Friday Night Lights

Cafe Society
21

Episode 4, Who’s Your Daddy

It’s a bye-week*, so the focus is off the game of the week. Jason doesn’t like his roommate, doesn’t like rehab (well, I mean, who would?).

Smash and Voodoo don’t like each other (at the beginning of the episode.) Not a much of a surprise there… Voodoo shows his stuff during practice – great talent and bad attitude.

Next game is against Arnett! I wonder if that’s a slight homage to Stephen King’s The Stand? (Stu Redman was from Arnett, TX)

Like how the coach tells Matt to get a date and “get her in the back seat of your car” so he can get loose and focused.

Then comes the Best Line (by far): “I think I told that kid to get our daughter in the back seat of his car.”

Despite everything they have gotten right so far, the writers apparently don’t know that you just don’t “smoke meat” in 20 minutes for a party. :wink:

*I watch TV with the captioning on and this was spelled “bi-week”, which made me wonder for a second if this is the “coming out of the closet” episode. :wink:

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You don’t know me at all (I’m more of a reader than a writer) so I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I just wanted to say I’ve really enjoyed reading your running commentary of the show. Friday Night Lights is one of my favourites and it’s fun reading the thoughts of someone watching it for the first time.

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Thank you, Oogly. I’m writing these as I’m watching and I’m sure it shows. Glad you like it. :slight_smile:

24

Episode five, Git ‘er Done

Best line: Coach Taylor is yelling at Voodoo during halftime, kicking him off the team(?). Smash shouts out: “Fade to black!”

I might be wrong, but it sounds like the same caller calling in to the radio station. :slight_smile:

Voodoo… an honest man! “You’re just scraping by, trying to win some games, save your job. I’m just trying to get noticed, make my way back to LSU.” During the game, Voodoo is going rogue. Cya!

This investment banker… he’s a new character? Now he’s going back to LA… but I’ve seen enough TV in my life to know we haven’t seen the last of him. (Later) Looks like Tyra(?) wants a little illicit short-term lovin’. I will say, for an LA guy, he wore a suit to fly home…? That’s something a NYC person would do. :stuck_out_tongue:

Looks like Streeter is learning a little Murderball. Looks like Lyla’s feeling a little bit of guilt for her Riggin’s lust.

One thing that doesn’t ring true… everybody is so thin! Where are the fat people? (other than the occasional overweight African-American female.) :rolleyes:

Pep rallies at ol’ Tucker High School were never like that… half the kids were bored/stoned, the other half actually into it. “All the way to State” my ass… All the way to a first-round district loss was more like it.

Another homage shout-out: “I cannot believe what I have just seen!” (reminiscent of Kirk Gibson’s homer in the World Series).

Uh… who is Ray Tatum again?

I’m liking this show more and more – Thank you, Laura.

25

Episode 5, El Accidente

Duh… Voodoo is Ray Tatum.

The more I hear it, the more I like the theme song. This is a different reaction from the Six Feet Under theme song, which I turned off as soon as the hands broke apart (SFU was the show I watched in its entirety prior to this one.)

Reyes is a new character, isn’t he? I mean he might have been in the background, but I don’t think he’s ever been the focus of any scenes prior to this. Given how he is lying, I don’t see him staying for long. (Later) Nope! Cya!

I hope Riggins stops his drinking. Glad to see Jason lay down the smackdown on Riggins! Also glad to see Street get out of the hospital – hope there’s not a “lesson” to be had later on.

All right, I’m pausing it to touch on a subject raised in the show. Reyes beats up a kid. The coach’s wife (Tami) has a job as a guidance counselor at the school. She starts talking to Eric (her husband) about the beating, asking him what he’s going to do about it, whereupon he replies “Who am I talking to – the guidance counselor or my wife?” She retorts that it doesn’t make any difference how she’s speaking to him.

WRONG!

As a person who has worked with his wife for over 15 years now, it makes a huge difference. And in a situation such as the coach’s, where his wife has the power to affect his position and his players, there is all the difference in the world between an official recommendation and end-of-the-workday chat. She needs to understand this.

All right, back to the show…

I wish I could keep the blondes apart.

Nice touch: Buddy Greer (the big booster) openly parks in a no-parking zone.

The big question, about to be answered: Will Coach Taylor lie? :drumroll: Aha! He didn’t have to – the fix was in! (I still think something will happen, though…) And, of course, there’s obvious parallels between the coach’s decision about Voodoo and Saracen’s decision about Reyes. But it might not be the coach’s decision as he just blabbed his mouth to his guidance-counselor wife. :rolleyes:

Well, he did it without the “help” of his wife. Good job coach! But will he make the right decision about Voodoo?

… No, Voodoo made the choice for him.

Best line: “I might have been confused as to what was right for the team… and what was right.” Naw, that’s wrong: I already quoted the best line – “Who am I talking to, the guidance counselor or my wife?”

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The best part of the show is often the conversations between the coach and his wife, and their relationship is a great one.

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I often joked after watching FNL that my new guiding philosophy would be “What Would Tami Taylor Do?” She is seriously one of the best female characters I’ve ever seen on television. And the Taylor’s marriage is really something to admire - undeniably strong, yet very realistic as far as the compromises both must make.

28

Episode 7, Homecoming. I mis-numbered the previous episode, my bad.

Given the closing scene in the last episode, it seems this will be the episode where Tim and Lyla’s relationship comes out in the open, at least to Jason. Later: no confrontation yet.

Best line: “Hey, don’t hate. Accelerate!” (Smash, of course.)

Riggins has given up drinking, but I don’t think it will last… not if this story is true to life, that is.

Lucas, who is this shows version of Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite is looking for a job… I wonder if he’ll last on the show. He’s a bit of an asshole – comes out of nowhere, wants a job with the team, then acts all put out when he doesn’t have one thrown at him. Guess you didn’t want that job that badly, huh?

Tyra’s a slave driver, isn’t she? She knows how to work the men who want to work her… :wink: But I don’t think any of them named Riggins is going to put up with that… they’d rather drink their lives away than work for it.

Will Smash have a great second half to make up for the lousy first half?

… No. It’s Riggins’ time to shine. (AC/DC is playing during this scene… I have a feeling that Maneater by Hall and Oates was to be played earlier, but not now because of the copyright issues.)

Now, I’m no expert at High School football, but I have been to a few games (but not since the 1980’s) and I wonder just how realistic the play calling and clock management is in the show. Some of the plays look like pro-style plays and the first game of the season they were able to run 3-4 plays in the last minutes, something you see the pros and colleges do, but not the high school teams I’ve seen. Any thoughts?

Yeah, I know… “Repeat to yourself it’s just a show, I really should relax.” :wink:

I like how the DVD’s are set up so that once the show ends, you get to select the deleted scenes right away. I think the deleted scene where some guy tells Smash that his brother can get steroids has implications for the future, especially given how the recruiting guy tells Smash that he needs to work on speed and size. Duh-duh-DUUHHHH!

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Agreed. Many have said that it’s among the best and most realistic husband-wife relationships portrayed on TV, and I agree.

I’ve only started watching this series about a month or month and a half ago, and we’re midway through season 4. This is a wonderfully written series. I generally have a hard time getting into dramas, but this one was easy to get into. My only complaint about this series are the football games themselves. (Not in terms of or how they’re shot or anything–it’s beautiful cinematography, among the best I’ve seen for sports–just the actual storyline.)

30

Episode 8, Crossing the Line

Best line came early: “My Panther wants me to do a three-way.” :eek: Poor girl.

Lyla’s busted with Jason, Tim’s busted with Tyra. Lot’s of hand-wringing by lots of young ladies this episode.

Tyra has no desire to have Julie date Saracen. And, Smash? Don’t steal the money. Later… busted! (Didn’t steal the money, but got caught riffling through the door.)

I’m a bit confused as to Tim’s brother’s newfound sense of responsibility. Is it because of the money made from the party? He’s finally growing up?

If Jason’s doctor doesn’t want him playing Murderball, and Jason is at the rehab center, then why doesn’t the doctor ban/not clear him to play? Anyway, looks like Jason’s bringing his A game… and smiling for it.

Oh, man! Smash… you lied to your mom and now she’s got her church involved in your quest for steroids, er, SAT prep classes. Does he take the money? Yup.

Jason just smacked the shit out of Riggins. Now he has to admit Herc was right. Sometimes, guy, it’s better to live the lie.

I think that the episode was good, but there is a girl out there being pressured into a three-way… and she was totally dropped as mere setup for the Matt/Julie story. I hope they come back to that, as it seems rather callous.

31

Episode 9, Full Hearts

A very stressful time for Jason, Lyla, Smash. Guilt weighs a person down, don’t it?

The show is very non-judgmental about religion – it’s not played for laughs, it’s not played for drama, it’s not preachy… it just is, and that’s refreshing.

Best line(s), Matt and Landry division: Matt: “Your last girlfriend was, what, Jenny Emmel… and that was, like, fifth grade or something?”

“That’s fine, if you wanna get personal, that’s fine. I mean, you know, that still hurts, and it was, you know, it was a bad break-up, so thank you for bringing that back up. I appreciate that.”

That exchange was pretty damned funny, as was Landry’s “Singing to your grandma might be the one thing to get you into Julie Taylor’s funhouse.” Matt, “What? That, that, that’s just wrong.”

Coach Taylor laying down the law to Matt. This has to be Julie’s first date given the way her parents are acting. I don’t really get Coach’s thing against the Members Only jacket… I see that Matt is wearing it on the date, though.

Poor Matt… having to act like his grandfather for his ill grandmother. I don’t think I’ll hear ‘Mr. Sandman” the same way again.

Smash’s mother is cold. Well, she knows what’s best for her kids, and if a dead husband makes their life better, she’s not going to lie to herself about it. Or to anyone else.

:rolleyes: It wasn’t until this episode that I realized Buddy Garrity is Lyla’s dad. :rolleyes:

Another shout-out to a famous sports call: “Do you believe in miracles!?!”

32

I know there have been a couple of FNL threads lately, but I didn’t want to bump them as they (IIRC) specifically asked for non-spoilers for upcoming episodes/seasons. Since I literally finished this last night, here are my observations… (Yeah, I kind of dropped the episode summary. So sue me.)

The Positives…

For starters, it took me this long to watch the entire series because I did not want it to end. I don’t know if I’ve ever done that before - stop watching something because I didn’t want it to end, that is.

Yes, the Taylor’s are one of the more perfectly realized couples on TV. They love, they fight, they’re trying to build a life - it’s real in the way that the Huxtables weren’t (I don’t recall Cliff and Claire having any issues that weren’t resolved in 22 minutes.)

I was surprised at who stayed and who left during the series, especially the big S3 dump which got rid of most of the high school students in the first 2 seasons. Did NOT like seeing Tyra Collette leave and I did NOT like seeing Matt Saracen hang around for another season. (Matt was boring.)

My favorite character: Landry, by far. Didn’t care for Vince in his early days, but he grew on me. I also liked Buddy Garrity far more than I thought I would. Also liked every scene Levi was in (he was the principal of E. Dillon HS.)

My favorite story-line: Jason Street’s, which is surprising because I thought the character was too angelic in the first place. But by the end of S3, when he’s talking to that girl he knocked up - that was some powerful stuff. My God, I was almost crying at the end of it.

The Negatives…

Is there anybody in the history of TV with a more unlikely career arc than Tammy Taylor*?

S1: Housewife
S1-S2: Volunteer Guidance Counselor
S3-S4: Principal of Dillon High School
S4-S5: Guidance Counselor of East Dillon
End of S5: Got hired as Dean of Admissions for a school described as a “near-Ivy”.

Huh?

In the “Keeping it Reals” department, there is Grace Taylor, who might be perhaps the ugliest baby to appear on a network TV show. I told my wife this as I was making my way through the episodes, and her reaction was “I can’t believe it.” However, when she got her first view of Gracie Taylor, Laura’s reaction was, literally, “Oh my God, you’re right - what an unusual looking child.” Note that Gracie isn’t ugly by most standards, but is definitely so by Tv standards. I truly thought that Gracies autism/retardation/hydroencephalitis issues were going to be a large part of the Taylor’s character development. Imagine my surprise that, no, the baby is just unattractive.

Dillon was originally portrayed as a small town of 20,000 people. In addition, there was a shot of a map of Dillon in Season 4 that did, in fact, look like a map of a town of 20k. But it seemed to suffer from Sunnyvale Syndrome, where things just appeared merely to serve the plot. You know, things like the existence of East Dillon High School, the existence of a “poor side of town” (in towns of 20k, they’re usually all poor, all rich, or all middle class), etc.

Excellent series and I recommend it whole-heartedly.

*Rhetorical question as I’m sure there are plenty of examples involving young 25-somethings with positions of authority that they would never have in the real world.

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I thought Tammy was a guidance counselor from the beginning. Also, some reviews I read pointed out that the area of Texas in which the show was set would have had a lot more Hispanic students than we saw.

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It’s been a while, but I remember a scene (or scenes) where she was asked to do it and had no choice because of her sense of values/responsibility to her husbands career.

35

I think it’s just the weirdness of it all, a teen-ager showing up on a date with a 25-year-old fashion item. It would have been like my showing up on a date wearing a Nehru jacket, granny glasses, and a headband. Indeed, if Eric Taylor is roughly my age (which is possible—Connie Britton is about four or five years older than I am in real life), then he might have owned a Members Only jacket in his own youth. He’s wondering whether Saracen might be making fun of his age or might just be some kind of fashion disaster or just a really weird kid. If he had known that Landry had chosen that item for him, then he might have understood, because he already knows that “Lance” is kind of an outsider and intellectual.