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!!

Heroes

For those who might be worried they won't be able to get their Heroes fix because of the NBC/iTunes breakup, Heroes will be available for download through Amazon Unbox. Of course, Unbox is DRMed out the wazoo, and you have to have the DRMed out the wazoo WMP upgrade to use it, but it's an alternative. If, you know, you don't have a problem with DRM.

Ahem.

Anyway, I'm rewatching Heroes via the DVDs I picked up last week. I was home sick and working from home while sick so I plowed through about the first third of the series before I got un-sick and had to actually work at work where watching DVDs while working is rather frowned upon. But the point is--yes, I did have one--I'm really enjoying revisiting this series. I have to admit I didn't pay very close attention to about the first third of the series, because while I enjoyed it, I found the sheer volume of characters to be overwhelming, and had a hard time following the storylines. When I started blogging the show that helped a lot because I was forced to pay attention so I could write halfway intelligently about it (and probably failed but that's okay because people who know me know I'm really only about a quarter intelligent on my best days). But rewatching now and knowing how the pieces fit together, I'm finding myself nodding along and going oh, yeah, yeah, yep yep. Nice work, guys!! It's really pleasing to find a group of writers who can maintain a serialized show like that and have it be cohesive when you put all the pieces together after the fact. (And while there's an occasional--wait, but...this happens later so that bit doesn't quite fit--they're few and far between and seem to be decreasing as the season progresses.)

I'm really looking forward to next season--I can't wait to see what else this talented bunch of folks has in store for us.