This week’s Friday Night Lights split down the middle for me: some very good stuff, some pretty lame stuff. I’ll get the lame out of the way first.
• There was the moment we all saw coming weeks ago: Matt’s smooch with caregiver Carlotta (Daniella Alonso). Plus a scene where she teaches white-boy to dance by having him put his hands on her hips to feel the Latina rhythm. This was so corny I can’t even muster true annoyance about stereotypes.
• The Julie subplot. New teacher in town—why, it’s John from Cincinnati! No, I know, it was Noah from a Milwaukee newspaper, but for the 99% of you who didn’t watch the HBO series I’m referring to, actor Austin Nichols played the title role in John From Cincinnati. Anyway, Julie (Aimee Teegarden) suddenly developed a case of motor-mouth this week—hasn’t she spent the preceding month being moodily monosyllabic?—and gushed about her life to a complete, if cute, stranger/authority figure, and it was groaningly obvious that she was going to have an insta-crush on the guy. The only thing that will make this subplot worthwhile is the fierce tongue-lashing her mom (the reliably superb Connie Britton) is going to give this guy to stay away from her daughter.
• Now, this next point is not so much about lameness, but rather about having writers and producers who should trust their characters more. It’s great that Smash (the glowing Gaius Charles) is getting a lot more screen-time, but I thought the pressure his mother (the marvelously controlled Liz Mikel) put on him to seriously consider the black college recruiter’s pitch was unworthy of this fine woman. She’s obviously intelligent enough to understand why Smash isn’t interested in going to a school with a losing football team. Why couldn’t those scenes have been more subtly written (like, oh, the entire last season of Friday Night Lights!), to allow her to express both disappointment and understanding, and for Smash to be more than just a Porsche-lusting stubborn kid?
Okay, those are my reservations. Now, here’s what I liked about the episode.
• Every moment Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) was onscreen. This girl candeliver a line like nobody’s business. Loved the way she dealt withbegrudgingly allowing the abruptly-homeless Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch)to stay in her trailer for only 48 hours. Loved the way she took chargeof the Pantherama fund-raiser in the boys’ locker room. Loved the briefscene she had in the hallway, listening to Landry pour his heart outabout his agony over his dad burning “evidence”—the car involved intheir crime.
• Every moment Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler, pictured) was onscreen. He hadsome great scenes last night, starting with his speech to the teamabout the deviousness of college recruiters, his admonition to wifeTami in her school office (“Don’t you whisper-yell at me!”), and hisamazing, subtle scenes in his own office talking to Smash’s mother.That last one called upon him to do a lot of listening, and to utter afew heartfelt remarks, and Chandler did all the acting with theflickering of his eyes, and the way he’d start to speak and then stophimself. It burns me that he and Britton don’t already have Emmys forthis series.
• And call me a softy, but I even liked the scenes where Buddy Garrity(Brad Leland) went through with his notion to let ex-con Santiago(Benny Ciaramello) live with him as a (semi-? quasi-?) officialguardian. I know that a plot twist this was pretty unconvincing, but Istill enjoyed the interplay of these two odd-couple characters, and achance to see Buddy in a kinder light.
Now that I’ve written it all out, I guess I liked the episode more than I first thought: more like 70% very good, 30% lame. Which is still a helluva lot better than I can say for the two shows that flank Lights—Deal Or No Deal and Las Vegas. Really, NBC: will you never find a good spot in which Lightsmight grow and thrive? Take advantage of the writers strike, forheaven’s sake, and rerun this thing all over your schedule for a while…
What did you think of last night’s episode? Are you with me on my 70-30 ratio? And how would you promote this struggling series if you ran NBC?
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Ken: just wondering why the FNL TV Watch has been buried for the past 2 weeks for us to have to find, rather than readily available on the home page? Any chance it can move back to its rightful place along the other TV Watches? Maybe more non-viewers will see it and become fans? The more viewers, the better!
Totally agree with your 70/30 split. And maybe I should begin my Kyle Chandler-Connie Britton Deserve Emmys letter-writing campaign now…
I dont know.. I thought hte scenes with Smash and his mom were the most poignant. Maybe being a football mom has worn thin for her now that she realizes her son is going to be leaving home.
And her point about Jason Street was hardly one to be ignored…
i really wasn’t expecting the kiss to happen now, but yes the dance lesson was lame. and what was the tap on the shoulder at the end for? was it silent rejection? riggins is hilarious though. don’t go into that strange man’s house. go to Garrity’s orphanage, where there aren’t any rabid ferrets. oh yeah, i can’t wait for connie to kick that perv teacher’s ass. the question is: is he really all that harmful? because then coach would have to get involved and it’ll be way more entertaining if he did. but not entertaining if matt did. leave him alone julie. I liked the coach’s speech to Smash in the end. and i love your idea to do reruns. they should do all of last season and this season on whatever cable network NBC owns during Christmas like they do with other shows.
I agree with Mrs. Taylor, Ken: why have we had to search for your FNL column these past weeks? I think that if you’re going to rally for the show’s success, you need to start by urging EW to put the recap back on the home page.
This has been a mini-watch for a couple weeks now. What do you have to do to get a TV Watch? Who’s watching America’s next top model that they need a full TV watch? Next gripe, EW, if you are going to give me writers strike updates on how many episodes my favorite shows have left then include my favorite show! Does anyone care that Cavemen has 8 new episodes? How about FNL??
Okay, last night’s ep was probably 40/60 for me. The whole Matt/Caregiver is lame and the new cheerleader/girlfriend is annoying. The Julie/Noah just reeks of ick. How about Julie being the new girl on the paper and getting a feature story? Come on. I really really hope this doesn’t go the way it seems so obviously set to go.
Smash and his mom were great. I of course side with Momma but can see where Smash’s head is at. Loved the scene with Coach and Smash at the end. I love when Coach gets sentimental with the players. Always brings a tear to my eye.
Tyra/Lyla/Players good comic relief.
Any one know how many new episodes do we have left?
I think that Riggins is seeing his future in the ferret-man unless Riggins makes some major changes now. There seemms to be a lot of odd/inappropriate pairings between the students and adults: Matt/Carlotta, Riggins/Ferretguy, Julie/Noah, Buddy/Santiago (their subplot was the most touching especially at the end when Santiago got his own bedroom.)
Hannah- I believe that there are 7 more new FNL episodes following this one. My favorite moment was the look on Mrs. Coach’s (sorry I like when Saracen calls her that) face when the players were doing their dance @ Pantherama.
I love Friday Night Lights, with the scene where Coach Taylor is explaining his ‘no comment’ because he was in the bathroom being one of my new favorites. However, I’m continually irritated by the lack of continuity. Last season, Street, Riggins, Layla were all seniors. Street has moved on. He celebrated his 19th birthday, he took a job, etc. Riggins was still in high school, still on the football team. After a few weeks I decided maybe he didnt graduate cause he’s an idiot, and while this doenst explain his extra year of eligibility I let it go. This week, Layla’s back in school, and not working at the church like I assumed. Am I missing something? Were those two explained as not being seniors last season?
while the smash scenes weren’t subtle, they weren’t terrible either…i liked them.
as for julie-i’m holding out hope that there is no inappropriate relationship between her and noah. (that with the murder plot would be enough to drive me crazy.) but doesn’t everyone have a crush on a teacher at least once?
-and how old is carlotta? i thought she was fairly young. (didn’t she mention this was her first job?) so even though it’s kind of weird, it’s not as crazy as tim’s relationship with karen…
Nothing to add other than I agree. This is a great show that I hope will find an audience.
I don’t think it does as bad as everyone acts like it does, people do watch it. As for the time slot, they got slammed last year for not airing it on Friday Nights, so I think they’re doing the best they can. Give it time, a lot of shows take a while to find an audience. And I agree a few Emmy nominations would help.
Friday Night Lights is one of the best shows on TV right now and NBC just isn’t getting it. I am so sick and tired of seeing them push other shows (Heroes, Chuck, heck even Las Vegas) but where is the love for FNL? I didn’t see one advertisement for the show until about 1 week before its first show of the season. I mean, even ABC spent the money to advertise their Caveman show.
As for the show airing on Friday nights, I have mixed feelings about this. Yes it makes sense to do this but when you are making a show centered around high school football, you don’t air the show on a night in which actual Friday night games are being played. Thank goodness there is TIVO, DVR, the internet because it gives more people a chance to tone into this show.
Bottom line is if NBC misses this up, I will not watch any other show they put out because they are the ones to blame here. Plus, I agree with what Mrs. Taylor wrote. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton deserve an emmy.
SOS!! save our show!! the fact that there are so few comments is not a good sign. EW could start by giving the show a TV watch..it is totally worthy…
the ep was a little choppy but still fabulous. (i missed street.) but we really needed to see riggins dancing with his shirt off. sigh…NBC needs to hire new publicists for this show..i can’t even watch ‘gray’s’ anymore. it’s like a cartoon in comparison. ugly betty is bleh…pushing daisys?? OMG pathetic..the dead people forensic shows? puhleze god no!!!and those shows get more buzz…please FNL get some emmy nods…get some excitement going…NBC – make good use of 30 rock and FNL…don’t let them slip away…they are perfection…
i really need to take a meeting with NBC honchos and ‘whisper yell’ at them to pay attention to FNL…it’s neglected child…guess what everyone on my holiday list is getting this year??? season one FNL dvds…it’s not much but i can only hope it helps…i’m beating the FNL drum as much as i can..
Totally, totally on-board with 70/30 ratio; but 100% with this fine series. Emmys should be forth-coming to the leads in this series as well as the series itself. Keep it alive!
i don’t just love this show, i ‘lurve’ it, as woody allen would say. i also noted that a lot of the kids are having a ’super senior’ year – a second senior year. but they did that on the OC too. sometimes you do just have to suspend reality…i forgive the show for that….speaking of OC – does anyone else think the OC inspired the ’silent but tough’ foster kid story line with santiago???
When they first introduced the matt carlota relationship i was definitely doubtful–way too expected and boring. but after seeing the morning after the kiss scene… common. why would you waste that chemistry between actors? watch it again. perfect.
if I ran NBC, Friday Night Lights would have stayed at 10pm on Mondays after Heroes like that ONE episode they aired in that timeslot last year.
Matt and his girlfriend(s) are lame. I want him and Julie back together. He clearly brought out the best in her.
Buddy Garrity has got to be one of the most interesting characters on television. At any given time, he can be small-town football super-booster, car salesman-extraordinaire, sneaky-cheating husband, deadbeat dad, or caring foster-parent. Wow. And how about Julie going 0-for-2 post-Matt in the dating department? There can be no good that comes from this new teacher. And I really miss some of the friendships from last season, the Julie-Matt talks, the Matt-Landry talks, heck even Smash-Waverly. We need more student-student interactions and less student-adult interactions. And was anybody else wondering where the heck Jason Street went? I know in the last episode he was on a path to “find himself”, but did that take him outta town or something and we just weren’t told??
Thanks for boosting the show, Ken, but any chance EW could let you do a a full-blown FNL TV Watch? Pretty please…?
In a TV world where shows are usually given 2 weeks to become hits, I think NBC needs to be given some props for sticking with FNL this long. I think the production costs to make FNL, which are supposedly very high, combined with low ratings will be more responsible for the show ultimately getting cancelled. Loyal fans need to be vocal about their love for this show, which should help keep it around longer.
As a new viewer of FNL this season, I kick myself for not having watched last year. What an amazing show! NBC needs to air reruns and promote this show as the “anti” Grey’s Anatomy – a great drama about plausible relationships and real emotion.
Where does Julie get off complaining to the new teacher that she was “just an interlude” to Matt, and he was going for a “perfect cheerleader” type. Julie, YOU were the one that dumped Matt and left him for someone you thought was better than Matt. Deal with consequences. She drives me crazy.
Sheer Brilliance: The ferrets (is there one r or two in Ferret?) were named Roscoe and Coltraine. The sheriff from Dukes of Hazard. I am sure I misspelled a handful of words, but hey, I thought it was great. And I loved Buddy.
Did they ever mention what happened to the tatoo artist girl that Jason was hooking up with last year?
Love, love this show. One of the best on tv. NBC doesn’t do enough to promote this show and it will be a crime if it is not renewed!!!
Love, love this show. One of the best on tv. NBC doesn’t do enough to promote this show and it will be a crime if it is not renewed!!!
I just saw FNL Webisode and I have to say wow. I love Coach and Mrs. Coach. I love Smash’s mom. I really like the chemistry between Matt and the nurse lady. Sure the dance thing was a bit cheesy, but hasn’t it been awkward for Matt and the nurse since the beginning? I really hope NBC advertises the hell of FNL during this strike. It and its cast deserves emmys.
Marc, I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that FNL actually has some of the lowest production costs at NBC, which is a big reason it’s been able to stick around despite low ratings. The semi-documentary shooting style is organic and takes a lot less prepping and costs less compared to other shows. I’ll try to find the aricle…
FNL – sstill the best show on TV right now. Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler definitely should be recognized for their superior acting and I agree with everyone else that NBC should wake up and promote this show more, especially during the writer’s strike. I read that they have 15 episodes in the can (since the beginning of the season) so they can still have first run episodes while other shows languish in reruns. Wake up, NBC, and air this excellent show at a better time so more viewers become aware of this quality program.
Best drama on TV, no doubt. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton best, most natural actors I’ve ever seen on TV besides Lauren Graham. Amazing, both of them, that they manage to seem more real than many “real” folks I know. Love it.