The end of a great series : Friday Night Lights

Final episodes of final seasons tend to be maudlin and teary and a bit drawn out. The final-final of "Friday Night Lights" is probably guilty on both counts but still is a great and satisfying ending to this highly likable, fun, and even thoughtful 5-year series. Is there anything in the final episode that is hard to believe? All of the wrap-ups do make sense for the characters and the town - and they leave just enough open space around them that you almost think there could be another season, if need be, but they also close enough of the doors, bring enough closure to the narrative lines, that it seems, yes, FNL followed a complete arc, the characters learning and growing and changing (one another) as the series and the season progressed. (Spoilers coming) So: was I surprised that Eric and Tammy move to Phila. so that Tammy can take a college job? Well, generally colleges don't hire h.s. guidance counselors as deans of admission, but accepting that for the moment, yes, the move makes sense - and was just surprising and edgy enough really to work. Eric learns he has to give up something very important to his life in order to save his marriage, and he will move on to face a new challenge in a new school. Vince has received all he needs from Eric and moves on to the new Dillon High team, which of course will go on, with Buddy ever-present. Julie & Matt - not totally clear how serious their engagement is, but it's obvious that they'll have many issues to work out living together, so young, in Chicago. Riggins is central to the whole series, and he, too, ends on an ambiguous note - staying in Texas, maybe, as he says, his life will cross with Tyra's, but he's never given up his serious drinking and you have to worry about what will happen to him as he ages. And the championship game - what a brilliant way to show it's conclusion and to blend the final play of the game with the epilogue. Great series.

What will happen at the end of Friday Night Lights?

As we near the end of Season 5, the final season of the totally likable "Friday Night Lights," it will be interesting to see not only how the story ends, or, said another way, where the characters are in their lives when we can no longer live their lives with them, particularly to what degree will the series go for soft endings, in which things work out, more or less, for everyone, and to what degree will there be some edge, ambiguity, and unresolved tensions and issues - typical, even necessary, in the concluding seasonal episodes for a returning series, but problematic for a finale. Well, they're not going to blow everyone away, as in The Sopranos. But, having finished episode 10 with three to go, I predict: Coach Taylor will take the college job at Shane State - it's the only way to truly bring some closure to his coaching career in Dillon, leaving him there seems to beg for at least one more season of FNL; I worry that the black kids will be the only ones totally screwed and am hoping that Vince does lead the team to State and pursues a college scholarship. I suspect his dad, however, is heading back to prison. Not sure what will happen with Riggins now out of prison - will Becky ditch her current boyfriend and go for Riggins? I think so, but I think Riggins will leave town. Suspect that Julie will find her place in college. Hard to say about other peripheral characters - have just seen the troubled Epic dragged off campus by police, and would like to see her back in school - but they may leave this unresolved. Buddy - he'll endure.

Friday Night Lights and the myth of the level playing field

No series on TV more expertly and movingly explores the issue of racial and economic inequity on the supposedly even playing field of American public education than the great "Friday Night Lights," as we continue in the final season (5) to follow the East Dillon Lions on their way toward a state championship. Sports - and public education - is supposed to be a free and equitable opportunity for all - the so-called level playing field. Without dwelling on the inequities, we see quite clearly that this team from the mostly black East Side has almost no resources whereas the Dillon Panthers have a beautiful field, tremendous coaching support, and so on - the Dillon kids all being prepped for college and the East Dillon kids hardly aware of what college is about - if some of them get there, it's clear that most will be used as pawns or fodder for the football machine and then tossed aside if they don't make it. Someone ought to be arrested for allowing two schools in the same city (or state, or nation) to be treated so differently - but it's the same story everywhere. It just is this way, and we blindly accept that fact. Sadly, in FNL we see some anonymous hateful adults set up a Web site showing the East Dillon kids in mug shots with their arrest records, teenage ghetto crimes that the kids are trying to get beyond, and we see the ED kids saddened and humiliated by this illegal outing. Coach Taylor rises to their defense, but even he is helpless here. The beauty of the show is that it's also an extremely honest, truthful, and funny exploration of family dynamics and youthful passions, all played out low key and credibly, esp., in this season, daughter Julie's struggles in first year of college and parental dilemma about how much to get involved, how hard to push her or push back, what to defend her and how much to let her fight her own battles.

Why Friday Night Lights is the most likable series on television

As Season 5 gets underway I'm once again reminded by "Friday Night Lights" remains about the most likable series on television: almost every scene feels true to life, the conflicts between the characters are realistic and moving, the characters are drawn vividly, there's pathos and humor, the structure of a football season as the team strives to excel give each season a reasonable arc, the series takes on not on issues of adolescent angst but issues of parenthood, addiction, racial tensions and poverty, but never in a heavy-handed manner. The only drawback to Season 5 is that many of the great characters have evolved out of the show or appear only in bits; though new characters have stepped in, there are now very few that have endured through the whole series. The Taylor family is the main constant presence - particularly Coach Taylor and Tammy, who in my opinion is the true star and moral center of the series. Julie is now off at college, and though we follow her freshmen-year turmoil (an affair with a married grad assistant), the season is a little scattered as it branches out beyond the boundaries of Dillon - the small-town life and the various aspirations of the kids who want to get out of Dillon but are afraid of change is what has made the show show poignant. Season 5, apparently the last season, brings the Taylors into the same school again, the racially diverse East Dillon, and the struggles of the kids in poverty is a compelling part of the plot; we also feel bad for the lost soul, Becky, and begin to develop interest in Buddy and his son who comes home to Dillon with serious addictions.

Season finales are often disappointing - but Friday Night Lights stil among the best

Though final season episodes are almost inevitably a little disappointing - hard to tie so many strands in 41 minutes, so they inevitably feel a bit burdened by the demands of plot, and are often either too arcane (Damages), too ambiguous (Sopranos), or, in this case ("Friday Night Lights") a little too sentimental - Friday Night Lights Season 4 remains among the best. I won't be a spoiler, but I exactly predicted what would happen to principal Tammy Taylor. As to the rest of the plot outcomes, I'll leave them unsaid. Just this: The season beautifully explores some key issues seldom treated effectively on TV or in any dramatic format for that matter: racial tensions (two rival high schools, white and black), moral ambiguity (several characters brush with crime and not all pay a price), friendship (friendship between guys portrayed accurately and sympathetically without recourse to vulgarity or Apatow-like pranks and snarky dialogue, funny as that may be in other contexts), teenage love (Matt's abandonment of Julie was surprising, yet ultimately seemed like just the kind of thing a confused and somewhat immature guy would do - and her sorrow is palpable), marital stress and happiness (Tammy and Eric Taylor cover the whole range of emotions from fury to tenderness all in a totally credible and sympathetic manner). Though most people will say the final game between E and W Dillon is the highlight, I think it's hard to top the Thanksgiving dinner at the Taylors, with the strained dialogue and the awkward toast. The excellence of the scripting, acting, and directing of this scene speaks for the subtle beauty of the whole series.

The inequities between East and West Dillon are criminal (Friday Night Lights)

Penultimate episode of Season 4, "Friday Night Lights," just great - as with many next-to-last episodes in seasons, it ends with just about everyone in trouble and with the sense that there's no way they can clear this up in one more hour. We'll see - but meanwhile I have to step back and admire at how effectively this is written, directed, and played - we believe in each of the characters, we actually like each of the characters, even the screwups. Every plot line is credible, and each is quirky enough and sufficiently unpredictable that you cannot see ahead around the bend - surprises happen, and they feel right and inevitable. To summarize where we are: Riggins brother at their highest point (new dad, new landowner) arrested for running a chop shop, Vince walks away from a gang revenge assignment and into Jess's arms, leaving Landry out in the cold, forces still gathering around Tammy trying to oust her as principal on trumped-up charges that she counseled a girl toward abortion, and most germane: East and West Dillon about to face off, the game made ugly by tremendous vandalism to the already pathetic East Dillon field. The inequities between these two schools are criminal, and I hope they will move that issue to the forefront before the season ends. I for one can't quite see what will happen, though I suspect Tammy will lose her job and nothing good will happen for Vince. Odd how some characters - Matt, e.g. - have been written right out of the series. Another oddity (goof): anyone notice that Coach Taylor calls Landry "Lance" throughout one scene?

You don't have to like football, but... : Friday Night Lights

"Friday Night Lights" Season 4 gets back on track (episode 10?) as Matt at last gets in touch with Julie and she tearfully tells him off, Vince witnesses a shooting while with his thug friends, and Luke finally breaks down and shows Coach his severely injured hip. Also, Riggins gets thrown out of his trailer and again is alone and troubled, sensitive tough kid with terrible luck. And most significant - fundamentalist forces in town (backed by Dillon boosters?) go after Tammy's job, accusing her of counseling a girl (Becky) toward abortion. In other words, a lot happening in this episode as season conclusion (obviously the Dillon E v W game) is on the horizon. Not sure why I find this episode better, stronger, but I think Becky is a weak character and a limited talent, so the episode of her struggle with her pregnancy did not ring true - hard to understand her hookup with Luke, hard to figure the level of her maturity as she comes on to Riggins, that whole plot line seems a little out of kilter - and how it's largely resolved - it was mainly used to set up Tammy. Also, story line seemed to be in danger of moving too far away from the field, which is ultimately at the heart of this series - I tell everyone that you don't have to like or even understand football to like FNL, but some of the best moments in the series concern the team and its players, and we don't know a lot about the E Dillon players - at least compared with how we knew the Dillon Panthers in previous years. This episode puts the team back in play.

Moving toward melodrama in a series that doesn't need to go there

Episode 9 of Season 4 of "Friday Night Lights" OK but not up to standard as most of the others, as it brushes dangerously close to melodrama - we follow the Riggins-Becky-Lance subplot as Becky, 16 and pregnant, decides for an abortion, which kind of rocks the father, Lance, who's from a fundamentalist family and is wracked with guilt and concern. To me, this plot strand is stretched too thin and I don't care particularly about these characters, especially Becky, who is hard to read. At the same time, Vince's mom ODs and he struggles to send her to rehab and has to send her to a private facility at $4k - and the only way he can get that money is by edging back into thug life. OK, it's a good social theme and things like this happen all the time I guess, but again it seems a melodramatic element in a story line that's appealing because it generally takes on themes of ordinary kids and families and their ordinary lives - that is, the college trip and the spat over a girlfriend (described in previous post) much more moving to me and more thoughtful than the complex plot lines about life & death. Episode does give Tammy/Connie Britton and her writers to once again make her a fount of wisdom and clear-headedness, as Becky wisely goes to her for counsel. We'll see where this goes - Vince obviously headed for trouble as, strangely, the racial tensions among the older generation are healing as the old guys come together in support of the E. Dillon football team.

Very real, right, true to life : How can you not like Friday Night Lights?

Two examples of the excellence of "Friday Night Lights" (Season 4, episode 9[?]) in that it shows the way people really do act and (usually) not the way characters act on tv and in movies. Much build-up toward the tension between Landry, goofy and intelligent and very average white-guy football player, v Vince, excellent player, black, a step away from going back to juvenile detention (juvey). Landry's become really interested in a black girl in their high school who it turns out was a long-time girlfriend of Vince's and a particular fave of Vince's mom. We've seen a few scenes of Vince staring down Landry as he's begun to date the girl. Landry seems oblivious - keeps waving to Vince, etc. We expect a big showdown on the field, perhaps ruining the team spirit and sending Vince back to juvey. Landry goes up to Vince, says in his goofy way hey why don't ou hit moe or something or whatever you have to do cause I know you're angry and so on - and Vince pauses, stares, taps Landry on the chest with the side of his fist: as if to say, you're okay, end of story. Very real, very right. Similarly, Glen awkwardly confesses to Coach Taylor that drunkenly he'd tried to kiss Tammy. Taylor seems really angry. That night he asks Tammy, she says she meant to tell him - we're expecting some big and pointless fight, Coach says he's then kissed Glen by proxy, and this whole thing becomes a running joke between them - again, very true to life, very right. How can you not like this show?

Has any mother-daughter pair been better cast than Britton and Teegarden?

"Friday Night Lights" season 4/episode 8 brings us on the college tour with Tammy (Connie Britton) and daughter Julie (Amy Teegarden) and you have to wonder whether mother-daughter have ever been better cast - impossible to believe they're not truly related. Also, better scripted (and acted, for that matter, especially Britton) - any parent who's gone on one of these tours and lived through the process as ambitious daughter applies to top colleges and struggles with desire to leave hom and anxiety about doing so, will recognize that they get all the notes and nuances right. As noted, much of this season - and perhaps an underlying theme of the whole series - is getting out and getting away: who leaves the small town of Dillon and never looks back? Who'd drawn back to it? Who can never leave, and what does that do to them? The town has its beauty and charm, as we see when Riggins surveys the 25 acres he hopes to buy. He could, maybe, have a good life there, if he can stop drinking and stay out of trouble. And the camaraderie surrounding football is a (mostly) good quality, that brings people together, across class and (to a degree) racial lines. But we also see that it's a big world and Dillon's a small town. Amy will have to go, and she's able to go - but what about the others, some of whom count football as their only possible way out? We see a few issues developing on this sidelines, so to speak: The Riggins brothers getting into the chop-shop business, Vince staring down Landry as Landry starts to date Vince's old girlfriend, Lance playing through a serious injury sure to get worse.

Just One Kiss: The highlight of this episode of Friday Night Lights

Best scene in Friday Night Lights (season 4, episode 7?) has to be the teachers at (West) Dillon at a karaoke night - more more specifically, the aftermath of same, when bumbling young English teacher who's obviously long had a crush on Tammy (understandably) and obviously interested in her in part because she's out of reach - married, and in any case out of his league, he a confirmed nebish, embraces Tammy at curbside outside restaurant/bar, friendly, congratulating her on her award, she thanking him for the fun evening, and the embrace lasts just a moment too long and as they break he leans in to kiss her on the mouth and she pulls back astonished. Even better, she goes up to him the next day to talk about this - tells him not to feel bad or guilty but it can't happen again. That's just one of the things so smart about this show - they really know how to write for Tammy, making her the smartest and kindest person without in the least being wimpy or simpering or supercilious. She just always seems to know what to say to put things right. A cheaper, dumber show would have made a huge plot point out of this and would have her guilt and anger simmer and maybe the teacher would have done something stupid leading to a fight with Tammy's husband - stupid melodrama. But FNL writers understand how people should act and how they do act, and maybe nothing more will come of this kiss, but they used it very effectively to illuminate character and to create a revealing moment - revealing primarily about Tammy and her poise and wisdom.

Which actor in Friday Night Lights has matured the most?

Episode 6 season 4 of "Friday Night Lights" is somewhat quiet compared with many others, a transitional point in the middle of this season of episodes - the E. Dillon Lions begin to come into their own as a team, playing a heartening game and proud in defeat. Strangely, none of the players have fully emerged the way the players did on the Dillon Panthers in previous seasons, but there are tremendous plot opportunities in the racial tensions on the team, an issue rarely explored in previous seasons - the racial tensions regarding Smash Williams resided largely off the field. This episode more about people leaving Dillon, Lyla (Mrs. Derek Jeter) comes back for a brief turn with Riggins - I do think she's one of the weakest actors in the show - and then she's back to college leaving Riggins morose. I think she's out of his life for good, or ought to be - he's a guy destined for nothing good, I'm afraid. In parallel plot line, Matt takes off in his beat-up old car - there's nothing left in Dillon for him, now that his grandmother doesn't need him and all he's doing is delivering pizzas - except for Julie, but he knows she'll go off to college, too. Very sad moment, and very true to life, as so much is in this series. Landry increasingly emerging as a very good character, his dialogue with Matt as they toss around a football, after the funeral, just great - smart and thoughtful and boyishly awkward and true. Not sure what range the actor has, but seems to me he could potentially be a very good actor in a bigger part, especially with some comic possibilities. He's grown and matured as an actor more than any other in the series.

Every word and action is revealing and true to character: Friday Night Lights

What makes "Friday Night Lights (Season 4)" so powerful is that it's a wonderful balance between the expected and the unknown or unpredictable. As with all really good dramas, you find yourself thinking: what will he say? what will she say to him? In this case: how will Coach Taylor speak to his team? What will he say when Matt shows up at his house distraught? How will he speak to the two players arrested for fighting? Even more so for his wife, Tammy: what will she say to daughter Julie? And, in episode 5, what will Matt say at his father's funeral? There's always a bit of surprise, you can never quite predict what they will say - but once the characters speak and act, it seems so inevitably right that you can't imagine they could have said or done anything differently. Matt's eulogy, about his father pulling toilet paper off the shelf in the supermarket - tells us a great deal about Matt (his clumsy inability to come up with a real memory), the grandma (fussy, picky, cross, wrong brand of toilet paper), the dad (angry, impulsive, we see why he left home), most of all Matt's awkwardness in this situation tells us everything he says his dad was "funny" but this shows us a 6-year-old boy scared of his father's impulses - anyway, you could analyze this one scene for pages. All of the scenes are like this. It's not that there is never an extra word, which was the case with The Wire, but it's that every action is revealing of character and true to the essence of the character - kids, adults, all.

Racism right out in the open: Friday Night Lights

Why so few people watch "Friday Night Lights" remains one of those unfathomable mysteries. Season 4 (?), as Coach Taylor takes over the East Dillon team, is just as great as the preceding seasons - very likable and wise and funny and credible characters, including all the high-school kids and recent grads as well as the adults, And in this season a whole new theme opens up, the history of racism, segregation, and unequal opportunity in Dillon, Texas. Up to now, though the show always recognized that the town had haves and have-nots and that the black kids on the team faced a particular barrier that the white kids do not (the black star running back is all but ignored by recruiters after a run-in with the law, which would not and did not happen to other players), this season puts the theme right out in the open. East Dillon High is a disgrace compared with Dillon, the resources and conditions are horrible - and what's more incredible, actually it's all to credible, is that nobody in the community owns this problem. The Dillon boosters continue to do all in their (ample) power to build a football dynasty and they let the other school - not just talking about football here - and its kids take the dregs and suffer. We see this in every community! It should be a crime, someone should go to jail for that. Football cannot and will not be the savior, but we can see how Taylor's dynamism will help build pride in the team and then, perhaps, in the whole East Dillon community, but they will face man struggles and confrontations along the way. Great series.