Friday Night Lights

[frank ryan]

The WA rule doesn't have to do with age but rather hardship. If you are not on track to graduate, and can point to some instance in your life that held you back from graduating, then you can submit an appeal to get an extra year of athletic eligibility to play while you finish your schooling.

I saw girls bball documentary about the girl who got pregnant and got the extra yr. Sounded like they had some disrcestion

[MarkGrace]

Yeah, that was a great doc.

[Sizzle]

Season two takes a bit of a dip. The situations/characters are a bit forced, and the writer's strike took its toll on the end of the season. Season 3, however, was a major bounce back and I think the best season so far. All of my favorite FNL episodes occur during this season, including one which I told my wife was one of the 5-10 best episodes of TV I had ever seen. The show can be extremely moving. I love it.

Which episode was that, out of curiousity? I liked Season 3, but I'm not sure if it is quite at Season 1's level.

Here are some of my FNL thoughts after tearing through the first three seasons on DVD: (spoilers, by the way)

1) It's Tyra all the way. At times Lyla's actress seems like she should be starring in a Seminary video. She overacted, and while she got better, she overacted in season 1. I also think Tyra looks much better with short hair. Day-um.

2) Riggins grew on me to be my favorite character. I don't know how you can not love the guy.

3) Joe McCoy is a piece of shit. I can't say that I didn't see it coming as soon as I saw Wade Aikmen on campus, I could almost tell for sure that they were setting him up to be the next coach. When Mac went down with a heart attach, it was obvious that it was coming. Go East Dillon Lions though baby!

4) When does Season 4 start?

[MarkGrace]

Which episode was that, out of curiousity?

Spoiler
































The one where they lose state/Tyra writes her college essay. Phenomenal episode of television right there.

The last Smash episode is also among my very favorites that the series has done.

[Commando]

What college is Smash supposed to play for? Isn't it a fictional college? If so, what real-life college is it supposed to be, if any? TCU? Texas A&M? Texas Tech?

[Commando]

3) Joe McCoy is a piece of shit. I can't say that I didn't see it coming as soon as I saw Wade Aikmen on campus, I could almost tell for sure that they were setting him up to be the next coach. When Mac went down with a heart attach, it was obvious that it was coming. Go East Dillon Lions though baby!

4) When does Season 4 start?

Yeah-- I hope that QB gets Jason Streeted.

Season 4 starts this fall on DirecTV, and like next spring on NBC. I suspect I'll just download them as I always have.

[MarkGrace]

What college is Smash supposed to play for? Isn't it a fictional college? If so, what real-life college is it supposed to be, if any? TCU? Texas A&M? Texas Tech?

Smash ends up at Texas A&M on the show.

[Sizzle]

Spoiler






The one where they lose state/Tyra writes her college essay. Phenomenal episode of television right there.

The last Smash episode is also among my very favorites that the series has done.

I agree those were great episodes. Tyra writing her letter with a hung over Lance is great and shows the depth of her charachter and how she evolved. Wonderful. Also, I really liked letting Matt get redemption and a shot at qb in state again. A tough loss no doubt, but still a great way to handle it slightly different than the movie.

Also, the Smash episode, one of the last scenes where they are all playing football under the lights before he leaves is great TV.

One last comment, the relationship that Coach and Tami has is fantastic and reminds me of the relationship that Sandy and Kiersten had on The OC early on. I really hope thy don't screw that one up.

[MarkGrace]

Back in action tonight! Two early reviews:

Friday Night Lights' still tops in its field with move to DirecTV 101

By David Hinckley
DAILY NEWS TV CRITIC

Not since the fall of the Alamo have things looked bleaker in Texas than they do for coach Eric Taylor as the fourth season of "Friday Night Lights" kicks off Wednesday night.

That's bad news for Dillon, Tex., and great news for "Friday Night Lights," which is rather brilliantly reinventing itself on the fly.

It's introducing a new set of dramas while retaining most of what has worked in the past.

Wednesday night also starts the second season of a joint production deal in which DirecTV gets the show first and NBC runs it later, perhaps in spring or early summer.

While that kind of split carriage is awkward, we can hardly complain, because it ensures at least two more seasons for one of TV's best dramas.

When we left "FNL" last season, much of the original cast was graduating from Dillon High. At the same time, rich businessman Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett) orchestrated the firing of football coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) because McCoy wanted the team run in a way that would showcase his son, promising quarterback J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter).

As a consolation scrap, Taylor gets the coaching job at East Dillon, the run-down, poor-sister school across the tracks.

That's a challenge, since the team he inherits couldn't beat the cast of "Project Runway."

But what makes "FNL" such a good show is that it's not about football. Football is played here, but the show is about families and American towns, and that's where this year's new blood is being pumped.

While a few kids from past seasons are still on the scene, including Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) and Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), tonight's episode starts breaking in the next generation. That includes, for instance, Vince (Michael B. Jordan), who has breakaway speed and a police record.

Meanwhile, coach Taylor's wife, Tami (the superb Connie Britten), remains the principal at Dillon, which puts her in the middle of a nasty covert war between the two schools.

That battle, which again involves much more than football, also may create something "FNL" has never really had before, which is bad guys. Joe McCoy and his smug accomplices think they hold all the cards and have stacked the deck, which makes the East Dillon community into sympathetic underdogs and repositions coach Taylor as Rocky.

It's a brand new ballgame. It looks to be a winner.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...#ixzz0VGZnfGOY

'Friday Night Lights' tackles Season 4 changes, and scores

As every high school football coach knows, it's tough to replace great talent.

That goes double for Coach Eric Taylor, who lost not only his best players but also his team, having been maneuvered out of Dillon High and exiled to hard-luck East Dillon.

But it's also the task faced by TV's best slice-of-life drama, Friday Night Lights, a still-remarkable series that has prolonged — if not quite improved — its life by innovative cost-sharing and cost-cutting.

The sharing part is why this former NBC series will once again premiere on DirecTV, with NBC repeating the run sometime next year. As for the cuts, you won't notice them in terms of production values, because the show's shot-on-location, bare-bones, handheld look has always been integral to its reality-driven storytelling style.

But you will notice them in a cast that, while still centered on the excellent and Emmy-undervalued Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, has gone through considerable changes in the supporting roles.

Though Zack Gilford (who plays Matt Saracen), Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins), Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor) and Jesse Plemons (Landry Clarke) remain, Adrianne Palicki's Tyra, Gaius Charles' Smash, Minka Kelly's Lyla and Scott Porter's Jason are either gone for good or reduced to guest status. In their places are some new East Dillon students (including actors Michael Jordan and Jurnee Smollett) who may someday pop, but don't tonight.

To be fair, while cash may be the main precipitating factor behind the shifts, it's not the only one. The change also reflects the show's desire, forced though it may be, to follow life's normal progression. Kids grow up, graduate and leave town. And that switch has been hastened by the plot upheaval that finds Eric trying to revive the football program at a new, dirt-poor, competing high school.

Even so, to think you can shrink and cut the cast without consequence is not just foolish, it's insulting. It's an insult to the writers, because it implies a character introduced in one hour can be as rich and real as one they've spent three years developing. And it's an insult to the actors because it implies their contributions were valueless.

Yet much that was great remains — in the cast members who carry over, and in the show's desire to detail the struggles of everyday life in small-town America. Is Lights the show it was when it began? No. But it's still better than most anything else on the TV field.

Any coach would count that as a win.

[Commando]

nice! I'll have to get my torrent client primed up!

[Flystripper]

I thought it was a great premiere. I am really excited for this seasons new storyline.

[DrumNFeather]

I thought it was a great premiere. I am really excited for this seasons new storyline.

Me too. I think they've done a great job of keeping the story alive.

[RobinFinderson]

What is the deal for those of us without DirectTV?

[Hot Lunch]

I have always watched these when they come out on DVD, however this time around I am thinking I want to watch them week to week. I didn't record it last night. Is there somewhere on the web I can watch the first episode or will they be replaying it before next weeks episode?

[Flystripper]

I have always watched these when they come out on DVD, however this time around I am thinking I want to watch them week to week. I didn't record it last night. Is there somewhere on the web I can watch the first episode or will they be replaying it before next weeks episode?

my guess is that with that lack of programing on The 101 Directv will play it again before next Wednesday but I have not looked at the programming guide.