Friday Night Lights

While Friday Night Lights seemed to suffer less from last season's writers' strike than many other shows, it still faced the specter of cancellation due to low ratings. Due to an innovative agreement between NBC and DirectTV, though, FNL returned for a third season.

Aired on DirectTV starting in January, Friday Night Lights returned to NBC January 16th with a return to its first season mix of realism, poignancy and, yes, football. After plot mishaps of last year that seemed to be trying to turn FNL into yet another teen melodrama, it's nice to see the show playing to its strengths again.

Friday Night Lights—Let's Get It On

Heeding Tim's plea of last week, Lyla arrives in Mexico, much to Jason's surprise. Tim continues to wear sleeveless sweatshirts, and his arms are really distracting. Honestly, this show doesn't need a plot when Tim's arms are around. Lyla is upset and starts to leave, but Tim has a PLAN that involves a booze cruise. Nice work there, Timmy. But he figures if they take Jason out away from other folks he'll talk, which kind of makes sense. Tim's determined to stop Jason from having the procedure, so they hold an intervention on the boat. It doesn't go well, and Jason jumps off the boat into the water. Fortunately they're close to shore. Lyla and Tim catch up to him on the shore--this was a little strange because I'm not sure how they got to the truck after the boat backed up. Then again I was really distracted by Tim's arms.

Having had an epiphany in the water, Jason finally decides he won't go through the procedure, and their section ends with a drunken threesome. Okay, not quite but man, it was close. And that was even more distracting than Tim's arms. These three are breaking my heart in a good way. Tim's direct confrontation of Jason, with his heartfelt, "I love you," was such a wonderful piece of writing. I love the way Tim has been written throughout this storyline. Frank, sincere, passionate, and then at the end of almost every scene he manages to undercut himself with a throwaway line. Really well-done, both the writing and the performance. I'm almost sad they're coming back to Dillon next week, because the time in Mexico has been so involving.

At the all-important six-week post-partum date, Coach Taylor plans for some nookie but Tami's more interested in a good night's sleep. Been there, done that. Practice goes just about as well, because the team is all tense and freaked out. Matt and Smash have a bit of a dust-up. Coach MacGill gives Coach Taylor advice on his floundering sex life, which seems to make Coach want to spork his own eyes out. Baby Grace continues to be really odd-looking.

Coach follows MacGill's advice in his usual overboard kind of way. His attempts to work things out with Saracen and Smash work about as well as his attempts to get Tami into bed. And the game doesn't go so well, either, with Smash and Matt both on the bench, until they bury the hatchet and the team gels again in the second half, with Landry's help. And after the game, Tami finally perks up and decides she'd like to fool around. This was a funny sequence, and the whole subplot was made even funnier by its sheer realism. Yep, boobs like concrete. I remember that well.

Matt and Julie have an awkward conversation in the cafeteria. Landry has a nice moment here where he's still Landry. Julie asks Matt to the Decemberists. Hey, she's kinda dumb about boys but at least she has good taste in music. Matt turns her down in the end, though, and tells Julie exactly how he feels about how she treated him. Good for you, Matt. And maybe Julie will finally realize how badly she screwed up.

The police consider Tyra a person of interest in the murder case, but I think I might ignore that and pretend that whole plotline isn't even on the show. Although Tyra and Landry are kind of cute together when the other part of their story isn't in play. Anyway, Tyra breaks up with Landry per his father's demands, because Dad Clark has realized Landry's lying to him about something, and blames Tyra for it. While Landry had some great moments on tonight's show, he's still being terribly undermined by this plotline. Not going to harp about it anymore, though.

Did I mention Tim has really photogenic arms?

Friday Night Lights—Backfire

Road trip! Tim and Jason are bound for Mexico. Well, okay, actually they're IN Mexico now, in pursuit of experimental surgery for Jason, but their plans go awry when Tim's natural charm gets him arrested. But he schedules the treatment, and their journey continues with drunken karaoke. Afraid for Jason's life if he goes through with the treatment, Tim calls Lyla and asks her to come to Mexico to help him change Jason's mind.

On the football field, the Panthers continue to struggle as the "throw the ball to Smash all the time" strategy doesn't work so well. Garrity fires MacGregor, who doesn't take it well. Neither does Taylor's boss, when he quits the TMU job. And then he returns to Dillon to discover he doesn't quite have his old job yet, because MacGregor's being obstreperous. MacGregor's finally ousted, and confronts Taylor on the way out of town.

Lyla goes to witness--poorly--at a juvenile prison, and gets too personally involved with one of the young men when he's released. Buddy sticks his nose in and interviews the kid for a job.

Julie continues to act like a horrific brat. I have no sympathy for her at all at this point, and her squeaking selfishness is really getting on my nerves. But when the Swede finally shows his true colors, she at least makes the right decision, so maybe things will smooth out with her soon. On the other hand, Tyra and Landry's over-the-top subplot continues to be over-the-top and also annoying. It's unrealistic and the whole plotline feels like it's patched into this show from some other show that I don't want to watch.

Friday Night Lights—Are You Ready for Friday Night?

In tonight's episode, Tim wears sweat pants hanging so low they would fall off if he breathed wrong. This makes me happy. Very happy.

Oh, and then there's plot. Because the new coach, while being more poetic, is still mean, and works Tim so hard Tim has to be taken to the hospital.

Dear Mr. Mean Coach--Do not mess with My Boy Tim and his Fabulous Sweatpants of Guh. I will cut you. No love, TC.

Lyla continues to be annoying in her attempts to recruit Tim to her church. Tim's at the end of his rope--he's drinking heavily again, Billy has taken up with Jackie, and Jason, trying to do his job as assistant coach, tells him he's a screw-up. So Tim goes to church with Lyla. He seems to have found God now. Which is okay as long as he still wears the Fabulous Sweatpants of Guh. But in the end, he heads off on a road trip to Mexico with Jason, who's not getting along with Coach McMean, either.

Coach Taylor continues to struggle with his job and family obligations. Friction grows in the team as Smash aggrandizes himself to reporters. MacGregor has established him as go-to guy, and his coaching techniques are tearing the team apart rather than pulling it together. Buddy Garrity tries to reassert his power over the team. He pulls Coach Taylor in on this scheme, using some pretty low tactics. Unfortunately, what he says about Tami and Julie is true--they really are having a hard time without the Coach. And so is the team, as Taylor witnesses when he watches the Panthers play from the sidelines. But it's Tami finally allowing herself to fall apart that makes up his mind--he's going to take Buddy's deal and get his old job back. Wow, I didn't see that one coming...

Landry and Tyra remain great characters stranded in a bad plot, unfortunately. I still hold out hope that this will improve, but at least by now it's become a relatively minor blip in a show that's starting to look like my old Friday Night Lights again.

Friday Night Lights—Bad Ideas

As we cruise into our second episode, nobody seems to be settling into their new roles. Coach Taylor's having trouble settling into his new job at TMU. Landry and Tyra struggle with the aftermath of last week's justifiable manslaughter, and Tammi's having difficulty juggling baby Grace, rebellious Julie, and her needy replacement guidance counselor Glenn, who sticks his nose in places it doesn't belong. The new coach continues to alienate Buddy Garrity, which strikes me as a bad idea given the funding his business probably provides the team. Lyla continues to be annoying, while Tim continues to be a smoking hot purveyor of depraved hedonism. I approve. Of Tim, not Lyla.

At football practice, the new coach also continues to be mean to Tim. He needs to stop that cause we like Tim. Jason sees improvement in his hands, but the doctor quashes his hopes of ever walking again. A nurse sent to help care for Matt's grandmother creates chaos in the household, and tensions continue between the not-quite-divorced Garritys. And, just to round out the drama, the Swede continues to pursue Julie in spite of his apparent rejection last week. I don't like him. Julie seems to, though. I think Julie's on a bad path.

This week's episode felt a bit more like what I expected to see from this show than the premiere, and seeds have been sown for potentially interesting storylines to develop as we continue into the second season. I highly disapprove of tonight's lack of Tim, though. Let's hope we see that remedied in future episodes.

A Bone to Pick with NBC

Friday night, I watched the season premiere of Friday Night Lights on a big screen the way it was meant to be seen. I've already posted my thoughts on the show, which haven't changed, but I did have something to say about a dirty nasty trick NBC pulled during the broadcast.

At one point, there was an advertising bug along the bottom of the screen proclaiming in gigantic letters, "GET YOUR OWN TIM RIGGINS." Well, naturaly I was quite excited by this, since I would very much like to have my very own Tim Riggins. But in teeny tiny letters under that it said, "jersey at nbc.com." So it's not your very own Tim Riggins. It's just a dumb shirt. This made me very sad.

Curse you, NBC.

Friday Night Lights 2x01

So, as mentioned, the Season Two premiere of Friday Night Lights is up on Yahoo tv. So of course I had to watch it.

Please note: SPOILERS below.












If you watched all of Season One you know there were big changes in store for Coach Taylor, et al. The second season opens eight months after the state championship, and Coach's "defection" to TMU.

First the important stuff: Tim Riggins is still hot, and he is shirtless in the pool and later wears a sleeveless sweatshirt. High marks for that.

A couple of things bugged me in this episode, though. First, Lyla, whom I really didn't think could get any more annoying, becomes more annoying by becoming "born again." And even more self-righteous than she already was. This of course annoyed me even more because, as I've mentioned, the whole self-righteous judgmental whacko Christian stereotype peeves me quite a lot. There are plenty of Christian folk who aren't intolerable to be around. I'm sure at least a couple of them even live in Texas.

The other thing that bugged me, even more than Lyla, is the plot twist involving Tyra and Landry and Tyra's attacker from last season. It seemed like it had been transplanted from another show, where things are over-the-top. Friday Night Lights is not an over-the-top show, and this bit just didn't feel right to me at all. I hope they resolve that plot thread quickly and a bit more quietly than it was introduced.

Overall, though, I'm still feeling deep affection for this show, so I hope things continue to go well in the second season.

Friday Night Lights Season 2 Premiere

...is available in its entirely on Yahoo tv. Go forth and watch!!

Finishing off the Summer

Like any good TV junkie, I've been mainlining DVDs the past couple of weeks, as well as catching up on some shows on my TiVo (mostly Eureka at this point). I'm a third through the Heroes box set, halfway through Season 4 of Smallville, a third through Season One of Queer as Folk, which I'm rewatching, and about halfway through Season Two of Gilmore Girls.

But my brain has been eaten by an unexpected show that came out of nowhere like a big fullback with long hair, smashed me to the ground and had his way with me.

Yes, the show is Friday Night Lights, and the fullback is Tim Riggins. Although the coach is really hot, too, and I adore his wife. I had no idea I would enjoy this show until I was dragged kicking and screaming into watching it and found myself watching episode after episode and really not wanting to stop. I think anybody who's grown up in a small town anywhere in the midwest, football or no, will have a similar reaction. Heck, anybody who's grown up in America anywhere is likely to find resonance somewhere in this show. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The first season is only $20, with a money back guarantee. If you're still not sure, but you're a Heroes fan, if you get the Heroes box set at Wal-Mart, you'll get the first 4 eps of FNL along with a preview of the Bionic Woman for free. But seriously, get out and buy this show, and tune in for the second season premiere on October 5th.

Why are you still here? GO BUY IT!!

Friday Night Lights on iTunes

Friday Night Lights makes its debut on iTunes this week. If you'd like to check out the show, you can download the pilot episode for free for a limited time.

And this is my one hundredth post!! Whee!! And it figures that tonight Blogger lets me edit...