps, quaint.

Several characters regularly swap bedmates, and Rusty hooks up with a girl who becomes what his frat bros call his "fun buddy"—a winking euphemism for another, more offensive f-fronted term. There are surreptitiously taped sex acts, man-on-man kisses (one of Rusty's best friends is admittedly gay), writhing-on-the-bed scenes and double entendres aplenty. Sorority sisters parade around in bikinis and alluring outfits. One nearly takes part in a wet T-shirt contest. We get references to venereal diseases and masturbation. Characters toss out curse words, including several abuses of God's name. They sometimes make references to "hippie lettuce," too, and Casey warns Rusty about eating any of Cappie's brownies.

But make no mistake: Booze is the drug of choice here, and every episode features alcoholic beverages by the barrel. These guys and gals are always a) looking for a drink, sometimes with the aid of fake IDs; b) drinking; or c) flat-out drunk. We hear lots of them throw up—in buckets, behind bushes and right on the frat floor.

In Greek, this is what college students (should) do. Drink, have sex, throw up—not always in that order.

Dalebait
"So what do you want to be?" Dale asks Rusty as his roomie prepares for a no-holds-barred spring break trip. "Satan or an angel of light?"

"Whatever gets me served in Myrtle Beach, Dale," Rusty says.

"That'd be Satan," Dale deadpans. "Satan lives in Myrtle Beach."

Hear me clearly: The students in Greek don't exactly embrace Dale. And the show pokes fun at evangelical culture through him. But he's not one-dimensional. This campus killjoy is well-meaning. And he's played with surprising depth and compassion by Clark Duke. By the conclusion of Season One, Dale showcases not just outsized and ill-timed Christian zeal, but friendship and understanding.

Indeed, most characters eventually transcend their stereotypes. The writing is crisp, and its satirical depiction of college life feels, at times, curiously real. Not that that's a good thing: For many college students, education takes a back seat to the hallowed "college experience." And that experience for many is soaked in dating, drunkenness and (as Dale would say) debauchery.

"Screwing up is what college is all about," Cappie says. "Learning from your mistakes and all that."

Jailbait
On July 21, Scott Michael Foster—the actor who plays Cappie—was arrested on DUI charges. A source later told E! News that "he was very apologetic and grateful that nothing worse happened as a result of his bad decision." He returned to the set of Greek the next morning, resuming his frat-boy persona—a character who spends much of his time inebriated, a character who suggests his frat brothers give blood before starting the night's drinking so they can get drunk faster.

"I see that as a win-win," Cappie says.

In 2001, about 2.8 million college-age youth reported having driven while drunk. About 1,700 people died that year from alcohol-related accidents. Between 1999 and 2005, 157 college-age youth died from alcohol poisoning. They literally drank themselves to death.

Sometimes folks never get a chance to learn from their mistakes—something Greek takes pains not to tell you.

Seems to me that it's dowdy Dale, not the cool Cappie, who has the college experience all figured out.