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ENTERTAINMENT

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

January 6, 2008

Number 33

It's been a long time since I've written anything about Friday Night Lights. With the writer's strike doing away with first run television for the season, I was pretty goddamned surprised to see a new episode of Friday Night Lights on my DVR this weekend. It'd been long enough since the last episode that it took me a while to recall where things left off and what the current storylines were.

Blame network mandates hoping to make the series more accessible to more viewers, but Friday Night Lights now regularly veers into an over the top parody of itself. Right around the time the tornado attacked Tim Riggins and Julie Taylor in the supermarket, and Tim Riggins wrapped his muscular arms around Julie to protect her from the dastardly tornado, it became clear as day that my old Friday Night Lights, that tasteful, restrained, realistic drama that I loved so, is a thing of the past.  In season one, a tornado would not have attacked the town and been so insignificant an event, it only ended up disrupting the Taylors' cable and sent Texas ' most stereotypical asshole rival football team into the Dillon locker room for an episode.

Tim Riggins moving into the Taylor house and turning into Roy at least provided for some comic relief.  Going to the fridge for a beer right in front of his guidance counselor in his coach's house, followed by putting his feet up and watching some porn in the living room with all the Taylor girls is the most hilariously ridiculous thing Tim Riggins has ever done.  If there's one thing I've learned from every girl and woman I've met who watches the show, it's that Tim Riggins sends female hearts a flutter.  Even Jenna Fischer from The Office loves Tim Riggins. Riggins in the predominantly female Taylor household played pretty much the way it would in real life, which all the girls lusting for his dreamy eyes, greasy hair, and sweaty jock.  I also liked the Coach liking having Tim Riggins around to play ping pong with.  The Taylor house was pretty disfunctional all season but when Roy moved in, everything changed.  Tim Riggins brings sunshine where ever he goes.

The other thing that became clear to me is that there's a rather optimistic plan in place should Friday Night Lights get a season 3.  Just watching who has significant screen time, compared to last season, indicates how the writers are laying down next season. Julie Taylor has never been more prominent.  She's a sophomore and the Coach's daughter so her character isn't going anywhere.  The series will be very much Julie's as it continues on.  Works for me. Aimee Teegarden's demos seem to be strong with both young females and young males. Conversely, Lyla Garrity has nothing to do in terms of storylines. The writers turned Lyla into a Bible thumping Christian who doesn't thump her Bible very much or have anything particularly interesting or pressing to do on the show on a regular basis.  Does she even still go to school in Dillon High School? Away from Tim Riggins and Jason Street, Lyla has no tethers to any major storyline besides her father pining for the family he cheated on last season. I'm not saying if Lyla ever goes, I go too, but man, will I be bummed out if Minka Kelly leaves Dillon.  Landry, who is way more important now than ever before, is sticking around because he's not a senior. Matt Saracen, is also a junior and he's QB1. He's not going anywhere. I was digging angry Matt Saracen a couple of months ago, but douchebag Matt Saracen fucking his grandma's au pair is shitty.  Smash is a senior and graduating, he won't be around if there's a season 3.  Jason Street?  Who's he?  No one, that's who.  He has no active ties to anyone at the moment, is never mentioned, is not needed for the future. Tyra will be going to community college so she'll be sticking around.  Most importantly, apparently, the guy the whole show seems to revolve around now, Number 33, Tim Riggins, isn't going anywhere. He's not going away to college, he'll be staying in Dillon.  Besides, the ladies have spoken: if Tim Riggins leaves Dillon, so do they.

November 11, 2006

Mr. Friday Night

Good news from NBC yesterday :  Friday Night Lights joins Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as their freshman shows getting full season orders.  Friday Night Lights and Studio 60 are ratings-challenged but the network is rightfully proud of both shows' high quality and will stick with them as opposed to dumping them for some reality TV substitute.  There's even word of a possible move to Sunday nights to save them from the unstoppable American Idol kill-death juggernaut, bitch that resumes in January.  In light of their full-season pickup this seems like a good time for me to say some nice words about Friday Night Lights.  I wouldn't look good in a cheerleader outfit, but for all intents and purposes I'm cheering this show on. 

Friday Night Lights sneaked up on me over the past six weeks to become my favorite new show, much like Bones did last season.  This surprised me as the show's basic subject matter is not really my thing.  I don't know jack about high school football.  I did like the movie the show is based on.  In truth, I arbitrarily started watching the show because I figured I could use a diversion before Veronica Mars on Tuesdays.  Now, I'll follow Friday Night Lights to whatever night NBC puts it on and I like it much more than Heroes, although both shows feature hot high school cheerleaders in Texas.  Sure, Claire Bennet may be unbreakable, but she has to share her show with a monologuing Indian, a super happy lucky Japanese nerd, and a chubby telepath cop, among others.

Friday Night Lights is toplined by Kyle Chandler as Coach Eric Taylor, the squinty-eyed, tunnel-visioned, driven, flawed, but honest and decent new head coach of the Dillon High School Panthers.  He has probably the best wife on television supporting him while gently calling him on his errors of judgment.  He's surrounded by vultures and vipers in the local townspeople who have far too much of an investment in whether their local high school team makes it to the state championship.  And he really, truly loves football.  As fine as Chandler is in the lead dealing with such events as being investigated for his role in a ringer illegally brought in to be the team's new quarterback, the best storylines on the series thus far belong to the kids who make up the team and their friends. 

There's a love triangle going on.  Jason Street (Scott Porter), the former Panthers quarterback and NFL hopeful, was crippled in the pilot episode.  He has/had the best girlfriend on television not named Lita, Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly, ridiculously hot), who stands by him and believes he can walk again.  She's overly optimistic and overbearing in her devotion, but she harbors a secret:  in a moment of grief and weakness she slept with Tim Riggins, running back and Street's best friend.  (Something even sleazy Lita hasn't done to Edge in WWE.)  The storyline sounds stereotypical and it is; there's nothing terribly new here but the writing is restrained, the actors are sincere, and the storyline has been well done thus far.

An even better subplot happening simultaneously involves Matt Saracen (Zach Guilford), the third-stringer who found himself the new quarterback of the Panthers.  He is by far the most complex and interesting character of the kids on the show.  He takes care of his grandmother with Alzheimers, he was in a rock band but is now torn between his old friends and his new status as quarterback, and he is dealing with the pressure of leading the team while in Street's shadow.  Best of all, he's in a sweet, careful unrequited love storyline with Coach Taylor's bright, pretty 16 year old daughter Julia (Aimee Teegarden).  In a neat reversal, the jock is pining for the smart girl and is tongue-tied around her, unable to hold a conversation without embarrassing himself.   The best runner on the show is Saracen trying to talk to Julia and screwing it up each episode.  There was even a hilarious sequence of events when Coach Taylor, sensing Saracen had some romantic issues distracting him, advised his QB to "get this girl in the backseat of a car", only to be horrified later when he realizes the girl in question is his daughter.  (Saracen didn't get Julie in his backseat.  He'll have to continue to stick with longing glances at her for now.)

I read some online criticism of this show from real-life Texans who decry the show's lack of authenticity.  They feel the characters on the show are too attractive and if Friday Night Lights were to truly depict life in small town Texas , they should show the fat kids smoking dope and eating under the bleachers.  Well, Christ, who the hell wants to see that? 

The bedrock of a successful television series is in its writing and Friday Night Lights has a stellar team behind it.  Peter Berg (the film Friday Night Lights, The Rundown) wrote and directed the pilot and executive produces along with Brian Grazer (The Da Vinci Code, Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind). Jason Katims (Roswell), David Nevins (Arrested Development) and Sarah Aubrey (Bad Santa, The Kingdom) head the writing staff.  Katims, the showrunner, has a background in writing smart teenagers honestly struggling with real life issues; he was a writer for a little show called My So-Called Life.