Friday Night Lights, Last Season

Okay, how many of you thought Friday Night Lights had been cancelled for good? Yeah, me too. So I was really surprised to see a commercial two weeks ago announcing the final season! Of course, we fans know what "final season" only too often means: loose ends tied together in crappy ways that betray everything about the show (yes, Lost, I'm talking about you). But then, by the time the "final season" rolls around, most shows have already lost their way and "final season" just means one last round of paychecks.

Friday Night Lights has never lost its way though. So what would the "final season" mean? I was nervous and anxious and hopeful as the opening credits rolled for the premiere. And then I was surprised:  I'd never imagined last night's episode would be so poignant, so elegant.

It's late summer in Dillon, with school about to start. One of the first scenes is of Tim Riggins and his bumbling brother Billy. Tim's still in prison, his guilt-ridden brother rambling during a visit. Prison has made Tim depressed, bitter, simmering in anger. A heartbreaking contrast to the last time we saw him, Tim the valiant, willing martyr. He doesn't say much but he does ask his brother not to visit him so often. It's the last time we see him. The rest of the show focuses on Julie Taylor and Landry Clarke; they're preparing to leave for college, saying their farewells to Dillon and childhood. These scenes are so real, I found myself thinking about that time in my own life, personal remembrances riding along the fictional. Again, I marvel at the excellent direction the actors receive, lines delivered naturally, in full context to individual lives.

Friday Night Lights Season 4 End

Once again, the season end of Friday Night Lights has me all torn up.  What a roller coaster ride, from the exhilarating football game to the unbelievable sacrifice that Tim makes.  Again, the writing was so sophisticated, from the simple dialogue between Coach Taylor and an anxious, self-doubting Vince to the whole development of Tim's story — I mean, until the last five minutes, I was sure he was going to do a runner!

Boy, that football game was nail-biting!  Would the writers let poor Landry make that kick? Would they let poor Coach Taylor have one moment of victory?  Yes!  It was so nice to see Coach Taylor smile!  That's the great thing about FNL — you just never know what's going to happen.  How like life!

And what a beautiful scene that was, before the game, when Vince tells Coach Taylor he can't make the Coach's dream come true.  Does Coach give a rah-rah speech?  No.  He just asks Vince what he's doing for Thanksgiving dinner.  Instead of rah-rah, Vince got heart.  Now that's writing.

You can click here if you want to see the episode.

Friday Night Lights Emmy Snub

So the Emmy nominations were announced and Friday Night Lights wasn't included.  Again.  For the fourth time in a row.  Mike Hale of the NYT writes, "In the drama category, meanwhile, a terrible crime was committed, for the fourth season in a row. That’s the span during which “Friday Night Lights” has been, over all, the best drama on television, and has not drawn a single nomination for the best-drama award. Apparently the stigma of being a show about the relatively ordinary lives of Texans obsessed with high school football is still too much to overcome."

FNL is an unbelievably well-written, well-directed, well-acted show.  In the way it moves, FNL is more like a literary novel, little moments like marital fights so realistic, so uncompromising, so beautiful.  It really is hard to believe FNL is a TV show at all.  And apparently, the people behind the Emmy nominations don't see it as one either.

So what is getting nominated?  Dexter, True Blood, Mad Men, etc.  So I guess for FNL to get nominated they should (1) move to HBO, (2) turn Coach Taylor into a serial killer, (3) have Julie fall in love with a teen vampire, (4) hire Mad Men's costume designer Janie Bryant.  Whatever you do, FNL, don't touch the writing!

Friday Night Lights 4th Season Premiere

Yeah! Friday Night Lights begins again this Friday, May 7, on NBC.  Clear your schedule for 8 pm.  Hope it's a good season.  It looks like half the cast will be new.

Friday Night Lights

I really enjoyed last night's episode of Friday Night Lights, "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall". At last, Joe McCoy showed his true inner spirit and it was ugly. We knew it was coming, but somehow I didn't expect the amazing quick intensity of the blowout.

FNL is one of my all-time favorite shows. Because of the writing, because of the acting. Nothing is over written, over played, over wrought, over acted, over explained. Like the build-up to control-freak McCoy's nuclear blast. Yes, the issue of his son's girlfriend was slowly driving him batty, but it's at the football game, with the rain, his son taking the coach's orders over his, the guy next to him calling his son a dumb ass for not running with the ball — which is exactly what McCoy wants the kid to do — McCoy's dual feelings of frustration at being unable to control his own kid against the anger and humiliation he feels at the way the guy is ridiculing his son — that's the background to the simmering anger in the car, why listening to his son talking to THAT girl on the cell phone, sounding like a complete love-sick idiot, has him using his own son as a punching bag.

I loved the camera work at the football game, the quick, flat volley of shots between McCoy, his wife, and the thug next to him. If he'd been a South Park dad, he'd have had a punch-up with the thug. But, no, he's a FNL dad, so he punches his kid instead.

Last night's episode also had a nice aside: finally, we see the chinks in Eric Taylor's shining armor. He isn't perfect after all. Of course, his Achilles' heel is football. Coach Taylor, how can you lie to your wife like that? Pretending you didn't know about the new screwball redistricting plans the Boosters came up with? And Tami, your husband is such a bad liar, how could you not notice he was lying? It's this sort of complex interplay between characters that makes FNL so unusual. You have average folks who sometimes do dumb things and sometimes do smart things. It's so close to life, people wanting to do the right thing but rarely having the vision to do so, getting even more confused by false ideals of glory and that perpetual human need to escape from the daily drudgery of self.

BTW, isn't Kyle Chandler great? I've been a big fan of his ever since Homefront. What a great casting call. He's so different from Billy Bob Thornton, who played the coach in the movie version, but so perfect in his own way. Charismatic and so believable as the perfect high school coach.

To see episodes of FNL, just go to the NBC site here.