Tough day for the Hoyas, but at least there's always TV. 

SPOILER ALERT for Friday Night Lights episode “Thanksgiving”

I liked the plotline grading system established last week, so I’ll stick with that system for the season finale:

And God gave us football… A-: After several weeks of football-lessness, we got a genuine game.  Dillon Panthers vs. East Dillon Lions was touted as a classic rivalry by the mayor, even though the Lions have been in shambles for decades.  Despite the disparity between the teams, the tension build-up was great and the game lived up to its billing.  The Panthers star quarterback, J.D. McCoy, (or his stunt double in full gear,) had a stellar first half, engineering three touchdown drives.  In the second half, he managed a field goal drive and at least 3 hissy fits.  His offensive line collapsed, so he had plenty of excuses to break down.
Vince had a solid game throughout as he grew into his team-leader role both on and off the field.  In the first half, he ran for a touchdown, threw for a touchdown to an offensive lineman, and then ran for a two-point conversion.  Down 21-14 at the half, Coach turned to an injured Luke, (hip flexor,) who delivered with a touchdown reception from Vince and a 2 point conversion rushing.  Sure, Luke was hurt even worse as the game continued, but the pair of Luke and Vince set up a last chance 45-yard field goal for Landry.  After missing an extra point early and losing Coach’s trust, Lance got his redemption and won the game for the Lions with a final score of 25-24.  Forget realism, this is show business.  We got to see the town’s allegiance shift from the spoiled titans of Dillon to the scrappy underdog of East Dillon. Last second comebacks, redemption, and bruising hits… this is the best of show-business football.

No apologies… B-: Tami Taylor made a last second decision not to apologize for her role in the teen pregnancy abortion scandal, which put her job in jeopardy.  During trying financial times, most people would have opted to apologize to keep a job, even if there was no wrongdoing.  But now that I think about it- I seldom hear strong women apologize, even when they are wrong… so, it makes sense that she would take a demotion rather than apologize unnecessarily.  Rather than accepting 6 months of administrative leave or fighting a forced-leave, she voluntarily took a job as a counselor in East Dillon.  I’m not sure whether that would appease the heavily religious community that worried she could influence girls to opt for abortions, but it might be enough for the show to move forward.

The return of the Matt… C+: Let me be clear; Matt Saracen is my favorite character on the show.  But, if I was writing this analysis when he left abruptly earlier in the year, I might have given it an “F.”  His sudden return was somehow even stranger, as he just shows up and doesn’t expect people to be mad at him.  This was his LeBron James moment.  I continue rooting for the guy and was really hoping his relationship with Julie would turn into a neo-Coach+Tami situation, but that seems less likely now that they are both suddenly ambitious. In this episode, he was officially dumped by Julie, but at least he got his snarky best friend Landry back.

Riggins takes the fall… B+: The plotline of brother taking the blame for brother got to me, even as both brothers took turns overacting/underacting.  Overall, it was done pretty well, but the show would be ridiculous if Riggins goes to jail for over a year.  By the way, as a legal side note… it generally helps everyone if one person takes the fall for a crime because prosecutors don’t spread years out among different defendants to diffuse the blame.  On the contrary, more people = grander conspiracy, which means more time in jail for everyone.  But to be fair, Texas law may differ from my experience.

Vince-Jess-Landry… B-: It felt like this was going to be a great plotline throughout the season, but it ended with a thump when Jess told Landry she had feelings for Vince.  Vince and Jess have great chemistry and that played that out with a nice Thanksgiving moment as they visited Vince’s posh recovering-crack-addict mother.  But the story between Landry and Vince seems far from over... even though the season is over.

Thanksgiving episode overall… B+:  Most of the Thanksgiving stuff was awkward, but that’s normal for Thanksgiving gatherings.  More importantly, we got football.

Overall, the season gets a B+ with some good stories and some not so good ones, but as always, great characters.  What do you think?

SPOILER ALERT for Friday Night Lights: Episode “Laboring”

Instead of just unfurling the myriad of plot-lines in a simple recap, I’d rather grade the plotlines.  Let’s start with some bad ones:

The total lack of football: D

Even in Texas-crazed football towns, the high school kids play only 10 games a year.  A full TV season contains about 22 episodes.  There will be many episodes without games; so I’m willing to forgive the occasional tension building episode... but this episode really poured the lack of football on thick.  The only football we got to see was Luke being told he cannot play football.  Does that mean we can’t watch football either?  In the past, the show has dealt with these build-up episodes very well.  Unfortunately, this time that tension was relieved by silly pranks. 

High-School pranks: C-

I was actually impressed with Landry’s toothpick idea until I found out it took the Panthers only two hours to de-toothpick the field.  It must have taken Landry’s Lions six hours to put those toothpicks on the field.  Mission accomplished? 

The subsequent destruction of the Lions field lacked imagination, but it got the job done.  As a result, the Lions lost home field advantage in the upcoming rivalry game and that almost made me care about the gamesmanship between the rival coaches. 

Is it me or is the Panthers coach is a little too sinister; he’s the modern age’s bad guy archetype.  It feels like he’s trying to rebuild Cobra Kai.  Next week, he’s not going to take any chances with Vince, so he’ll have one of McCoy’s goons sweep the leg.

Riggins and the little girl: C-

I haven’t liked this plotline all season, so why start now?  The saving grace here is that after the girl said she loved him, Riggins agreed that this was a stupid plotline.

Riggins gets happy: C

With Tim’s new relative and with him on the verge of fulfilling his new-found land-ownership dream, he felt genuinely happy.  He’s gotten better as an actor over the years, but not enough that I care about him becoming an uncle or a land owner.  It was nice that a character on this drama was openly happy for a moment, but it was too obvious that the writers would tear that happiness away after the next commercial.  Actually, I’m a little surprised the police didn’t randomly find him on the tract of land to arrest him while he was telling the little girl he was happy.

Riggins goes to jail: C+

He chopped cars to help his brother out, but why did he steal his paralyzed best friend’s girl?  Same reason? 

“There’s law and then there’s life,” (the lawyer explained to Tami about the pragmatism of reading an apology statement.)  I just can’t imagine the next two seasons of Riggins plotlines having to do with him trying desperately not to drop the soap.

Vince’s vengeance: C

I didn’t want Vince to murder anyone in fear of repeating the Landry killing of Season 2, which was the worst story in this show’s history.  On the other hand, after all that hype about Vince getting revenge for the murder of his friend, Vince could have at least tooth-picked the killer’s house or something.  This plotline was saved because of how it played on the love triangle.

Vince-Jess-Landry: A-

I’m overrating this story on purpose because I have to find positives in the episode.  My favorite part about this love triangle is… unlike the Riggins-Lyla-Street love triangle a few years ago, Jess is not sitting around brooding about her terrible Sophie’s choice.  She’s actually enjoying Landry’s company; then she goes and pines after Vince.  Jess realizes that she’s got a good thing going either way.  Landry is a good guy, (thanks Vince for pointing that out,) so I hope the show doesn’t make him do something mean to prove he’s complex when Jess inevitably chooses Vince.

Tami’s abortion scandal: B

The highlights of this story were Julie actually being nice for once (sure she was bribed to be nice, but it’s still something,) and the moment at the end of the episode when Coach and Tami just sat on the couch together staring into oblivion.  Their look clearly reflected, “we’re screwed.”  They are both on the verge of being fired and at that singular moment, the two of them felt resigned to their respective fates.

As for the telephone harassment, I would probably deflect the vitriol, “what are you wearing?” or at least, “Baby killer?  Oh no, sorry, I think you have the wrong number.”

Maybe the difference between Texas and where I’m from (New York) is the use of sarcasm to deflect serious situations… or maybe the show doesn’t have the sarcasm gene.   

Connie Britton had an interesting acting moment with her reaction to pro-life protestors at West Dillon.  She actually seemed more annoyed the protestors were in her way as she was driving than the fact that they were protesting her actions.  I think I liked that because I’m always really annoyed when someone slows me down while I’m driving.  It’s a very practical and pragmatic frustration.

The episode “Laboring:” B-

Admittedly, I was buzzed when I watched the episode, (and as I write this recap,) but I found this episode to be mostly filler.  The real negative is that by writing this recap, I’m realizing how few of these storylines I care about.  However, I still care about the characters… so I got that going for me, which is nice.  As I watched the episode, I thought it should have been called “Retribution,” but in retrospect, “Laboring” does seem rather appropriate.  What did you think?  

SPOILER ALERT:

The beauty of Friday Night Lights is that it's a show about football, that's not really about football.  It's actually a drama depicting the relationships between the people of a (high-school football crazed) small town.  The danger of a show with a plethora of three-dimensional characters is an overabundance of stories.  Despite being a good episode, "Injury List" is a prime example of this phenomenon.  The one hour episode features interweaving plots that include: an abortion scandal, TWO love triangles, a life-changing injury and a young star witnessing his friend die during a crime (not to mention numerous sub-plots and side-plots like Buddy trying to fake a passion for the Lions where his passion for the Panthers belongs.)  I’ll try to navigate through most of the main stories.

Let's start with the bedrock of the show: Principal Tami Taylor and Coach Eric Taylor.  The palpable chemistry between the two protagonists allows the couple to overcome common marital problems in relatable and admirable ways.  The show depicts them as parental figures to their own children as well as to the other children they teach/coach/guide AND the show offers the relationship as a stable base from which to introduce the town.  In a previous episode, Tami was approached by a student from a different school facing a teen pregnancy.  Tami "followed the guidelines" and presented that teen with options including information about abortions, but Tami mainly encouraged the teen to speak to her parents (which the teen did.)  However, the mother of the boy who impregnated the teen demanded an inquest into Tami’s allegedly improper conduct, which is obviously more serious amidst such a religiously and politically sensitive topic.  Tami struggles with the idea of losing her job and fights for the confidentiality of her teen-interaction.  She ultimately survives the board inquest to keep her job, but the press catches the story and she has yet to feel the implications of this explosive controversy.  A principal from a Texas town involved in a public abortion scandal would be wise to start labeling her office supplies.

But it’s even harder for Tami to deal with her problem because her husband, whom she usually relies on for emotional support, is having difficulties of his own.  Coach is coping with an unprecedented level of professional failure, which includes a loss in a winnable game, along with the loss of one of his two star players for the season.  His coping mechanism thus far this season has been an increasing reliance on alcohol (to be fair, we’ve seen him drink like three times this season, but the show is suggesting he’s drinking a lot more than usual.)  So, while the couple shares a touching moment and manages an in-house date night, both of them are ostensibly handling their problems by themselves.  Neither of these two normally attentive parents even asks about Julie’s drama regarding Matt’s sudden reappearance in her life.  If they ask about her life, she might (whiningly) tell them about how she (annoyingly) closes the book on Matt for ending their 4-year relationship with an abrupt uncharacteristic radio silence.

From Julie’s temporary neglect, we turn to Tim Riggins and his endless bounty of attention.  Sure, the guy is handsome and brooding and is the classic ‘bad-boy turned good,’ but a mother AND daughter… really?  Let’s pretend these people are actually the ages of their characters: he’s 19, the mother is 32 and the daughter is 16.  Considering ONLY the age of the participants, (not including that the mother may be hotter than the daughter,) which of these relationship scenarios is more gross and which is more illegal?  The mother was obviously furious (even though he has not done anything illegal with her… yet,) but isn’t this really a double-robbing the cradle situation?

The other love triangle is more interesting: Landry-Jess-Vince.  Jess is torn between an exciting burgeoning relationship with Landry, with whom she is intellectually compatible (and he’s funnier) vs. a lifelong passionate love/hate relationship with a troubled, but trying Vince.  The Jess-Landry dynamic touches on the issue of race when Landry’s parents (Aaron from 24 and wife) bring up a question about Obama out of nowhere.  By side-stepping the race question and subsequently laughing about it, the duo's connection grows stronger.  But simultaneously, she has her eyes fixed elsewhere as she sees Vince’s life continue to fall apart.

Vince, my favorite new character, (though his mother is my least favorite: what accent is she supposed to have?) continues demonstrating a vulnerable and good-natured disposition amidst accumulating tragedies.  He watches idly as the girl he likes kisses his teammate (even as she continues to demonstrate her feelings for him by visiting his mom at the drug-rehab clinic, encouraging him and nurturing him.)  His effort to handle his mother's drug problem was well-intentioned but foolishly dangerous as he joined a gang of collections thugs to pay for his mother’s treatment.  This week, he manages to avoid beating a man with a pipe, but then watches his friend get gunned down during an assignment.  I’m reluctant to discuss where this plot might go because this show does not handle murder well.  (See Landry, Season 2.)

Finally, we get to Luke who inspired the title for this week’s episode.  I was actually surprised by Luke’s story because when he went scrounging for pain meds, I thought we were headed for another after-school special about drugs.  I was relieved to find that was not the case, but disappointed that he is out for the season.  (Side note: Tinker helped Luke build a gate and tried to keep him from furthering his injury, so in terms of friendship: Tinker=2, Luke=0.)  If this was real life and this otherwise bad Lions team just lost 1 of its 2 great players, they would lose every game for the rest of the season.  Thankfully, this is not real life; it’s just a show about... well, you get the idea.