Grid Effect

We’re still in the precipice of a hectic work week, so bare with us as we offer up day old news for the first three days of this, the third week of April.

Now desperately seeking an edge to regather its once dominant Nielsen score, Survivor is going HD. Assuming this is the case, the editing team better be working around the clock to verify there are not any exposed body parts.

TV critic Tim Goodman sums up the mentality of NBC comedy fans quite aptly in this op-ed piece. In short, he says we’re comedy elitists who denounce more traditional CBS comedies without giving them a chance. This describes the attitude on Grid Effect almost to a tee, and the odds of us changing up are about 100/1. Call us a snob if you will, but we’ve watched Big Bang Theory and we were mightily unimpressed.

Albert Brooks will play Nancy Botwin’s father-in-law in the fourth season of Weeds. Now, if only they would release the third season DVD’s so I could prepare to watch the fourth season, I’d be all set. But no, Showtime keeps me in suspense, at least with DVD releases and not actual storytelling.

There’s a picture of Mary Louise-Parker’s digitally enhanced naked ass that we wanted to use, but chose this instead. Mainly because violence is so much less-threatening than sex.

Here’s something you don’t see everyday: A reality TV director has been arrested on charges he falsely imprisoned eight women. Apparently he led them into his house with the promise of putting them on a series. A few things about this, first, I thought people that lied about being in showbiz to get women actually had no affiliation with the industry. If you actually have some kind of pull, what’s the point of promising a woman a spot you never plan to give to her, if you can actually put a good word? I suppose you can always be a sick fuck, so maybe that’s the case. Secondly, I think this is another argument for the abolishment of reality television. If it is so mind-numbingly boring for the people involved that they resort to multiple kidnappings, then it’s time to rethink the genre.

A.O. Scott, who we’ve sometimes felt to be pompous, writes a piece about Roger Ebert’s television career that is anything but. Regardless of your opinion of Ebert’s approach to movie reviews, his contribution is undeniable and hopefully a “Better Know a Congressman” segment.

Stephen Colbert is doing his show from Philadelphia all week. We watched last night as Colbert always brings his A-game for the away crowd, and last night was no exception. We recommend tuning in tonight to see an interview with Michelle Obama.

It seems like state employees were really fond of The Wire. Which is strange since that is who the show is usually hammering away on, even with the obvious degree of affection the series portrays the majority of its characters with, they are still perceived as ineffective at best and expendable at worst. But yeah, City Hall in Nashville is still in mourning over its conclusion. I guess that speaks to the caliber of programming that The Wire brought every week.

And finally, Newsday has a column about the difficulties sports-oriented TV series face. We mentioned it yesterday with The Contender, the article focuses mainly on Friday Night Lights, the problems the two shows face might vary, but we think a lot of it is related to sports movies being such a staple in US cinema that diverting from that is unlikely. Sports fans generally have amazingly short attention spans, we think FNL’s ratings failure stems directly from that mindset.

More of the same tomorrow.

My apologies for neglecting the site yesterday, but it’s not as if I was off in the Caribbean getting drunk with models or anything. But rather had to pull a Jason Kidd and sit out the one day. The only difference being that we actually had a migraine. We could have posted yesterday, but it would have been even more incoherent than usual, and that doesn’t do anyone any good. This post is later than usual because we are trying to catch up on some work and varying after effects. Never the less, we are still TV-less on this television website, so here are some more links. We are happy to mail it in everyday, migraine or otherwise.

The FCC is suing FOX over Married By America. I can understand the FCC intervening in shows like 24 or Desperate Housewives or something similar. I don’t condone it, but I can see the logic. Suing a reality show that’s participated and determined by the very people the FCC is supposed to be sheltering…then what’s the point?

Well, on Friday we suggested this might be the case, and you are not going to believe this but, John McCain indeed lied about watching The Hills. I know, I know, it’s shocking. It’s not as relevant as some of Clinton’s gaffes, but it is no less embarrassing. Actually, the situation would probably be all the more alarming if a presidential candidate was actually watching anything on MTV.

If we had any interest in trying to parlay this pedestrian blog into an actual newspaper gig, then we might be shit out of luck. Why? Because like The Wire taught us, newspapers are more interested about their ever depreciating bottom line. And while TV critics might bring in a certain audience the paper wouldn’t otherwise get, they are certainly not the lifeblood of a city publication.

So it looks like the writer’s strike gave networks plausible deniability about some of their series’, and as a result fewer than usual are going to be canceled. Maybe that was the hidden agenda of the writers strike? I mean, if you work on October Road you’re probably getting the boot after a few episodes anyways, right? Might as well encourage a strike, use it as an excuse for unemployment, then if you’re lucky, you’ll have a series to return to work on in the summer. It’s genius, actually.

Is there anything about this series that isn’t wholesome?

According to Jason Katims, there won’t be any significant changes in style or theme for the upcoming season of FNL, just format. Well, you can attempt to cover it all you want Mr. Katims, but we heard differently. Obviously he’s a tool for the corporate machine. Man.

HBO is taking the summer off. Partly as a result of the strike, and partly because they can. So, um, Mad Men will still be around, right? Maybe It’s Always Sunny? God, this site can only become so unappealing before the internet swallows it whole.

And finally, NPR pays tribute to the South Park character least likely to ever listen to an NPR broadcast. At least they acknowledge the series still exists. I figured after the “Smug Alert” episode they were dead to National Public Radio.

Back with something equally bland tomorrow.

This has been a long week here at Grid Effect. The last four days have taken us to task between work hassles, posting hassles and a lack of quality material to post about, the fact we haven’t gone any sort of rampage has been sort of surprising. Even to us. But at least Survivor gave us a decent episode last night, even if it was one of the more depraved things we’ve seen on the series in awhile it restored our faith in the concept of justice on a reality show, despite the fact that Cirie is still there. So here is a fresh batch of links as you prepare for what is sure to be a long day of work or not going to classes.

Proof that politicians will do anything for a vote, John McCain actually put on airs that he watches The Hills, although I’m 90% sure he isn’t aware of how ludicrous that his, since he has no idea what The Hills entails. This is like the time in the fourth grade some classmate asked me if I spit or swallow and I had no idea what the hell he was referring too. The only difference is, I abstained from answering.
We suppose he did so for the “endorsement” from one of the cast members (I’m not even going to do her the favor of writing out her name), but if he ever watched the show he would know that the only people who take this person seriously aren’t old enough to vote or are college-aged girls who claim to hate this girl but watch The Hills every week.

Friday Night Lights is officially coming back to NBC, but not until 2009 and the episodes will air after Direct TV airs them in the fall of 2008. Jesus, talk about getting pwned. I mean, I like the series and all, but for the sake of NBC, I’d probably just pretend I didn’t want the series anymore and then cry myself to sleep every night.
Alan Sepinwall speculates that since so many people use cable over Direct TV, if their will be a spike in illegal downloads for those too impatient to wait for the NBC debut. And in fact, he is absolutely correct, whatever limited support the series gets is going to be spread too thin from everyone watching at different times and paces. Now call me crazy, but I think we’ve encountered something like this before.

So We can either wait to see these two on NBC, or download new episodes on Rip Torrent as they air on Direct TV? Seems like a question that answers itself.

First Mad Men announces their pilot season release on DVD, and now The Wire announces their DVD’s will be made available in August. We will most certainly be splurging for both, but we’d love to see a spinoff series that involved characters from both shows. Everyone would be so confused!

Some guy at the Times wonders why HBO doesn’t remake a series like Skins, a supposed dark teenage series on the BBC. We’re not certain or anything, but we’d like to think that despite HBO’s run of failures as of late, they still have a modicum of decency and standards. Of course, Tell Me You Love Me would suggest otherwise.
Besides, HBO has never been in the business of lifting ideas or series’ for other networks, so it really isn’t terribly surprising they haven’t gotten desperate enough to go for anything like Skins. And am I missing something, or isn’t this eerily similar to Kids, the beyond retarded movie made in 1995 that caused all the fuss over at MTV. Yeah, if it’s still hard too determine, I’m unimpressed with Skins.

See you Monday, kids. Enjoy the final four.

Basketball consumed all of our time and interest last night. Unless you find our trip to the gym and subsequent shower nudged between work and tourney watching to be riveting prose, I’m afraid we have nothing really worth contributing from our personal lives. So, we had to go hunting. Ladies and gentlemen, here is approximately your forty-third batch of links from this website in the short calendar year.

So, Prison Break is now beheading characters during contract disputes, then finding loopholes to return the character once the actor’s negotiations are completed. Man, that is an entirely plateau of leverage. Can you imagine if this were physically possible, how many series producers would take this route with contract renewals, “Well Rainn Wilson, don’t get us wrong, we would like to have you back. We really would. But right now Dwight Schrute’s head is rolling past the Chili’s and is about to exit Scranton if you fail to except this offer. So (leans in dramatically), what will it be?”
Anyhow, the narrative of the series will be that it was someone else’s head that was liberated from his/her body (gasp). Brilliant. I think its been made abundantly clear, but I can’t form into words how much I despise this show. They’re now stealing from middle-tier South Park episodes.

There’s only one way for the Schrute Buck to increase in value.

Lord help us, there is talks of a Hills movie. For those who don’t know, The Hills is a reality series following the grand tradition of MTV shows that celebrates vapid, entitled late teens to mid-twenties girls. My question is, what would the time frame be on a movie like this? I know it’s probably predominately scripted in the first place, but if it takes the better part of a year to fill 100 minutes of screentime, then maybe MTV could find better personalities to make television and (apparently) movies about. There are enough stints of dead silence on one of these episodes that I would feel like I was watching an Antonioni film if it wasn’t for the noticeable overtones of idiocy implicit in every one of them.

Kyle Chandler has joined the echo chamber, and is confident in FNL’s return. We wonder how he’ll take to the new management style.

Hal Holbrook, reprising his role from The Sopranos (not really), will yet again play a terminally ill patient. But this time it will be on ER and probably played a little more melodramatically as well.

Speaking of The Sopranos, David Chase was honored by the WGA with a lifetime achievement award. I guess they felt he needed at least one more honoring, just for good measure. All the while David Simon sits at home with an empty mantle. This could explain Simon’s newspaper plot in his final Wire season, maybe this is all just sour grapes that regardless of his substantial contributions to whatever field he is in, he is always overlooked. I’m kidding, of course. But it would be quite ironic if some sort of tape leaked with him lamenting the lack of an Emmy nomination.

Speaking of Mr. Simon, here’s a trailer for his HBO miniseries slated for July. We were going to watch anyways, but with Tobias Beecher and Ziggy Sobotka carrying much of the acting burden, we’ll gladly do David Simon’s bidding and hammer it down your throats.

Tina Fey wants everyone whose ever been on television or in a tabloid to make a cameo on 30 Rock. Have you been on your local affiliate catching a foul ball at a minor league baseball game or at a cookout performing the heimlich on a relative? Then give Ms. Fey a call, she can probably find time to squeeze you into an episode.

That’s it for a dreadful week in episodic television. We’re going to be honest, we probably won’t be setting the world on fire next week either.

Alright, I have included in a plethora of links posts that Friday Night Lights has signed a deal to renew a third season. This has been going on for about a month now, and it appears a deal has yet to be signed onto. If there were any more hype surrounding this we’d have to change the name of the series from Friday Night Lights to just simply, “Reggie Bush”.

The deal is supposed to be considerably innovative, in which NBC and Direct TV split the cost of the show’s massive budget and both have rights to air on their respective networks. While this is still the deal that is currently being negotiated and one that everybody is “incredibly optimistic” about, we have our concerns.

For one, this is similar rhetoric to what we heard when Arrested Development was going off the air and shopping their series around. They even referenced their search for a new distributor during one of the final four episodes (”Home Building Organization? Nah, HBO doesn’t acquire unoriginal companies” “Well then it’s Showtime! We have to put on a show for the contractors”). Then as a deal was looming, Mitchell Hurwitz went and put the kibosh on it. Talk about an AD film has been resurrected by the cast, but I don’t think Hurwitz has even commented on it.

Deja vu man, deja vu.

Seeing as how the FNL franchise has already released a film with different characters, actors and storyline (that resembled the book much more than the series), it would be a tad absurd to release two films from the same story with the same title. So that is not really an outlet. But we could see Katims and Berg bailing on this series for favor of an alternative project, or if they reject the notion of being put upon by two ratings obsessed corporations as opposed to the usual one (I shouldn’t be too critical of NBC, they were patient with the series but no one watched it for a myriad of reasons). Of course, they closed well and that is the only reason we care if it returns or not.

But assuming the series does indeed return, if you thought the majority of season two was a little too influenced by NBC (which a significant percentage of the fans seemed too), then wait until the writers and producers have two networks breathing down their necks. All I’m saying is in case we do see a return, it might not look like the same series.

Shady Messenger From Direct TV: Jason, we’re going to need a lesbian scene with Lyla and Julie next episode.

Jason Katims (series creator): Sir, the two characters barely know each other. The only time they’ve shared scenes is during football games, and there is virtually no interaction between the two. We can’t just spontaneously have them stripping each other’s clothes off for the benefit of a potential audience that may or may not take notice.

Shady Messenger From NBC: Just put them at a party together or something. Julie’s distraught over Matt yet again and Lyla is drunk and on the cusp of renouncing her faith.

Katims: Surely you guys are joking.

SMFDT (observing text message): No, to the contrary, we’re quite serious. Just have Riggins or one of your other stock characters facilitate the encounter. Feel free to throw him into the mix as well.

Katims: (snickers smugly) Look gentlemen, first off I would hardly call Rigg-

SMFDT: No, you look! You sensitive fuck!

SMFN pulls SMFDT aside as Katims looks puzzled

SMFN (to SMFDT): Let me handle this, it’ll be easier that way.

SMFDT: Fine. (At both of them) I’ve got shit to do anyways.

SMFN leans over towards Katims so they can speak privately amongst the stage crew while SMFDT walks off dejectedly

SMFN: Alright, enough bullshit. Mr. Silverman has had enough of your weepy girlfriends and wives, and brooding male leads that your menial but insane fan base seems so infatuated with. I swear, if I have to open another package to find yet another football from some fucking crazed lonely spinster saying “save FNL!” then I swear to God Jason, that football is going to find its way into your rectum, and it will be as unpleasant as is humanly possible. Do we understand each other?

Katims: (mortified yet unsurprised) Yes sir.

SMFN: Good, now make this happen. I don’t give a fuck if they’re on a trampoline in front of a hundred onlookers or if they’re in Riggins’ truck at the Mexican border. You will do this, or we’ll have your nuts lopped off and make wishes as we throw them into the lake. Am I making myself clear?

Katims: (complacent) I think your suggestion can be accommodated. Thank you, the writing staff will probably love the concept.

SMFN: (Pat’s him on the back) I knew you’d come around.

SMFN turns to leave

Katims: Oh, can you do me a favor?

SMFN redirects his attention to Katims

Katims:Can you not tell Mr. Silverman about this conversation? Tell him…tell him I’m happy to accommodate him in any way he sees fit?

SMFN: Sure. He’ll be happy to hear that, Jason.

In other words, don’t necessarily expect the same series we’re used to seeing.

Back with some links tomorrow.

This is what happens when you rewatch an academy award winning movie instead of one of the more anticipated miniseries’ in about a decade, you have nothing to write on your website about. We saw like the first thirty minutes of it, but it was on mute as not to distract us from the riveting phone conversation we were engaged in. Anyhow, it looked stylistic if somewhat fake, and Giamatti — even with being the title character — is on screen entirely too much.

So yeah, outside of the selection show that is our weekend in a nutshell: we didn’t watch John Adams. Enthralling. We did, however, watch No Country For Old Men last night, and this is on the heels of seeing 3:10 To Yuma earlier in the week, all that is really comparable about the two is the villains. And after seeing No Country again, Antoine Chigurh makes Bud West looks like an OZ prag.

See, clearly Giamatti wasn’t that much of a miscast.

It appears not everyone is immediately giving John Adams a rave review like is usually done. This one is particularly soulless towards Giamatti, whose stock has been plummeting ever since he was integral to that Lady In The Water movie.

But hey, HBO only shelled out $100 million to see this project made, that’s hardly even considered a significant investment for a pay channel. Can someone explain the logic for HBO to invest this heavily in something when they are reliant on subscribers? Few to no people are actually going to pay for HBO as a result of a miniseries, and even if they do, conventional wisdom would suggest that it’ll be canceled two months from now when the series is done. So I guess the incentive is that those people, after being exposed to the majesty that is HBO, will have no choice but to keep the pay network, or be to lazy to cancel it, or maybe its DVD sales and awards are the motivators. Either way, I need an explanation.

If this guy’s opinion counts for anything at all, it looks like Mad Men will go over well with the Brits. There seems to be a proclivity on the other side of the pond for watching Americans wallow in despair. From what I can gather, The Wire has a pretty strong following as well. Of course, I enjoy watching both series’, which I guess would make me a self-loathing patriot. Whatever, I’m not watching 24.

The gang from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is bringing their act to FOX in a new sitcom deal. Or rather, a portion of their act, were not certain FCC guidelines allow for a comedy about finding a dumpster baby. On the other hand, they do allow people to wreck their lives on reality television, so the excessive degree of lewdness could go either way.

To send you out on this Monday morning on a high note, it appears FNL is getting closer and closer to a deal. Good, we don’t want our Crucifictorious t-shirt to be dated before we ever wear it in public. Besides, what is Minka Kelly going to do should this series go off the air.

Slow day, back with more tomorrow.

We decide to partake in a week long tribute to the greatest drama of all time after weeks of monotony in the television industry, and sure enough, news breaks on several fronts that interest us. We’ll be discussing The Wire all day tomorrow and next week, but today we’ll post some links and our Survivor recap later today.

First and foremost, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is returning for a fourth season. We;re not exactly certain what the delay was, every one we know watches and enjoys it, and that is reflected by the stellar 9.6/10 ranking it has on IMDB. Yes, IMDB people tend to consist largely of teenagers with skateboards and dimebags on their person in school, but it indicates a larger audience than FX could ever expect for such an abnormal sitcom.

I can’t believe this was announced in the same week, much less the same day as It’s Always Sunny’s return, or really I can’t believed this was announced at all: Friday Night Lights is set to be renewed for a third season. How, you ask? Direct TV is going to share production costs with NBC and air the series on one of their selected channels. So not only does the series get picked up, it gets a larger platform. The city of Seattle probably wishes they could be so fortunate with the Sonics.

There back this summer, long underwear and all.

So that’s encouraging for two of the series’ we regularly review here, could anything beneficial happen to another, making this an extraordinarily good week for television even if it’s a bad week for everything else? Well, looky here: The Office cast is returning to work today. Holy shit, my head’s spinning with good news this morning. Seriously, I’m like Lucille Osterro right now.

Not exactly news, but we loved this feature on one of the blogs we regularly visit. Three critics each picked a show and argued for that series’ status as the greatest television drama of all time. The three shows in question: The Sopranos, The Wire and Deadwood. If forced to choose, and mind you each series has it’s own characteristics that make it better than the other two, we rank them as such: The Wire stay the king, The Sopranos, Deadwood.

If you’ve ever read this blog you could probably guess that, and its not that we dislike Deadwood but after a season and a half of it we bowed out because it struck us as somewhat one-dimensional. The former two series’ have plenty in common but approach them from different angles, we gave the nod to The Wire because it has a wider range of characters, more of an emotional core, and it emphasizes the political, rather than the personal, which The Sopranos does in spades ever so eloquently.

Speculation on whether or not SNL sparked this Clinton surge is rampant. If it’s true, and it certainly looks like it could be, it would represent a new low in American politics. First off, SNL isn’t even remotely funny anymore. They might as well have us watch the last five minutes of Million Dollar Baby on a continuous loop for ninety minutes, because that would be equally hilarious. Second of all, if sketch comedy shows are determining election outcomes then we really need to collectively reevaluate how are leaders come to fruition, because this is getting absurd. Though to be fair, any of those politically oriented sketches were ten times more persuasive than that bullshit ad with the ringing phone.

We’ve actually known about this for some time, as we saw the movie 25th Hour the week it came out. But Isiah Whitlock, better known as Clay Davis, first used his catchphrase, “Shhhhheeeeiiiit” in the Spike Lee film, not The Wire. Does it kill its efficacy? Not really because it seems so appropriate for the character, it’s just another example of institutional bureaucracy.

Finally, a British man has opened the “Tony Soprano Pizza Shop” somewhere in North Hampton. It immediately becomes the best restaurant in its area, not because of its name, but rather because it serves something edible. This might be better than the local McDonalds.

Back with the Survivor recap later today.

Were back from the weekend, finally. And I have to tell you, nothing sucked the life out of me quite like that Oscar blog. I’ve lived a relatively charmed life, so when I say that’s the closest I’ve been to any sort of torture, you know I’m being serious. It’s about what I imagine being an Al-Qaeda detainee is like, except for the longterm physical abuse and potential death. But it was bad enough that we couldn’t bring ourselves to post yesterday without a specific topic, which we seldom have nowadays.

So here are a few links, the first three days of the week are turning into a mini-preseason. We gear up for writing about Survivor and The Wire by reusing and rehashing the same tired gimmicks over and over again. And though we feel as if we’ve perfected these gimmicks about a year ago, there still might be some benefit in this repetition. Not really, but that’s how we kid ourselves, and we’ll be damned if anyone can take that away from us.

The Oscar’s had their lowest rating since the inception of ratings. “Only” 32 million people tuned in, and while it’s the lowest rating since 1974, the fact that they got 32 million people to watch that tripe is impressive. How often do 32 million people ever do anything simultaneously?

If you’re looking for an endless amount of HBO teasers, well, look no further. It appears the cable network has fully embraced the glory of new media by creating their own youtube page. This is the perfect way for them to lure in non-subscribers to pay for something they probably can’t afford.

Few non-murderers/rapists disgust me more than Heather Mills, and the fact she can actually make me care about her either way I suppose is why she keeps being rewarded for her contribution to the downfall of humanity. Yes, Ms. Mills is parlaying her barely a marriage to Beatles icon Paul McCartney into a cooking show. For the love of all that is holy can she please drop off the face of the Earth?

Prison Break is pulling a Nip Tuck and moving to Miami. Well, I hope they’re moving the fucking prison as well, since the premise of the series is that someone is breaking out of it. Didn’t they ever consider the idiocy of that title if it was going to last passed one season? This fuck-up just about embodies why we rarely watch network television.

NBC is picking up a series based on the classic novel, Robinson Crusoe. We read this book for college and the fucking thing might as well have been in hieroglphyics. If they keep the same diction, we’re probably going to sit this one out.

Isn’t there a more recent novel to base an island series off of? You know, like one written in the past 280 years.

You know there is no justice in the television industry when Women’s Murder Club and Lipstick Jungle are both extended while Friday Night Lights and Arrested Development get the ax. Oh well, we suppose there is a reason your television is often referred to as an “idiot box”.

We’re somewhat hesitant to post anything about a Wire episode before we do our recap and review of it on Friday (If you haven’t seen it yet this is a huge spoiler), but Michael K. Williams has said he wished the character had stayed in Puerto Rico. From a fan standpoint we tend to agree (even though we’re not supposed to like the guy), but we consider his downfall a privilege to watch.

Oh, this is why we don’t watch any primetime television: the broadcast networks apparently do not want me too. Or, at least that’s how I interpret the airwaves being overrun with “cougars”. For those completely turned off by contemporary nomenclature (I usually am, but am unfortunately in tune with it), a “cougar” is an older woman who sleeps with a significantly younger guy, the female equivalent to the older guy who has a trophy wife. The only time we’ve found this unique or interesting is in Weeds, and the woman is a widower.

Speaking of which, Weeds apparently shares a number of similarities with Breaking Bad, a series we kind of regret missing and now it is only enhanced.

That’s it for today, we’ll try to keep to fresh tomorrow. An essay of some sort, maybe. Probably not, but maybe.

We’re plum out of material this morning. So when in doubt, always attempt to conjure up some wild speculation and make a bigger deal out of it than it really is. So that’s what we’ll do today, because as far as actual television to dissect and discuss we’re still suffering from what the networks have to provide. A friend of mine asked me what I’m going to do once The Wire finishes its series three weeks from now (rumor is the finale won’t be on demand).

And that is a good question, I’m either going to turn this into a sports blog or put a bullet in my head. Tough to say, probably whichever is most convenient at the time. In other words, which is in my nearest vicinity: a computer or a gun. I don’t own any guns, and anyone who we would watch the finale with doesn’t either, so this whole thing resolves itself. And see, who said violence on television is desensitizing? Given, my friends and I might be ill-prepared for any sort of revolution, but we live in Columbus, Ohio; so the cause for concern is slim to none. The only time a firearm is useful in Columbus is when OSU beats Michigan or a non-conference opponent early in the season, then you can prevent a clan of rowdy frat boys from going all Rosewood on your house.

Anyway, when we heard there is potential for a Wire movie, or at least it was mentioned in this interview with Dominic West, we decided things might not be so grim after all. What with the rampant speculation of an Arrested Development movie, we might have to bail on television sooner rather than later if film is the only outlet for material of this caliber. Given, David Simon said he went into the Wire with a five season plan, but he also went into it with the notion that Omar would die in the first season, and he started the fifth season with the impression he’d have a full twelve episodes.

Point being, plans often change, and I could see a Wire movie working perfectly fine. They’d just have to condense their usual length to a 150 minute max (actually your average Wire fan could probably sit through a five hour saga if given the same stylization), which would entail fewer plot lines, but if that gives us an illustration of McNulty and Bunk when they first started working in homicide together, then the last place you’ll here any complaints from is this website. People are quick to suggest that adapting successful films or television shows into one or the other always kills the efficacy of what was accomplished. Sports media and fans are apt to saying this as well about athletes who come out of retirement.

Yeah, like a shitty movie would tarnish this image.

We call bullocks. The notion that Michael Jordan’s legacy is tarnished because he teetered along for two sub-par seasons in his early forties with the Wizards in which they failed to make the playoffs is absurd. It wasn’t exactly glamorous, but has anyone forgotten about all the playoff games from the two 3-peats? If anything, his playing stint in Washington has been swept under the rug and abandoned by the collective memory of NBA die hards.

If The Wire writers were unable make the leap from television to film and produced a clunker (which we’d find totally flummoxing), the same thing would happen. Anyone who would watch this movie and felt like it betrayed the series, wouldn’t forget the Bodie’s or Wallace’s or Sobotka’s or Freamon’s, but rather in three months time they’d forget about the $10 they spent to see a movie they’d otherwise wish didn’t exist. And while we know Simon is indifferent towards awards or any sort of critical recognition, I think I speak for all fans when I say that if the Emmy’s won’t recognize him, it would sure as shit be great if the Oscar’s did.

Switching gears, NBC is discussing a potential movie of their own. It appears that they figure if they can’t attract a regular audience for Friday Night Lights to warrant renewing the series, then they might as well give it a two hour finale, in what they’re calling a made for TV movie. While this is better than nothing and more than any of us could hope for, we do not like this label. Considering the bulk majority of the series revolves around high school students, that means in the span of two hours someone will die of cancer, a drunk driving accident and/or a heroin addiction.

But still, two hours of Friday Night Lights to tie up the bevy of loose ends is almost necessary for its preservation. No one wants to stake claim in a series about football that ends in the middle of a season, and word of mouth will cease and desist, leaving its legacy almost non-existent. So we say on with the two hours (if not a series extension), we’ll take all the after-school specialness that can afford us if it at least attempts a bit of finality.

The good news is that Peter Berg directed the theatrical release of FNL, so he at least brings as much experience as possible to such an endeavor. Jesus, it just dawned on us, a theatrical film, a television series, and a potential television movie…we wonder if H.G. Bissinger had suspicion that his acclaimed novel would blow up like this while he was writing it.

It looks like we’ll have more material within a couple months. Why is that, you ask? Well, because the strike has, for all intensive purposes come to an end. Depending on which side you listen to, the other side won (not terribly surprising that everyone in Hollywood opts to play the victim card). But still, they can at least move on from all this hullabaloo and get back to entertaining us. In two months time we should be having weekly recaps of The Office, and, ummm, huh; well, maybe additional Friday Night Lights episodes. Well, that’s on top of South Park, which should be returning sooner rather than later.

So for the foreseeable future on Grid Effect, we’ll be recapping Survivor and The Wire. At some point in the next couple months South Park will be added to the docket, followed by The Office and potentially (though unlikely) FNL will be recapped as well. That’s five shows, about the best we ever do on this website.

If you’re a fan of the outrageous as opposed to the realistic, then I have some bad news for you, my friend. It appears Heroes and 24 are both done for this television season. That means no detonating nuclear missiles and no cheerleader that always wears her competitive outfit, even while saving the planet. If these things appeal to you, then 2009 will look much brighter than 2008. Also, if you’re looking for an upcoming schedule of which series’ will return to the airwaves when, then look no further.

The strike cost tinseltown an estimated $2 billion dollars. $2 billion. What is the country spending on the war per month? Doesn’t this have to ballpark it? $2 billion for roughly three months is $666,666,666 per month. Clearly I need to be making friends with these people as opposed to mocking them and their sometimes lazy, pedestrian work.

According to a recent survey — which are never inaccurate, much like exit polls — half of all British men would sacrifice six months for a new plasma. First off, six months is nothing. In the immortal words of George Costanza, “I could do six months on my head”. Secondly, suppose we lived in Britain, if we were to give up sex for six months for anything, it would probably be a pizza, or a cheeseburger, or something remotely edible. Not like the awfulness that is mainstream over there. And thirdly, if we’re giving up sex with just Great Britain residents, it’s not something we’d consider a huge loss. So we’d probably be willing to sacrifice sex in Great Britain for six months for a pack of mentos and a new basketball….But that’s just us.

To be fair, we value a pack of these like most people value their offspring.

For whatever reason, Craig Ferguson is voluntarily suggesting that should Letterman leave his post, that Jon Stewart should be named his successor, and not him. I mean, he’s right, but that’s not entirely the point. Has anyone ever voluntarily given up his opportunity to move up a time slot in the late night game? Christ, even Carson Daly is contending to fill Conan O’Brien’s shoes. And as little as we think of Craig Ferguson, Daly makes him look like Carson. In a way I admire this. He’s content with his position (which is a comfortable one) and doesn’t have an over-sized ego that needs validation, but it’s just so atypical.

FNL wasn’t intended to be a cliffhanger on Friday, which we find befuddling. They knew a strike was looming, they knew how many episodes they made and they knew what would happen in the final episode. So…what was the intention again? Look, we know you’re trying to bait Ben Silverman into extending the series at the expense of your fans, and that is fine, just own up to it. As fans, most of us probably appreciate the effort. But your series is too good for us to think you’re a retard, so just own these shenanigans and we’ll call it a day.

Finally, The Wire gets some award recognition. Along with 30 Rock, the WGA anointed these two programs best writing in a comedy and drama. I guess this is appropriate, writers recognize great writing, and is just another indication that we need to start watching 30 Rock.

Speaking of The Wire, here’s an interview with Lance Reddick and how he almost came to play crack addicted Bubbles instead of the straight and narrow, well-intentioned yet ladder climbing police lieutenant. I wonder if there’s any mention of those Cadillac commercials. Enter into this with caution, he has a completely different voice than what he uses on the series, the only person it seems like you can’t say that about is the one character with the most uniquely baffling accent: Snoop.

That’s all we have for the time being, back tomorrow with — yyyyyaaaaawwwwn — probably more of the same.

Though we usually do these on Friday, we figured since it is probably the last episode of the series, and it would free up the time for us to do our weekly Wire recap during the week (though those take twice as long to write as anything else we’ve done or will ever do), we’d just bump it up to a ho-hum day like Monday, wherein everything we watched the night before was a rerun.

It was a good episode to finish on, even with the limited finality to it. I mean, you could make a bunch of assumptions about the trajectory everything will take: Street will be a 19 year-old father, Riggins will hook up with Lyla, Landry does the same with Tyra, Saracen becomes a serial killer, Smash becomes a doctor, Eric and Tami live happily ever after. But assuming any of this would be absolutely presumptuous.

And that’s what’s so disappointing about them ending on a high note, if the dismal season has just continued its dismalness, then we wouldn’t be in a position where its actually regretful that they’re being pulled off the air mid-season. There is talk of ESPN, Bravo or USA picking up the series, should NBC neglect to renew it, but something like that isn’t in the foreseeable future. First the writer’s strike has to officially end, then NBC has to officially cancel the series, then the creators have to shop the series around, then cut a deal, then write, film, edit and produce all the episodes before a single one can air.

So as you can see, even if the series is going to finish its second season, it’ll be potentially a solid year before we see any results. Therefore, on this website were going to just assume the series is over and done with, so as not to be disappointed when it doesn’t come back (and elated if it does).

There was nothing particularly unique about Friday’s episode, essentially several male characters competing over women or rehashing old rivalries. Well, let me restate that, Tami Taylor’s old high school suitor coming back into the fray much to coach Taylor’s chagrin was unique in that we haven’t seen him yet, and that he was played by Peter Berg. The same Peter Berg who is a producer on this series, was the director on the Friday Night Lights movie, and played “Irish” Terry Conklin in The Great White Hype. While he’ll definitely be better remembered in the mainstream for the former two contributions, he’ll always be the dimwitted amateur boxer with a mean overhand right to me.

See, he’s not instigating anything. Just catching up on old times.

Anyhow, seeing Taylor’s perturbed response to his spry, overly-enthusiastic and transparently affable demeanor was something a bit uncharacteristic for him. Typically he’s the Cedric Daniels of Dillon, Texas. Never shook, always noble and willing to offer a helping hand, but his wife’s last boyfriend whose relationship he may or may not have sabotaged resurfacing in Dillon is too much to handle, especially when he refuses to leave. This all culminates in a fight in some restaurant called Carmello’s which is actually a restaurant in Austin, apparently.

Maybe the issue wasn’t the returning ex-boyfriend, but everything else Taylor is dealing with. Namely, Smash demanding his ascendence into a top-tier division I football program. While in reality, he’d still be going to a big 12 or SEC school without any repercussions or fallout, he is relegated to limiting his options to mid-majors in TV land, and settles on Whitmore, an under-performing but close-knit football team.

No word on how quickly Noelle dumps him, but we assume it was abrupt and unpleasant. She reminded us of Bill Paxton’s wife in this really great but obscure 1998 film, A Simple Plan. In the film, Paxton, his borderline retarded brother (naturally played by Billy Bob Thornton) and his alcoholic friend find a bag of cash while hunting, plan to keep it stashed away until any concern for it blows over, and things sort of devolve from there. Throughout the course of the film, Paxton’s wife continually offers up plans as to evade suspicion and every single plan she has ends catastrophically. Paxton even has a line at some point in the film, “Every time we do what you suggest, someone ends up dead!” As you would imagine, its fucking hysterical.

Anyhow, we actually see Smash make the transition from Taylor as his high school father figure to the college coach taking up the responsibility. If this scene reminded us of anything, it reminded us of how Taylor convinced Voodoo to come to Dillon. Hopefully this has better results. Not like we’ll ever know or anything.

College daddy is much more flexible than high school daddy.

Oh, and Taylor is also preoccupied offering child-rearing advice to former players, namely a one Jason Street, whose one night stand from a month or so ago has turned into an experiment in paraplegic fertility. And wouldn’t you know it, he’s producing sperm! Seeing this as quite possibly his only chance to have a child, Street spends the entire episode trying to convince said woman whose name has escaped me to have his child. The episode ends with him pleading with her to “just give it a chance”, which is a little meta, but comical. We tend to think the Street character is a little too tightly wound, but we can see his urgency here. For someone who was always so respectable and committed, we don’t expect him to lose those character traits with the function of his legs.

Also, we’ve been impressed how little this storyline has inflamed conversations about abortion rights because it is so easy for these commenter websites to spiral out of control about something more or less off topic. We suppose this speaks to the caliber of fan of this series.

Switching gears rather abruptly, Riggins is still chasing Lyla, whose greatest advantage will turn out to be his willingness to screw her like an animal, something the chaste Chris seems unwilling or incapable of doing. This, as has been made explicitly clear, is something Lyla is sorely lacking in her life, and while Chris seems remarkably confident for someone so seemingly inexperienced, his chances aren’t looking all that great. He can take heed that he’ll probably be immensely more successful post high school. Something tells me that such a sentiment wouldn’t be very comforting at the moment. Also, we suspect that the radio thing wasn’t only for comedic, plot developing effect, but also something Riggins might end up doing after his high school career.

Other notes:
-Virtually no Julie, but being impressed/embarrassed by her father’s chivalry.

-Landry seems content with Tyra, though her attention span will never stay attached to someone like Landry. He isn’t enough of a drunken lout. Though he is scoring touchdowns in blowout football games.

-Matt seems to have recovered from his existential crisis from last week, but is still wallowing in despair and scorning all women. We didn’t hear much from him all episode.

-Still no Buddy and very little Santiago, which we can’t say was missed.

Definitely a high note and one of their three better episodes this season. We’ve never needed anything groundbreaking, just growth with the already perfectly developed characters, and that is what we got. At this point we almost need those last six episodes for a sense of closure, and so it gives the second season an opportunity to be deemed a success. Because four out of fifteen episodes being strong, does not a successful season make.

Anyhow, we feel like Helen Hunt in Cast Away, we’re not sure whether to move on or mourn this loss. Will it return? Is it gone forever? If it is, what, exactly, would we fill its void with? We imagine nothing.

Back with links tomorrow.

Like was stated in the post on Monday, FNL really experienced a return to form in this episode. Virtually all the camera time was devoted to characters we are familiar with and appreciate, the storylines all felt interwoven, significant and realistic (sans the Smash’s arc. but we’ll get to that in a second) and nothing was overwritten. Any melodrama that was attached to this episode only came out when it was appropriate.

So yeah, we’ve had about fifteen episodes this season, and this is the first one to revolve around Matt Saracen. The quarterback. On a show supposedly about high school football and the community it resides in. Anyhow, his fallout this episode after the abandonment of Carlotta (which was two episodes ago) was a long time coming, never the less, it shouldn’t have been 3/4’s of the way through what is probably their final season. The scene with Taylor dragging him down the hallway then throwing him in the shower, only to feel guilty about it after Matt completely unloaded was probably one of the more poignant scenes this series has had.

And yet it felt inorganic in a way. While Saracen has been piddling away in the background for most of the season, there was really no suggestion that he was on his last straw with Carlotta, or how much he was actually attached to her. It appears it was more about his own issues with feeling unwanted than anything to do with his twenty-something Latino girlfriend, but that only became apparent in that scene with him in the shower. But in a single episode he goes from living everyday of his life like he normally would, to skipping class to get drunk with Riggins, patroning strip clubs and only showing up to practice drunk, which not only is Riggins built better for, but also his position (fullback) accommodates such behavior much better than Saracen’s.

And see, they followed up last episode brilliantly with just a small callback to it, when Riggins approaches Lyla and Chris’ lunch table and intentionally makes everyone uncomfortable except himself. This was surprising yet welcomed, typically this season they’ve dropped plot lines altogether then would pick them up several episodes later, which is alright if you remind us that it exists in moments like this. I suppose that’s hard to do when there are six different stories going at once, and there is never an effort to have them intersect. Obviously you can’t have the same two or three arcs dominate every episode, but just a reminder that they’re still ongoing is crucial.

Anyhow, That Chris kid seems fairly certain that Riggins won’t knock him on his ass, I suppose that’s the result of devout Christianity, but I really have no idea. People have been murdered over much less attractive women then Minka Kelly. And the culprit isn’t always necessarily shitfaced, neither.

The Smash storyline, while we thought the acting from Gaius Charles was superb in this episode, and the writing and pacing of it in this episode alone was fantastic, it has all felt so outrageous. We like the concept of Smash, someone whose spent his entire life relying on football as his sole means to an end, finding his athletic future (and thus his future in general) in jeopardy. But over slugging some kid in a movie theater? People are aware of how much high profile athletes get away with, right? We could see him being suspended for one high school game, but for the remainder of the regular season and to have his scholarship revoked? Please. There were kids at my high school on the football team who got D.U. fucking I’s and missed nary a start.

Point being, public perception carries the day in matters like these. If an entire voting block like the town of Dillon disapproved of Smash missing the subsequent three games, somehow or someway Smash would wind up on that field at the end of this episode, not crying devastatingly in the locker room. The writing for this episode worked perfectly, but there had to be a better manner of getting to this point in his character.

This reminds me of the whole Randy Moss debacle. He was set to got to Florida State, got into trouble over something, they suspended his scholarship and he signed with Notre Dame. Naturally he got into trouble again, and ended up going to an inferior but recognizable D-1 school in Marshall, in Huntington, West Virginia just outside of his hometown. If you are unfamiliar with who Randy Moss is, he just set the single season NFL record for touchdown receptions on the New England Patriots.

So really, if Smash is the prolific running back that the series would have us believe, if he couldn’t get into TMU (UT), then he would definitely be signing at Tech, or A&M, or Alabama who was literally stalking him and his family a couple episodes ago.

Whoa ho, it appears Landry’s not the only one with options. Though I think the above is as absurd as him dating Tyra.

Landry did in fact make a mistake dropping Jean for Tyra. This may be an unpopular opinion given the nature and aesthetic appeal of Tyra Collette, but she just seems really unpleasant to be around. And despite how much Landry wants to tell himself otherwise, the two of them have nothing in common. Remember his referencing West Side Story and her being completely unfamiliar with it? Yeah, not that I’m all that into musicals or anything, but someone who didn’t even know what it was I don’t think I could talk to, or take seriously in any way. I had a friend who didn’t believe in evolution, but didn’t even know what intelligent design or creationism was either.

Anyhow, I like how the writers have handled their relationship. If they had avoided that absurd murder plot, it would have been perfect, actually. But then why would Tyra have ever slept with him in the first place if he hadn’t had done her killing for her? God that made me nauseous. It is also appreciated that Jean is looked upon as sympathetic in this situation, and that there is a great chance that Landry ends up regretting this.

Other notes:

-The Julie character annoys the hell out of me. She actually had something to be bitter about this episode and it was still unbearable.

-Though we loved the scene outside of the DMV with the instructor and Tami, but the scene with Tami waving to her daughter as she pulled off for her drivers test was pretty overly fucking sentimental. Something that this series is occasionally guilty of, but the episode was so brilliant that we’ll let it slide.

-No Street, No Herc, no Santiago, very little Buddy and Lyla tends to make a good episode. Not because any of these characters are completely contrived or uninteresting, but because it let the stories they focused on breath a little more.

Clearly, without a doubt the best episode so far into the second season. And with only one episode left until the strike overtakes this series as well, it is almost regrettable. We were all ready for its inevitable cancellation as of “Humble Pie”, but now we’ve been reminded of how great it can be, and want to see it renewed. Tonight could very well be the last episode ever of this series, so enjoy it while you can. Because their is little incentive for NBC to greenlight the production of the last five or six episodes (you mean putting it on Friday nights didn’t increase the ratings? But, but, it has the word “Friday” in the title. How is this possible?) much less renew them for a third season.

Oh well, we can always hold out for AMC or a premium network to pick up the series.

Back with a Wire recap sometime before Sunday night.

Just a few links to continue this dreary two week stint (and counting) on this website. The only television we watched last night was Daily Show and Colbert Report, both of which furthered the ongoing feud between the comedy central hosts and the future tonight show host. We have to say, in lieu of the writers, continuing this running gag is probably the best alternative for both parties. All three personalities were featured on both variety shows, look for Colbert and Stewart to pop up on Conan’s show some time in the near future (They may have already gone on last night, we didn’t bother to find out though).

Here’s something with Jeff Probst walking through the new tribal council for the upcoming Survivor season. We didn’t watch it, because any type of Survivor hype strikes us as unsettling, unnecessary and flat out corny, in fact its probably the sole reason we didn’t bother to watch the series for its first eight or nine seasons. Essentially, we’re just posting this as an excuse to remind you that there is a new season starting Thursday, and it can only improve from last season.

Here’s an incredibly misinformed article from The Guardian relating celebrity to American politics. Clearly, and we don’t know how else to say this: this cat has obviously never been to a red state. Anyhow, relative to the article, if we’re picking our nation’s leaders based on their caliber of celebrity endorser, Obama (Clooney and Larry David) beats Clinton (Ted Danson and Barbara Streisand) in a fucking landslide.

Jason Bateman confirms Jeffrey Tambor’s confirmation of his previous declarations. Also, he adds what we already did about the decision lying solely on Mitchell Hurwitz’s shoulders. Jesus, you know, its not like the majority of the cast is struggling post AD. Cera has been in two featured films that have grossed tons of money and critical acclaim, Bateman is regularly in films with large releases, Portia De Rossi is trudging along on Nip Tuck, David Cross and Will Arnett are perennially in pedestrian comedies. All this success and they still want to reunite, that in and of itself is surprising and almost unprecedented.

The one-time president of the Bluth Company.

It’s looking grim for the future of Friday Night Lights. Not exactly news, but when the president of entertainment admits as much, then there is virtually no reason to be hopeful. Naturally, this announcement comes in the aftermath of what is unequivocally their best episode of the season. Whatever, I’m sure they can fill their time slot with yet another hour of Deal or No Deal.

Speaking of our favorite melodrama, here’s an article with writers from The Office, Mindy Kaling (Kelly) and Ryan Koh, writing the synopsis for the final episodes of the current FNL season and the climactic (also comedic) scene of the finale. There are four other features similar to this in the article, with television writers taking over for series’ completely different from their natural skill set, though this is the only one involving two series’ we watch.

Oh, and in case you were really anticipating the end of the writers strike, just settle down. Because even if it ended to day, we’d still have a month long hiatus before a new episode aired. Oh, and the WGA would also like to remind you that a deal has yet to be reached. So yeah, don’t look to drop your new healthy and productive lifestyle just yet.

So, is there a more appropriate post to do the day after the Superbowl? I really can’t think of anything relevant outside of the game. Speaking of which, and we don’t want to complain too much, we won a bundle of money last night and enjoyed it thoroughly, but after watching thirty seconds of the Puppy Bowl on Animal planet, the latter clearly had better production values then the former. I mean, they had a camera on the bottom of the water bowl. This is the Animal Planet equivalent of the Card Cam in poker. A freaking camera! We all get to look the puppies in the eye as they are enjoying their sustenance. Man, that is genius.

This pretty much summarizes the three hour telecast, it’s very sophisticated.

As far as commercials went, we thought they were vastly improved on recent years. A lot of talking animals though. Seriously, it was like a fucking Pixar movie. Maybe ad executives looked at how much money those movies regularly bring in, then hoped the same theory would translate to televised advertising, because the abundance of non-sentients verbally exchanging opinions and emotions was hard to not notice. Anyhow, we liked the one with the baby and the hired clown, though we can’t remember what product or service was being hawked, so we’re not sure how effective it was. That award goes to the Career Builder ad where the woman’s heart literally jumped out of her body and handed in her walking papers in hopes of a more altruistic career path. In fact, it served as nightmare fuel.

Some links:

Jeffrey Tambor (aka George Bluth) has now joined Jason Bateman on the campaign, blazing a trail for the Arrested Development movie to be made. I’m giddy, but also realistic, because all of these actors opinions are only good for verifying that they’d be willing to participate. Nothing gets made until Mitchell Hurwitz decides he wants to make it. Considering he was part of the reason the deal with Showtime was shutdown, we’re still only cautiously optimistic.

We are inching closer to the writer’s strike concluding, we kind of don’t care about the details so we didn’t read the article. But still, if this means FNL can pick up where it will leave off this Friday in a couple months, then we are all for it. Speaking of which, after a disappointing episode, they really stepped up their game and delivered what’s definitively the best episode of the second season this past Friday. Seriously, that was vintage season one FNL, the reasons everyone in the small but loyal fan base became so devoted to it in the first place were exemplified three nights ago.

Even with the news of a pending agreement, talks were postponed until after the Superbowl. To which we ask: Who gives a shit? They canceled Sunday school when I was younger for the Superbowl (we used to question the validity of this since we never got off for the NBA all-star game) and it was always a letdown in the mid-90’s. But that was irrelevant, because it’s virtually a national holiday at this point regardless of what some might consider the pervasive elements that surround it, and its place in the cultural landscape is undeniable. If people put matters of faith on hold for it, then it really shouldn’t come as any surprise when a gaggle of millionaires set business aside on a fucking Sunday.

This is probably it for today, back with something similarly non-descriptive tomorrow.

A couple notes while channel surfing last night. We strolled through ABC during the big season premiere for Lost, and it appears they’ve somehow gotten guns on the island. This is good, there’s no way that show could survive without some random plot device. And guns are the best of all random plot devices. Honestly this show is the closest thing to a WWF match there is on scripted television. Its like a revolving door of unexpected characters walking into camera shots, then a tension filled score is queued up and everyone either rejoices or scorns. Someday, I’m sure I’ll understand the fascination, but it is currently beyond me.

You people must think I’m going through some sort of male menopause with how bitchy I’ve been this week. But I can assure you, my tone on this site only correlates with my disgruntled state in relation to the world of television. In most conversations I usually evoke a sunny disposition. Except for when I’m talking about television, then heads roll.

As you can imagine, we were not very big fans of this episode. We can’t figure out if this title is referring to one or several of its characters, or the writers inability to write a predominate amount of original, organic storylines, or the writers current standing in their labor strike. Either way, it didn’t resonate.

They rehashed about three different themes this episode that were significant in the first season. Namely, Tim being in love with Lyla (understandable, but redundant), Smash dealing with Texas racism (from a peer, rather than a coach) and Tyra taking a stab at athletics (volleyball instead of football). All of which, while executed with subtlety and nuance in the first season, are now heavy-handed and predictable.

The Tim-Lyla storyline ended somewhat early in the episode. He discovered last episode she is dating some good-intentioned choir boy, essentially his polar opposite, and demanded she attend his house where he prepared dinner then promptly apologized. In short, he vowed his love again, she for the umpteenth time rebuffed his advances and compensated by loaning him $3,000 she either stole from her dad or the church, so he could payback the meth-addict he ripped off.

And they can’t just report this clown to the cops because…

This devolved into a confrontation with said meth-addict and his unsavory looking cronies pulling a gun on Tim and Billy. It is well-acted and all, but how many people can be living outside the law on this show?

Also in legal trouble? Smash, who cold-cocked some sniveling kid for making an inappropriate remark about Sidney Poitier in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. Oh, I’m sorry, I mean about Smash dating his new beau, Noelle. For some reason this is a public concern, filled with press conferences, public apologies and accusations, some kid punched another kid in a movie theater over a girl, how is this “news”? Shit, I imagine something like this happens in Dillon at least three times a day. And did we ever see a single news report about the guy Landry and Tyra murdered? And yet we have local “press” tracking Smash down at an Applebee’s. Maybe Katims and them are trying to make a point about the misplaced priorities in the journalism industry, a la The Wire’s fifth season. Then again, maybe its just an oversight by the FNL team.

In good god we get he makeup of these characters news, Tyra is now playing volleyball at Tami’s request. And since there isn’t another capable adult woman in all of Dillon and FNL is pushing their luck just being on the air much less expanding their budget, Mrs. is also coaching the team. Anyhow, due to relationship struggles, Tyra takes her frustration out on the volleyball and leads the winless Dillon team to their first victory in eight efforts. This would be great if virtually the same thing didn’t happen last year in the powderpuff football game. Tyra was bitter towards Lyla for sleeping with Tim, and indicated as much with her tackle play in a flag game.

The episode wasn’t all bad (note: even when it’s bad I enjoy it), Street’s plight has been an great character arc since the pilot, and last Friday was no exception. Of course we would have loved to have seen him lash out at the Texas caricature of a woman who was sabotaging his work at the dealership. You have to love Buddy’s mentality. He does something borderline charitable by giving Street a job, but indeed benefits from it by manipulating customers by forcing the disabled local football hero’s sales pitch on them. Street has always been exceptional, in character and intelligence so he probably would excel at hawking cars regardless. But Buddy spontaneously offering him a job was really in character.

Seeing Landry move on from Tyra was entertaining and (finally) realistic. While there is no accounting for him and Tyra completely forgetting they conspired to murder someone, throwing Jean into the fray is a smart move, because it helps the characters and the audience move on as well. If they continued with Landry obsessing over Lyla, it’s a constant reminder that he murdered someone in her name. Additionally, we welcome the introduction of Jean, since we prefer her to Tyra anyways. Namely because she has a brain that operates outside of self-preservation. Honestly, has Tyra ever expressed interest in anything beyond her own concerns? I guess with her mom, but isn’t she immediately effected by her well-being? Whatever. Welcome to the cast Jean, we hope your residence lasts for at least the remainder of the season. Or at least the last two episodes NBC has ready to air before they go on an indeterminable hiatus.

We’re obviously not anywhere near bailing on the series, but if we missed an episode here or there, we wouldn’t be regretful about it. That, in and of itself, is a far cry from the brilliance of the first season.

Wire recap later today or Sunday.