TV Makes You Smart

What Did We Learn?

Friday Night Lights, you are highly praised for your realism.  It is part of the reason you have burrowed your way into our hearts and made us care.  It is a rare and wonderful thing.   Except when it is not.  Because there is a big problem with realism.  In reality, the Joe McCoys of the world always win.  They get what they want because they have money, because they play dirty, because other people stop to smell the roses and don't hear Joe McCoy coming until it's too late and he's run his SUV up their ass.  And that is why after spending our days being fake nice to our own versions of Joe McCoy, we like to come home and watch TV.  Because sometimes on TV Joe McCoy does not win.  Sometimes he is humiliated and humbled and for a brief moment we are convinced that all is right in the world.  Except that your Joe McCoy, Friday Night Lights, he wins all the time.  Tami Taylor ruined his first game coin toss and moved Luke Cafferty, but now he gets to watch her squirm, he gets home field advantage, he gets to mock the poor and the meek.  And yes, it is realistic and unflinching but it's depressing.  We watch our own Joe McCoys win in our own real lives.  We have learned that there is such a thing as too much reality.  Give us hope, Friday Night Lights!

Dear Friday Night Lights: WTF?

Hey, Friday Night Lights, remember when all the bad stuff that happened to your characters was interspersed with good stuff?  Stuff like winning championship games and hilarious, eternally cheerful sidekicks named Herc?  Buddy Garrity on El Fuego is pretty frakkin' great, but not enough to make up for Calvin getting shot and killed in front of Vince (although the scene in front of Jess's house was quite beautiful), for Tami being crucified on the cross of religious extremism, Luke apologizing for a nasty injury and praying for drugs, Matt looking lonely in a gloomy city and Tim being viciously insulted for something he didn't do.  Where's the good stuff?  There are only two episodes left and next week looks terribly sad.  WTF?

Dear Friday Night Lights: Thank you, I hate you...WTF?

I understand that if all the characters were happy all the time and never experienced any hardships or obstacles it would not be a story, okay?  I get that.  But it still seems so cruel to make it look like Vince is doing so well and then show us that he isn't.  You give us the simple pleasure of watching Coach and Vince sitting at a picnic table discussing plays, then our hearts break for him as he cries to his mom that he needs her and tries to get help for her.  Then Vern talks Coach into letting Vince freestyle on the field, then Vince ends up with $4,000 and a gun in his hand from his bad influences.  It's all so frustrating.  But thank you for Coach and Vern taking their relationship to the next level, it's adorable.  And Tami's hilarious reaction to Coach's hangover.  And Vern showing up to watch his son play.  Thank you for all the boosters out watching practice.  Awesome.  But the list of things I hate you for is long.  Becky and Luke, their parents, the Riggins brothers illegal activities, Vince Vince Vince.  Still, every week I come back for more pain.  And it looks like next week there is going to be a lot of it.

Dear Friday Night Lights: Thank you.

The Lights of Carrol Park

I'm sure I speak for all lovers of The Wire when I say thank you for casting Larry Gilliard as a reformed gangster.  It is profoundly satisfying, for no sensible reason, to watch him and imagine for a second that D'Angelo Barksdale made it out.  Thank you.  Keep casting The Wire alums.  Thank you for Tami Taylor and Buddy Garrity greeting the other team before the game and for Buddy Garrity's "E'ryone loves football".  Thank you for the comedy of Coach asking for help with the padlock.  Thank you for the perfect chemistry of Jess and Vince and Jess and Landry.  Both are believable and appropriate for their relationships.   And even though it is not all that believable that Becky would have unprotected sex, thank you for the storyline that gives Matt Lauria a chance to kick ass.

Dear Friday Night Lights: Missed You!

The Lions have a W on the books, y’all!  And Landry got a date!  Of course, the Lions only beat the other last place team in what the town calls The Toilet Bowl and we are set up to fear that Landry is heading for some kind of Vince-related disaster...but still.  In other news, Tami and her bulletproof cheerfulness push Julie, kicking and pouting, into her future.  Luke is clearly on his way to developing a painkiller dependency, Buddy Garrity’s campaign of awesomeness continues (El Fuego!) and Vince’s mom may be either back on drugs or just plain crazy.  Jess’s brothers are adorable, chaos reigns even within the Taylor household at times and Tim Riggins thinks he’s only good at football and crime.  But the Lions have themselves a W, y’all!  Happy New Year!

Dear Friday Night Lights: Thank you, I hate you...WTF?

The latest installment in the ongoing educational series "What Would Tami Taylor Do?" shows us exactly how to deal with unwanted physical advances.  We are also reminded that sometimes even Tami Taylor is at a loss.  All she can do for a daughter with a broken heart is give her a big hug.  Thank you for giving Julie an episode to grieve. 

Thank you for the stripper fundraiser and the premature labor scare at the drive-in that is appropriate to the Riggins family with all the bickering.  Poor Billy Riggins.  I hate you for piling so much stress on a guy who's not even a main character.  And Tim displacing all of his Daddy rage was hard to watch.

Thank you, again, for Landry.  His call to Tyra about waiting for her like a British footguard with his eyes straight ahead was romantic and tragic.  He's completely adorable when he asks Jess out and all during the academic smackdown and his attempts to help Julie.

WTF Friday Night Lights?  You're going to injure Luke?  Really?  Just when his Dad starts to see the light and the Lions are about to win a game.  Thanks for him and Tinker, though.

Dear Friday Night Lights: Thank you, I hate you...WTF?

There are so many things that make Coach loveable, we can't always remember them all.  So thank you, Friday Night Lights, for reminding us how hilarious it is when Coach deals (or doesn't deal) with the press. 

Vince and Luke are developing an interesting relationship.  The moment of awkwardness they have when Coach hands them a tape to watch together was uncomfortably expressive.  And the few minutes of them in Sears was strangely touching and satisfying.  Thank you for J.D. McDick's look of terror when Vince gets in his face.  And Coach Stan's eastside flava.  Also his inappropriate enthusiasm and confidence.  It's a lot of fun.  

Thank you, again, for Landry.  For his cluelessness and earnestness and awesomeness.  We're so glad he's still in school this season.

WTF with Becky and Tim and Becky and Luke?  Would it kill you to have one female character immune to the charms of Tim Riggins?

I hate you for breaking Julie's heart so thoroughly, but we all know it had to be done.  The image of Matt in his car with a map on his dashboard was perfect.  Bye Matt.  It is better to have loved and lost than to never have been sucked into this show by loving you.

What Did We Learn?

Friday Night Lights - The Son

From the first episode of the first season we’ve all been pulling for Matt Saracen.  He’s simply, honestly adorable and loveable and personifies everything that makes this show extraordinary.  The death of his father shows us new dimensions of his struggle, we understand more about just how hard it’s been for him to hold it together in order to take care of his grandma. Watching him worry about his manners in the midst of agony is a whole new level of Matt Saracen-induced anguish.  The whole thing is incredibly hard to watch but it's beautiful, too. 

Dear Friday Night Lights: Thank you, I hate you...WTF?

It's not always easy, doing the right thing.  All of us who are fans of this show know that.  Still, watching Tami Taylor as the voices of radio a-holes followed her around talking about her was tough.  It was kind of great, since those a-holes have been torturing Coach Taylor for many episodes past now.  So thank you but also I hate you for what Tami's going through because she did the right thing.  In front of the chocolate shop she was as close to the end of her rope as we've seen her.

Yet the next time we see her she's all red dress, supportive wife and full of Lions spirit.  The pep rally was a great scene.  Everyone is starting to come together but you're not hitting us over the head with too much too soon.  Thank you for the pep rally.  

What Did We Learn?

It took until the third episode of this Friday Night Lights season for someone to tell Coach Taylor that he was never supposed to take the job at East Dillon.  "You the only one that didn't get the joke," the principal tells him and immediately after we wondered why we never saw it.  It's so clear.  No one thought he would take the job.  No one really thought he was that earnest, that legit.  It's excruciating to watch Coach suffer through uncomfortable, awkward situations like we did extensively last night, but it taught us that sometimes even the Taylors are at a loss.  Sometimes even Eric Taylor doesn't know what to do and sometimes he is stupid enough to get upset and then tell his wife to calm down.  A terrible idea in any relationship, but a terrible idea enacted by the majority of married men at some point or another.

We are starting to love Matt and the bright and ethereal Richard Sherman.

Joe Cancer McCoy continues to utterly lack redeeming qualities.  We knew from the previews that he would be calling Buddy out on the Luke Cafferty thing, but he did it in front of everyone!  We've been waiting for Buddy to go old school as he did and remind everyone he's been a Panther for forever.  We keep wondering why no one else who's lived in Dillon forever calls out Joe McCoy.  We wonder how he ever got so much power so quickly in the first place.  Let's all try and remember that last season he beat his son in front of an Applebee's full of Panthers and fans.  But anyway, back to Buddy.  Buddy had his fill of Joe McCancer and the Evil Panther Empire and awesomely gave them all what for all at once.  How great was it when he claimed the mailbox?  Great.  "I put that mailbox in twelve years ago.  Out in the middle of the night I dug that hole and put it in.  It's my mailbox I'll do whatever I want to with it."  Beautiful.  We learned that sometimes a moral compass is found where we least expect it. 

What Did We Learn?

!contains minor spoilers about the new season four currently on DirecTV!

Over the years, Friday Night Lights has taught us many things.  We knew long before After the Fall that Tami Taylor almost always knows exactly what to do.  She knows what to say and how to say it.  She knows when an iron fist is needed.  In last week's episode she had a great and funny moment of revenge, but this week she was forced to elevate her game to a whole new level.  When she walked into that restaurant, lured Joe in and then laid the smackdown with precision and faux-innocence we were awestruck.  She even managed to make fun of the golf cart while she was at it.  Buddy was the only one to wave as she left, which was adorable and a nice detail.  We want to be able to navigate the threatening politics of men as successfully as Tami Taylor.  Plus, she stood in front of hundreds of people while they booed her without even starting to tear up.  We need to learn how to do that, because we're pretty sure if it comes down to it we would not be able.

We learned Matt is still adorable and Vince is the new Matt, with an incoherent guardian and all.  We learned there is a huge spot in our hearts that's been waiting for Luke Cafferty.  Both Michael B. Jordan (Vince) and Matt Lauria (Luke) are perfect for this show.  Jordan has an unbelievable capacity for subtle expression.  It fits his character and fits with Kyle Chandler.  Lauria managed to make Luke remorseful, desperate, and heartbroken all at once.  It was incredibly moving and a striking introduction to Luke, who we had met only briefly last week.

We learned that Coach Taylor still loves Tim Riggins and Tim Riggins still loves Coach Taylor.  Remember their late night ping pong game?

Every week we learn again that this show is non-stop great and even while it's breaking our hearts we cannot wait to find out how our hearts will be broken next time.

Dear Friday Night Lights: Thank you.

!contains minor spoilers about the new season currently on DirecTV!

Ah... Friday Night Lights.  Welcome back.  When you're gone it's easy to forget just how awesome you are.  Sure, there's other TV (okay, lots of other TV) in my life, but there's a special place just for you.  Thank you for not disappointing me.  Last night had tons of good stuff, great moments and funny moments amidst the hardships.  Thank you for Devin and Landry "...hunger strike, probably" and Matt and Landry and Grandma and Landry and the asshole kid and Landry.  Thank you for getting the Riggins boys back together to express their love the only way they know how, by rolling on the floor fighting.  Thank you for giving the Taylors a sweetsexy moment in the kitchen.  Thank you for exploring the details of the unpopular redistricting.  The nasty town hall meeting where Tami stood tough and Joe McCoy smugged, Devin yanked from class while a sheriff watches.  Finally, thank you for Coach Taylor.  He is completely overwhelmed, has all the cards stacked against him, spent much of the episode looking like he's about to lose his mind, yet he came through with an awesome pre-game speech that very nearly had me running out my front door in search of a football field. 

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