If Friday night's episode of Friday Night Lights is the last we will ever see, thanks to the writers' work stoppage, then it ended peacefully. But it would be disappointing if NBC didn't give the sophomore drama another chance.
It's a sports-related drama and that's poison for the folks who see a pigskin and immediately switch to ... well whatever. It's a high school drama and that sends a whole different segment of viewers scrambling for the remote control. And there's no laugh track, which means other potential watchers can't follow the action.
But it does have a really believable family dynamic in the Taylor family, with Kyle Chandler as the Coach and Connie Britton as his wife, Tammi. Britton is aging just fine thank you very much. She's the new Suzanne Pleshette, sexy until the day she passed last month. The putative sex object in the family is the daughter, Julie, played with pout-lipped bitchiness by Aimee Teegarden. Personally, she comes off more like a petulant whiner to me, but that's fitting with several of the teen-age girls in my extended family.
SIDEBAR HERE: I have a lot of faults, many of which have been described in earlier posts. Let me add a new one. I don't think babies are beautiful. Since I've never had one of my own, I can still think and see clearly. Most babies are merely okay. Some are butt ugly. I apologize to the real family of the little baby that plays Gracie Bell on this show. But that is an ugly baby. She'll probably grow up into a beautiful lady, but right now, UGLEEEE! I am sorry I have offended you, but it needed saying. END OF SIDEBAR.
The other family dynamic in the show is the football team. This year, the focus has been split four ways, with Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons), Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) and Brian 'Smash' Williams (Gaius Charles) all getting spotlight time.
Clarke's story is the most unbelievable of the bunch, what with him killing a (bad) man in the defence of the fair Tyra (Adrianne Palicki). He eventually ends up with Tyra, and geeks everywhere rejoice. Clarke's transformation from football-hating sideliner to touchdown-scoring hero doesn't ring true, nor does Tyra's seeing the light that it's what's on the inside that counts. But any screen time for Palicki is time well spent. She actually has facial expressions, exceptional in a young actress.
Riggins was last year's screw-up, who bedded every available woman in Dillon, Texas. And he proved a key component in the teams' success. This year, he's still a screw-up, but has kept the catting around to small numbers in an attempt to win back the heart of a last year conquest, the uber-religious Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly). Don't know how Riggins can booze, drive a pickup and attend school on a whim ... and stay active on the football team, but he does. This is the most uninteresting story in the lot.
Saracen was the focus last year. The seldom-used, shy backup with familial problems, Saracen blossomed like a peacock at the right time and quarterbacked the Dillon Panthers to a state title. Fame and fortune should have ensued. The nice little relationship with Julie Taylor should have become a life-long love story. None of that happened and Saracen ended up with the Riggins role of last year, scoring more chicks than touchdowns. Basically, a throwaway story this year.
The Smash Williams story is the arc that finished the season, and maybe the series. Charles' powerful performance for the self-involved Williams was the most watchable thing in the end. Brought back to earth doing the 'Right' thing while doing the wrong thing, Williams keeps on falling right into a dark hole. His sense of invulnerability is obliterated, leaving him crying on his bed. You feel for the guy.
Friday Night Lights was good TV, better last year than this. It deserves renewal. It's doubtful that it will get it. Co-creator Peter Berg was on this show. It was almost a tacit admission that this was it. Several threads were left open, not the least of which was paraplegic Jason Street (Scott Porter) and his possible impending fatherhood. But the rest of the stories were all at a point where regular viewers could create their own story continuations. It was a good stopping point.
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