Grid Effect

A few more links to close out the week. It’s kind of absurd how top-heavy our TV viewing is: Two series’ on Sunday, one on Monday and one on Tuesday, then nothing Wednesday-Saturday; and that’s likely not going to change anytime soon. I hate the site being so monolithic and then just changing pace for the second half of the week, but we’re not dictating the terms ’round here. Unless something unusual arises, expect this pace on Grid Effect to continue until It’s Always Sunny starts up.

Onto some links…

Here’s Jeremy Piven saying “fuck” on CNN’s web site. Oh no, someone cursed on the interwebs? What’s happened to us?! Anyways, I’d expect a media shitstorm over this if he had been on, say, Larry King or something equally reputable; because he’s Jeremy Piven and everyone hates his guts these days. But not even the most sanctimonious prick can get worked up about someone cursing on a streaming internet video. Please tell me I’m right about this.

Big news coming out of HBO’s media day or whatever it’s called in television. To summarize, Hung, True Blood and Entourage were all renewed (no surprise considering that all three of them are dramatically moving the dial), Treme isn’t going to premiere until August, and a second season of Life and Times of Tim is in production stages but they haven’t decided where to schedule it. The two series’ that are still waiting to hear where they stand: The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency and Flight of The Conchords.

The latter of which is likely to come back for a third season, though I didn’t even realize they were seeking a renewal. Last I heard, –and kind of just assumed because the series ended with Bret and Jemaine doing a “Stomp” like rendition in New Zealand– they were undecided if they wanted to do a third season, since I don’t think they ever regarded themselves as TV people, as evidenced by Bret Mackenzie’s non-satirical band, The Black Seeds. At least I think it isn’t satire.

Heard this in Breaking Bad episode, “4 Days Out”; season two, episode nine. Turns out it goes well with a montage for cooking meth.

For those who actually give a shit (read: the pitiable and disenfranchised), John and Kate return next week, and Kate’s going to don a bikini at some point. Great! Even more reason not to watch. They need to make more of an effort to render this show unwatchable, if just to save us from Satan’s embrace.

Larry David said that the Seinfeld cast members will appear sporadically throughout the upcoming season, scheduled to premiere on September 20th. He said it’s possible that they’ll touch on Michael Richards’…incident at The Laugh Factory from a couple years ago. I don’t really see how they can miss an opportunity like this if Larry is still living with the Blacks. It was almost tailer-made for him to put into a television show.

Here’s a study profiling average usage in cable, and reportedly 22% of us are substituting online viewing for it, either cutting back on costs or canceling it altogether. What a revelation. I never would have thought that when you made the exact same viewing experience available through other mediums at a discounted rate, people would actually take advantage of it.

And finally, it has been reported…I don’t know how many times, but I can’t recall if we ever brought it up or not: you will not see fictional Ray Drecker’s fictional penis anytime soon on Hung. I understand this is a big disappointment or relief for a lot of you, and to both parties I would like to say that you’re the reason I never feel bad when I don’t leave my house all weekend. I guess I should thank you for the excuse.

Have a good weekend, we’ll be back on Monday with the standard recaps.

No television to recap and that’s kind of a good thing. For how irregularly we post on this site yesterday was a fucking marathon. Here are a few links, because we have nothing else to write about. Sorry, we didn’t watch Rescue Me last night, I was too busy losing another basketball game. We only lost by fourteen this time, that’s a considerable improvement over the 98-54 drubbing from the week before. Seriously, we’re like the fucking Bad News Bears out there. That’s probably why I’m mailing it in today, I’m fucking depressed that a fourteen point loss is a good news.

For all you hopeless romantics out there, I have some bad news: David Alan Grier is getting divorced. I would make a “if these kids can’t make it, what hope is there for the rest of us” joke, but honestly,  if the star of Little Man can’t hold a marriage together, we might as well all just give up. What a tragic day this was when it broke last Thursday. I almost feel like I knew about it at the time.

Some endeavors weren't as successful as others.

Well, if nothing else, HBO’s upcoming Jack Kevorkian biopic is going to have as strong of a cast as any HBO original in ever made: first Al Pacino and now Susan Sarandon and John Goodman. Sarandon’s a good actress but her and her non-husbands reactionary politics drive me fucking crazy. Goodman, on the other hand, is probably one of my favorite character actors around. Ever since Dan Connor and Walter Sobchak he gets a pass for life. And if you don’t know who those characters are, then we can’t be friends.

Richard Hatch’s request to be let out of prison in time for another Survivor reunion has been denied. How long was his sentence? Is this starting to seem excessive to anyone else? For the time he got he might as well have tried to rob a bank. Maybe since I never saw what a prick he was in the two season’s he’s already competed in I want to see him out of prison. It seems like anyone would since it’s, you know, a game show. But some people apparently become incensed by these things.

Take a good look, because it's the last time she'll be on this site for awhile.

It’s amazing and refreshing to see how open Friday Night Lights is with their “spoilers”. Here you can read descriptions and motives of four new characters for the upcoming fourth season that wasn’t supposed to ever take place. To be honest, I hate how these descriptions read, but I generally hate reading anything sincere, so don’t listen to my interpretation of it. I’m embarrassed enough that I enjoy watching the show.

Reason number 523,476 I can’t stand what American television is slowly devolving into: tourists in LA are going in droves to reality television locales. I don’t care if it’s because they’re with kids who want to see where The Hills stars hang out or if they know people on any of these shows or if they’re drooling morons, I can’t think of a single solitary reason to regard anything described in that article as being an attraction to someone on vacation. For fuck’s sake, hit up Hermosa beach or go to a sporting event or any of the plethora of options there are for someone visiting LA.

FX picked up prime time animated series Archer, which is basically satire on the world a James Bond inhabits (trailer here). FX continues to be the best basic cable network for original programming in terms of quality, availability and options. AMC’s series’ are better, but with only two of them in rotation it’s hard not to give the nod to FX.

And finally, despite what I may think about True Blood and the Entourage season premiere, it looks like HBO is back on top of the original programming world (note: it isn’t basic cable), at least in terms of ratings. I’m not sure if its quite surpassed Showtime in quality (we still like Weeds and as stated ad nauseum before, Dexter is incredibly flawed but has some great energy and uniqueness), , I think we might have to wait until Curb returns and Treme premieres, but at least they’re in the conversation.

Back tomorrow, probably with more links.

Ugh, I really don’t feel like doing this right now but I feel like I should honor one of my promises to post links this week. So here goes. Also, we’re contemplating watching The Real World tonight, because we’re desperate for something with a pulse after watching The Superstars and Rescue Me last night, the latter of which damn near made me comatose. Hey, it might be utter garbage, but at least we can watch people get drunk, fall down and at some point screw each other’s brains out. Just an affirmation of life is what we’re looking for, that’s all.

With the current uptick in quality on Weeds, I suppose this is good news: Mary Louise-Parker is on board with Weeds so long as it stays fresh. If that was true she would have left after season two. But I hate to break it to you, Mary, but that might require showing more than just your tits floating in a bathtub. Ahem. This could, however, also be interpreted as bad news, because unless Parker and series creator Jenji Kohan have staunch disagreements about the best course action for the plot, it makes the likelihood of her dying before the series finale highly unlikely.

I'm starting to understand the appeal of this show.

Here’s the new teaser for Dexter, America’s favorite sensationalized televised series just behind CSI and Law & Order: SVU. Even though I don’t watch it and kind of resent its critical and commercial popularity, I am more than willing to concede that Dexter makes those two shows look like something on ABC Family. In the sensationalistic Olympics, Dexter takes the gold in a landslide.

Larry David is displeased with his appearance in high definition. Wait, you’re saying Larry David behaving neurotically about something? Get out. He’s usually so full of confidence and self-assurance when he plays a version of himself on his HBO series. This is like finding out Charlie Sheen likes hookers.

For the other 57 people who watch and/or care about Nip Tuck, they’ve already filmed their series finale, which won’t air for well over two years. Obviously they’re not bound to anything, but I like the idea that they already have a very specific direction they’re taking the series in. I’m dying to know which body parts of which main characters will have to be amputated.

And finally, here’s an interview with Connie Britton about the upcoming season(s) of Friday Night Lights. For whatever reason, more is revealed in interviews with FNL cast members than with cast from any other show I can think of. For The Sopranos you’d probably have to take out more people than the writers killed off in the first two seasons to get confirmation that Silvio wouldn’t be killed off during hiatus. Anyways, don’t watch the interview if you take SPOILERS really personally, like most everyone seems too.

Back with more tomorrow.

We have a full week’s worth of news items to get too, and given our penchant for delving into petulant rants and veering off-topic, this might take awhile. God damn it I don’t want to be doing this, why is it always my responsibility to make sure my site is updated regularly with new content? Hey, what would be a stranger site: seeing a leprechaun ride a unicorn or a unicorn ride a dragon? I’m going to go with the latter, since a unicorn is a mythical horse, and horses are generally the ridden half of the equation, not the ones doing the riding.

See what I mean?

I don't get it.

Mary Louise-Parker now says that she was misquoted in regards to her nude scene in the season four finale of Weeds. Claiming (in jest, obviously sort of) that she “likes to reveal herself” and that she’s “always naked”. That’s a relief. Now I don’t have to feel like such a creep every time I post a picture of a scantily clad forty- something actress and mother of three. Like this one to the right.

Much has been made of Conan O’Brien’s set. I never thought I’d see the day in which a television set turned into Jimmy Hoffa disappearance, but here we are. At least someone is actually doing something with all this collected data, and pointing out that the asymmetric design bares a striking resemblance to Super Mario Bros. when filled in. Also, a couple weekends ago I referenced Super Mario Bros. to some random stranger at a gathering, and he hadn’t the foggiest idea what I was talking about. “I don’t play video games” was his response before awkwardly parting ways. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t something like Super Mario Bros. a staple of American culture at this point, like Coke? You don’t need to drink soda to know what Coke is, I would assume the same is true for the most infamous video game ever made. Whatever, it was perplexing is all.

Semi-good news for some: Demetri Martin’s Person has been picked up for a second season by Comedy Central. I was kind of lukewarm on this, but it’s a solid variety show that produces way more laughs per minute than SNL, which isn’t necessarily a recommendation. Still, the show is ambitious enough that I would like to see if Martin can build off what he was working on in season one. Look at Chapelle’s Show for an example that reflects how much a show like this can build in quality and popularity in just a season’s time.

Because everything has to be thought of in terms of demographics these days: here’s an article pondering when a non-white male will get a network talk show. I suppose this rules out Chelsea Handler since she’s on E!, but she might be your reason why. I suppose it is a good question, I would love to see Dave Chapelle or Sarah Silverman get a shot at a job like this, but is anyone really dissatisfied with the late night options right now? Kimmel, O’Brien, Letterman have all been given a Grid Effect approval, and Fallon isn’t as bad (some even say he’s excelling) as many would have thought at late night. The only complaint I can get on board with is Carson Daly, but that is barely even a late night show anymore. It’s more an entertainment news show that does fluff pieces for celebrities, like every other entertainment news show.

September 14th has been marked as the date Leno will premiere in his new 10PM slot, just in time for the cold weather to set in and you don’t mind going to bed a little earlier (note: I haven’t fallen asleep voluntarily before 1am in roughly ten years, so I feel I’m going to be subjected to at least a little of this).

Jermaine Crawford (the doe-eyed kid who played Dukie on The Wire) is working with 50 Cent on something. On what? Does it fucking matter? If you aren’t overcome with joy anytime one of those sad bastards gets a break, then I don’t know what to tell you. And yes, I’m having a difficult time separating the character from the actor. Seeing Crawford standing next to someone as absurd as 50 Cent my jolt me back to reality.

Speaking of doughy-eyed, here’s an interview with Zack Gilford, who plays Matt Saracen on FNL with his alma-mater’s paper. I usually don’t link to things like this if I can help it, but there’s a couple amusing anecdotes that could surely brighten up your day.

And finally, DirectTV is paying the way for Friday Night Lights’ Emmy campaign. I think we’re sort of in Wire territory now with this show and how it relates to Emmy voters. Only its not nearly as good as The Wire, so its been given a few more nominations than the one The Wire got for “Middle Ground” (the penultimate episode of the third season). Though I appreciate the effort from DirectTV, it’s amazing what NFL money can afford. Thanks a lot for helping the NFL make it impossible for me to watch Eagles games.

Probably it for today. We’ll try to post some more links in addition to our preview for Friday night’s viewing. If you want our take on your options for tonight, go here.

Rescue Me came on strong with their best episode of the season last night, and we are tempted to recap it right now while it’s still fresh in my mind… But fuck it, in the name of consistency we’ll wait a week until we’ve forgotten at least 60% of what we enjoyed about it so much, then mail in a recap next Tuesday afternoon. I think it’s the right thing to do.

Right now the only appropriate post is that of the links.

Don’t know if anyone saw Daily Show last night or even watches it on a regular basis since Obama and the democrats claimed a monopoly back in November, but I’m a loyalist so I still tune in (or record it) every night. Anyhow, last night Jason Jones did a segment on Arizona State refusing to give Barack Obama an honorary degree, something I guess they do traditionally for commencement speakers. I don’t know who really gives a shit about honorary degrees or why anyone would take a principled stand on something so innocuous (though I imagine their refusal to award Obama with one has something to do with John McCain). But I must say that I spent a day on ASU’s campus back in September, and while the segment last night might have seemed like it was embellished for comedic effect, I can say that at least from my experience, it was pretty accurate. That campus is basically a 24 hour rave with the desert sun replacing glowing neon lights and generic techno replaced in favor of generic hip-hop. I saw more swimming pools and frat houses than classrooms (in fact I don’t remember seeing one). Point being, I think this was the funniest segment they’ve done in about two months, and I felt it warranted linking.

Speaking of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart will host a two hour special on the US Naturalization process on the history channel. I wonder what the motivation for this oh wait, the episode is part of a series being produced by Busboy, Stewart’s production company. It’s amazing what happens when you actually read the articles you’re linking too.

In the ongoing effort to politicize entertainment and for politics to be entertaining, this woman from New York Magazine has decided to read entirely too much into Amy Poehler’s character on Parks and Recreation. Predictably, everyone has said this series has really come into its own. This is more self-fulfilling than a legitimate improvement because everyone just wants it to be good. I can assure you that it’s pretty much exactly as terrible as it was when it debuted, but everyone who’s championing its “genius” now are the same people who thought Wanda Sykes “killed” the White House Correspondents Dinner (she had a few good lines but a lot of the material she covered she was being retread for the millionth time).

Semi-related, we Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler provided fans of Friday Night Lights with some good news at the White House Correspondents Dinner, claiming that Taylor Kitsch should be returning to the show. So if you believe uninformed and unsubstantiated rumor from two most likely buzzed if not full blown drunk stars of a television show about the future of their show, then this is probably good news for you. If you’re like me, and see the relative box office success of the most recent X-men movie, and you know that Kitsch played Gambit in the motion picture, then you might be a little more skeptical. Especially when you consider what that means for the character. If Riggins is going to fail in college I’d prefer they gave us a season of him off camera at “San Antonio State” and bring him back for the fifth. Contractually, however, that might be a tad difficult.

How dare you give Joss Whedon a bad name, Summer. God I hate this bitch.

Ugh, because every entertainment critic feels compelled to defend any and everything Joss Whedon has done or will ever do, here is an article wondering if Dollhouse’s failures are the fault of Eliza Dushku. Yes, because attractive women are always to blame for a series’ shockingly low ratings. Of course they have nothing to do with it being on (and premiering on a) Friday night or the horrible marketing effort from FOX or maybe the series just was lazily thrown together. But no, it’s Joss Whedon! Everything he’s involved in has to be some epic work of art! Who can we blame this series’ premature cancellation on?…I got it, the harmless, B-list actress whose never been in anything good in the first place. She’s the perfect scapegoat!

I’m not here to defend Eliza fucking Dushku, she’s a pretty mediocre actress, all things considered. But — and I hate to break it to everyone — great acting rarely makes or breaks a TV series’ chances of survival. In fact it basically has nothing to do with it. You think Americans tune into NCIS for the mind-blowing performances? No, the tune in because it’s simple and validating. Maybe we should just chalk this one up to Americans not being interested in television that requires much out of them or Joss Whedon simply being overrated. He’s not David Mills, much less David Chase or David Simon. But please, by all means, blame Dollhouse’s shortcomings on Dushku and Firefly’s cancellation on Summer Glau, but then be prepared to attribute all the success too Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jessica Alba for Buffy and Angel.

And we end the post on some good news: sketch comedy series The Dana Carvey Show is coming to DVD. It only lasted six episodes, but features Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Robert Smigel in addition to Carvey and it’s a crying shame that this series didn’t ride out the television careers of all of these gentlemen, who with the exception of Carvey, have flourished in the entertainment industry. I think that’s what’s known as being “ahead of your time”. And fuck, I swear to God I typed that out before reading the headline, so I’m leaving it there.

Potentially back later with some more links.

So we’re done with work, we’re tired and hungry and want to go to the gym before the day is through. As a result, we’re going to do this is categorically instead of paragraph form, because we have no interest in indulging you people. Obviously, from the title, this is us speculating on what to expect at the beginning of season four: Who’ll be around, who won’t, and where everyone will be assuming they will be around.

The Taylors

The assumption will be that Eric is at East Dillon, Tami will still be principal at Dillon (West?) and Julie will be attending the according Dillon high senior, depending on which side of the dividing line their household resides on. And really, the writers can claim anything they want. I imagine Julie stays at her current high school just for the sake of leaving at least one wrench out of what will seem like a completely different series. As mentioned earlier today, I assume Eric’s team will be loaded with Latin-Americans on both sides of the ball and at least one player from this past season’s team will make the transfer along with him, be it Landry, the kid who didn’t tell his parents about football or the kid they were recruiting in the finale. Either way, there will be at least one familiar face that Eric leans heavily on.

Matt Saracen

I can’t imagine him sticking around Dillon for a full additional year, but at the same time I can’t see the show thriving if the only students we have around from the first three seasons are Julie and Landry. Every other main character (Matt, Tyra, Lyla & Riggins) has graduated, and theoretically will only be around sparingly or mentioned in passing. If they can justify keeping Matt in Dillon and not with a redundant whine-fest focusing on how he stayed out of college, then he might be enough familiarity to bring the series into its fourth and unexpected season. As different as The Wire was from season three to four, everyone on the law enforcement side of the series was identical.

Landry Clarke

We have a sneaking suspicion that Landry will end up at East Dillon with Eric. Don’t ask us why, but it seems like a contrived way to build off the decision to play him in state and make him the best player Eric has playing for him. This would be ridiculous, of course. Despite how inept and inexperienced as his team might be next season, under no circumstances is the undersized laughable special teams player on one team the best player on the next. There are certain attributes necessary to be a great athlete. Namely: Athleticism.  Anyhow, this could be the requisite football caveat that irritates us in its implausibility, but like we’ve been doing for the past three seasons (and more specifically, the past two), we’ll choose to overlook it for everything the series gets right.

Buddy Garrity

The man that makes Dillon football operate has been usurped with more money and a valuable asset. Buddy Garrity represents all that is wrong with the fictional Dillon and its non-fictional counterparts, but the town runs on his tireless, skeevy work that very few are willing to inquire about, mainly because they don’t want to know. That said, I imagine he’s switching his allegiances. He won’t do it immediately, people like Buddy are too stubborn to admit when something isn’t working for him. But at the same time, his ego is too big for him to play second banana to someone like Joe McCoy.

The McCoys

Still dysfunctional, still powerful and still one-note. As much potential as their arrival to Dillon had (and the quarterback controversy that ensued), there is plenty of room for improvement for the actors and the writing in this story. Obviously JT, Joe and whatever the wife’s/mother’s name is will be firmly entrenched in the Dillon hierarchy, and the school will flourish. But there will be conflict, both internally and externally for the McCoys, we hope it just doesn’t come crashing to an end to abruptly. And that someone teaches the ultra-wooden JT McCoy how to act, as we need to be able to see the actress playing Madison without cringing everytime she’s onscreen. Need I remind you that unless you’re partial to Aimee Teegarden, she’s our only remaining eye-candy with Minka Kelly and Adrianna Palicki probably leaving for greener pastures.

The Departing Graduates

We doubt the whole lot of them are shipped off, never to be heard from again. But the actors have better things to do, like star in X-Men movies as beloved comic book heroes and date Derek Jeter until he ultimately dumps you for whoever replaces you on this show. I have no idea what Adrianna Palicki plans on doing post FNL, but she put enough of a solid turn in these last couple episodes, not to mention most regard her as insanely hot (representing Ohio, baby), that I’m sure she won’t have a difficult time finding work. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put her back in Dillon at some point in season five or midway season four (she flunked out, or what have you).  But at the beginning of season five: Lyla will be content and unseen in Vanderbilt, and the same goes for Riggins and Tyra at “San Antonio State” and UT respectively.

As for the plot, if  you wanted my honest opinion as to what’s going to happen: Dillon (west?) is going to coast through the regular season while East Dillon is going to limp along impotently making mild improvements with each passing game until the end of season restored rivalry between the two, and East Dillon will pull off the upset, or at least come close to doing so. Until the penultimate episode of the most recent season I would have just assumed the former, but throwing the loss in their makes it at least a little uncertain. I’m kind of hoping I’m wrong, but it seems like it diverges enough from a standard storytelling format that this is about what we could expect. Whatever it is they end up doing, I’m just thankful they’re getting the opportunity to do it.

Oh, and FYI, we’re probably going to be doing our Rescue Me recaps the following Tuesday after they air, because the week is now officially backloaded with recaps, and nothing on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Probably some links and a South Park recap in some order tomorrow.

Probably one of the more appropriate episode titles we can recall, especially given the state of affairs at the time this was made (not knowing the future of the series, the characters all graduating and many of them leaving Dillon or some sort of future prospects behind, etc), and the episode itself almost lived up to it. Instead, we got the makings of a series finale with the promise of some intriguing storylines to come, and the fourth season looks like it could succeed all its predecessors with something that covers even more territory then we’ve become accustom too.

And we’ll get to that later. But for the majority of the episode I felt like I was playing the guessing game trying to figure out who was going to stick to post graduation plans and who wasn’t. Will Lyla go to Vanderbilt? Will Riggins go to “San Antonio State”? Will Matt go to Chicago? Will Tyra get into UT? Its not that I’m not interested, but isn’t there something else concerning all of these characters in their waning months of high school?

Also, and not to be a hard-ass about continuity because of this show’s contractual issues and blah, blah, blah; but typically at this stage of senior year all of the issues they were resolving have already been resolved (i.e. Where people are going to school). It seems like the majority of the town would have moved on to the transitional phase of those last couple months of high school, not still fretting over what’s beyond the horizon. That said, we loved virtually every minute of what was onscreen, even Tyra and Landry’s roadside argument was refreshingly complicated compared to their inane bickering from the past couple of seasons. Aside from the casual interaction, we’ve loathed there relationship ever since the second season premiere (though it made a strong resurgence at state). And as fans of FNL know, very little of it is casual.

Feels right.

The story that felt the most genuine was probably Riggins’, if for no other reason than he wasn’t relying on anyone else to come through for him: Either he honors his signing with “San Antonio State” or he doesn’t, and Taylor Kitsch played it on the fence well enough that you could ultimately tell, he had no interest in picking those cleats back up from Texas Stadium (see link above). While it might be better for him to do just that, I like the notion of someone taking that much joy in something so simple. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with aspiring to drink and fix cars your entire life. It isn’t particularly ambitious or challenging, but anyone who watches The Wire knows the downfalls of ambition. I prefer my leeches on society to keep to themselves, thank you very much. And I think a coordinating white suit wedding is Riggins’ place in life, not working a nine to five cubicle gig in Houston.

Running a close second in stories I deem worthwhile, some might claim it’s a little too earnest for Matt to stay in Dillon out of guilt/loyalty instead of jetting off to Chicago for some sort of personal growth and education. But I think he’s aware enough of his grandmother’s health that — and I hate to say it despite her being a fictional character — he knows he’ll be in college sooner than expected. She is dying. Grandma Saracen has dementia, is in her late 60’s/early 70’s, and moving back into the house might only expedite the process. I might be being a tad too cynical, but The Art Institute of Chicago or whatever isn’t going anywhere. And besides, it could possibly give us another season of the character, or at the very least a Smash-esque send-off. That is not something we’re going to complain about.

Eric Taylor being relegated to scrappy underdog (yet again) is a positive turn for this show. You know why so many people in sports hate teams like the Cowboys, Yankees & Lakers? Because their fans have such unreasonable expectations. Now, those are professional sports teams. But as I am told (by this show and through innumerable outlets) high school football in Texas is “different”. The fervent appreciation of sixteen year-olds playing football is akin to that of pro and college teams in other areas of the country.

Again, it feels right.

In other words, the Dillon fan base was starting to agitate more than anything. They started the series with Eric being the gritty underdog and when he exceeded expectations under unlikely circumstances, the entire subplot should have been squashed then. I understand the need to remain realistic, but the constant “Is Eric Taylor long for the Dillon Panthers?” storyline was starting to wear thin.

I mean, I know they often circumvent the rules and whatnot, but as far as the town of Dillon would be concerned, a high school football team is only as good as the kids that reside in its school district, and 99 times out of 100 that is strictly a part of sperm-roulette. Meaning, he’s only as good as the adults in his residing area who decide to procreate. And not only who, but when and what they procreate. The devotion to selective realism (we’ve taken issue with how they’ve portrayed some of these football games over the years, among other things) is admirable, but its time to tread some new territory.

And the causation behind it is one I can get behind and also kept the finale from being embarrassingly optimistic: decency, honor and results are rarely a match for deep wallets. We imagine if Buddy Garrity wasn’t so distracted with his own collapse, he could have prevented this from happening but if it drives the series’ protagonist into a rivalry with every other character we’ve come to relate to on this show (who didn’t graduate), we can’t think of a better future for it, especially since the second half of the third season reflected the second half of the first. We’ll get into that in our next post later tonight, though.

All in all, if this had turned out to be a series finale I would have been fine with it, but it would have killed me wondering how Eric recruits for East Dillon, does he dip into the Latin-American pool that has been strangely missing for the past three years except for the only two defensive players we’ve ever been introduced too? Does he convince some of his current players to cross the county line? Can Tami leverage her position to determine where that line is?

But luckily we won’t have to wonder, instead we get to speculate. Which we’ll do later today.

I’m going to be up front with you and my admiration for this episode of television: The only complaint I have is that it was too similar to the last state title game episode (“State”), and since it was actually intentional it isn’t really much of a criticism. So to keep from gushing like an idiot for too long, we’re going to keep this relatively concise, because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone.

People generally watch Friday Night Lights for a sense of familiarity, for comfort, for its ability to use a standard television plot point or device and turn it into something palatable. When asked to describe Friday Night Lights in a sentence (which happens all the time, of course), I’ve always fallen back on the following, “it’s The Wire for small towns/suburbia”, but I think a more apt moniker would be, “an after school special for adults”. Because, for the most part, this isn’t new material, but it’s presented in such an original way that I feel like I’m watching something I’ve never seen before.

Speaking of The Wire, they make just as much use out of non-verbal communication as either this or The Sopranos, and it’s amazing to watch. The episode last night was shot like a cross Alan Taylor episode of television and a Conrad Hall film, it would be overkill to shoot every episode like this, but this is one of the moments that I feel FNL has earned. Ofttimes the show has a penchant for trailing off into melodrama either because it’s easy and they have more time to kill or they think they’ve established a somber moment when they actually haven’t.

When did Riggins replace Landry? Because we know when Saracen replaced Street.

But this was a real successful effort to end the “senior” season for Riggins and Saracen, the frisbee toss in front of the state house probably resonated as much as any scene in that elongated montage while Tyra read her essay. These are two characters that have been through just about everything a pair of high school students could have been through, and them just soaking in the moment was poetry. That’s it. It might be hyperbole but rarely am I so fond of something so simple. Then the perfect finishing scene, with Riggins, a wounded warrior leaving his cleats on the field, like that of a soldier laying his sword and shield on the ground after battle.

And that was basically the entire episode in a nutshell: beauty in the smaller things. For the most part, they let the technical aspects handle most of the work much more so than usual. Even for FNL this episode was defined by small moments between one or two characters (the scenes with more than that were all football related), the rest of the story was thoroughly captured byt the music (the score and the soundtrack was pitch-perfect, I can’t stop listening to this song) the atmosphere and the cinematography.

Alright, I lied, I have a few minor nitpicks: Landry not getting up for the game. First off, he passed out at Riggins’ place, I assume amidst other football players, all of whom made the bus. No one thought to actually wake him up after he was jubilant just hours beforehand about starting on special teams? Also, Tyra and Landry choosing to overlook the moment in which they murdered someone during their conversation about her college essay, which was convenient and welcomed (I didn’t need a rehashing of that entire event that me and the series have both decided to pretend like never happened), but also a bit disengenious. Being partly responsible for the disposing of a murder has no effect on you?

Last one: I love how the game ended… but it wasn’t exactly suspenseful. Obviously the looks on everyone’s face was foreshadowing that the field goal was inevitably going through the uprights, but if we knew one of the players on defense my hopes would have been a tad higher. Odds are, they’re not going to have a nameless face block the field goal and win state for them. And the kicker outright missing it would have just been pointless, We’re not watching Match Point.

But moving on, I don’t want to get bogged down into their extremely insignificant shortcomings for what was such a brilliant episode of television:

-The scene between Julie and Grandma Saracen, after the former looked so apprehensive about Matt going to Chicago and the latter was so defiant, melted my icy cold heart. It looks like that’s a telltale sign of what will actually end up happening, but we’ll see. This series has been known to throw some wrenches into the mix.

-I’m guessing Landry is still a junior because his future plans seem to be on the backburner right now, but his prepping Tyra seems a little disproportionate to what she’s done for him (get his band a single gig at a bar). At least he’s getting some sex out of it now (again), the only sex better than post-man-slaughter sex is make-up sex. Or at least that’s what I hear, I’ve never really made up with anybody.

Shell-shocked personified.

-I’m guessing tonight’s episode will be a pretty solid indicator of whether or not JT and the McCoy’s are back in Dillon next season, but after “Underdogs” I’m pretty confident that’s a staunch No. Of course, they probably weren’t planning on a fourth season (or at least not terribly confident in getting one), so it’s anyone’s guess at this point. But that was a great illustration of the spoiled, over-privileged superstar blaming everyone else when things aren’t going his/their way. I don’t want to lay too much blame at the fifteen year-olds feet who was just beaten by his father.

-Looks like it’s splitsville for Tami and her one female friend. I guess that’s what you get for being a woman in the workplace. Sometimes people take it really personally when you do your job and it ends with the government being allowed in their home. Anyway, we liked how this entire thing has been handled.

-All of the lockerroom scenes were some of the finest this series has done, especially the succinct pregame (the slowly approaching camera on the team huddled together was attention grabbing, to say the least) and halftime motivational speeches, coach inviting the everyone’s families in to offer some sincere, but ultimately hollow words was a little too much for us to consider it a joy to watch.

-We mentioned it earlier, but we’re just going to list them now. All the ways this episode mirrored season one’s finale: Eric has a clash with his quarterback, Eric and Tami reconnect outside of their hotel before gameday, a wrench gets thrown into Landry and Tyra’s plans to go to state, a comeback is central to the pace of the game, a halftime speech and adjustment makes that comeback possible. I’m sure there are several others, but they’re not coming to me right now.

-Loved the opposing team wearing all black unis.

-Is anyone else under the impression that Riggins’ reluctance to talk about “San Antonio State”, his giddy reaction to seeing the future home of Riggins’ Rigs and Lyla throwing it into her dad’s face that she’s getting  a place with him at “San Antonio State” all lead me to believe that he’s going to at least have second thoughts. I don’t want to speculate too much because it what you predict does end up happening, people accuse you of spoiling them, but the fate of Tim Riggins seems very much undetermined to me.

Alright, I’m over 1,100 words already so we’ll cut it here. But last Friday was probably, if not my favorite episode, definitely in my top three. It was just so incredibly unique in terms of script and tone to every other FNL episode we’ve seen. It was glib and realistic, but simultaneously optimistic and encouraging. I really couldn’t ask for more from a television show that has the restrctions of something on a broadcast network.

Back Monday with our recap for tonight’s episode, which we’re contemplating staying in for. By all accounts (and I’ve only read headlines) it is supposed to be phenomenal.

Alright, we had to take an extra day off this week due to fatigue stemming from excessive alcohol consumption and a general lack of sleep. I hope you understand, but we have found time to watch Friday Night Lights (incredible penultimate episode for what they thought could have been the series) and Survivor, and this season has had an excessive amount of scheming (especially last week). We appreciate it, but it’s kind of like parity in the NFL. If every game is highly contested then climactic finishes start to lose their meaning.

But we’ll get to those recaps later this week, for now we’ll settle on some links to sort of ease back into the swing of things.

If you’re wondering what, maybe, an eighth of The Wire cast is up to these days, this semi-article will tell you. I think it is probably somewhat unjust, but I guess it makes sense that the guy who probably had the least dialogue relative to screen time, Corey Parker Robinson who played Sydnor, has the least active career since the series finale. Still, I’m surprised have the actors from the series are doing as well as they are, since it seems that virtually no one in LA watched the show.

Don’t know if anyone happened to see Stephen Colbert’s interview with the co-founder of Twitter, Biz Stone, but to me it was almost more of an evisceration than what Stewart did to Jim Cramer. At least Cramer knew what he was getting himself into, Biz Stone walked into Colbert’s studio and was blindsided with cutting remarks about the idiocy of what he’s done with his life.

Oh yeah, the ER finale was last Thursday. If you were wondering, that’s why there wasn’t a new Office or 30 Rock. We don’t have anything intelligent to say about it since the only time we watched the series was to appease someone we were trying to sleep with, and that opportunity/begrudging compromise wasn’t exactly omnipresent in my formative years, nor was it available when I was in New York on Thursday night. So, yeah, it sounds like it was a relatively satisfying ending for devotees who’ve seen every single episode, which I just can’t even fathom doing. And according to the ratings, I’m not alone in that sentiment.

A scourge on humanity.

If you’ve been watching the NCAA Tournament, then you have undoubtedly seen the promotional ads for CBS’ new series, Harper’s Island. And because no series is fully advertised unless it has some sort of interactive/online/saturation campaign, you can get some sort of IPhone application for the series. A couple things about this, 1) The general premise is a dozen or so people are on this remote island and one of them is murdering guests one at a time. My question is, once it gets down to two people, isn’t it going to be pretty fucking obvious who the killer is?

And 2) This is a bit off-topic but I fucking hate the IPhone. I admire the innovation of it, but have you ever traveled with somebody that has one? It’s like being with someone who has an insubordinate toddler. They move at half the rate they would if they didn’t have the IPhone and are constantly sidetracked by it. Everything takes twice as long to accomplish, which is ironic when you consider that the entire concept behind the IPhone is one of convenience (You can do everything on it!). So yeah, fuck you, marketing team for Harper’s Island, for attempting to prolong my next trudge through an airport.

Bob Saget, for some inexplicable reason is still working, and has a new series set to debut on ABC entitled Surviving Suburbia. They’re going to be promoting the series on Dancing With The Stars, which guarantees that it will score higher ratings than Parks and Recreation. And to be honest, we might actually tune into the pilot. Based on the title, I’m assuming it will be a tad more cynical than Full House, and bizarre cynicism is what Bob Saget does best.

30 Rock has actually seen an increase in ratings this season, which only seems natural because it’s their dullest season to date (though still exceptional). In other words, if you were worried about the show’s pending cancellation, you need not worry no more.

And finally, our last inexplicable news item for the day: Friday Night Lights‘ third season DVD will not contain the extended scenes from the DirectTV airings that we plebeians missed out on while watching it on NBC. I suppose if it’s between the music we heard on NBC or the deleted scenes, I would go with the  former, but it seems like there has to be some way to squeeze both in.

Some more links tomorrow, in all likelihood. And potentially a Rescue Me recap for their fifth season premiere.

There isn’t much happening in the world of television, or at least not much that we feel is necessary to include into a links post. So we’re going to keep this rather succinct, because no one likes reading a 500+ word blog post. That, and it takes longer to write. And effort is in direct contrast with everything we hold dear.

Not that we needed the extra incentive, but...she doesn't hurt.

My Boys returned last night and we will shamefully admit that we watched it in full. It was about as slightly better than mediocre, which is about where we expect it to be. Between the mustache growing contest and Gaffigan’s side commentary, we don’t really regret investing the time to watch. Since it’s not really a series because each season is never more than ten episodes and has a year in between each stretch, we find that it’s relatively easy TV that requires nothing on the part of its audience, but still has a few solid jokes while it’s at it. With television comedy being what it is right now, that’s enough to keep our attention for a half hour.

Looks like FOX, of all networks, will be giving Wanda Sykes her own Bill Maher-esque political comedy talk show. We couldn’t be more thrilled, she was on that one thing that one time, has a recurring character as herself on Curb Your Enthusiasm, was in those Public Service Announcements about using the word “gay” as a negative adjective, and was also in that other thing once. In addition to her stand-ups, it’s been a storied career. It’s good to see that she’ finally getting some attention, because she seems like one of the funnier women in Hollywood.

If you needed a reason to do something drastic in your life, I can’t think of better motivation than hearing that The Real World has been extended for four more seasons in addition to their current contract which I believe has five more years on it. That will bring TRW to a grand total of twenty-six seasons provided no one dies during filming. Great, MTV, now you have half of America wishing death on some probably amiable stranger. Bang up job, guys. Maybe for your next act you can announce an extension to My Super Sweet 16.

An interview with Jason Katims in which he reveals that some of the current cast will be back for the fourth season. Wait, you mean Tyra won’t be around to lament her imperfect decisions from when she was fourteen for another season? Ah, man. I really wanted to see her, Riggins and Lyla hang around for a third senior year.

Don’t know if I’ve even bothered to mention it, but they remade the nineties sitcom Cupid without the original cast. And surprise, it isn’t as effective as the critically-acclaimed but short lived CBS series with Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall. Who would’ve thought, you take the best thing away from a TV show but still go through with the remake, and for some reason it doesn’t live up to its predecessor.

And finally, The Wire aired on one of the BBC networks in the UK on Monday, and according to this article it drew in about 600,000 viewers. The articles doesn’t really say if that’s a lot or a little and I really have no idea why this matters. Hasn’t the show already aired in its entirety in the UK? Is it because they’re on a more mainstream network now? Either way, since it’s rating is described as “respectable” it sounds like it’s doing better on the second go around over there than it ever did here.

South Park recap tomorrow and maybe some links to close out the short week.

Man, there are a shit ton of links to get to this morning, but let me start off with a couple notes about our schedule. As we mentioned, we’re traveling to New York on Thursday, which basically means no Friday post and Survivor will get pushed back to the following Monday. But beyond that, we fully intend to start watching the new HBO series Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency in spite of horrendous name. We’re on the fence as to whether we’ll end up recapping it, but we fully intend to give a review of the pilot about two weeks after it originally aired, as is the Grid Effect way for all new series’ that aren’t Mad Men, because I just knew that shit would be worth the effort. I read into promotional campaigns a lot like that.

Onto the links…

Continuing the three day trend of Everything Friday Night Lights here, there is yet another announcement of Direct TV ordering two more seasons. Hooray! For the fifteenth time! This does seem like a finalized deal, however. And it just goes to show, if you can make high quality but under-appreciated television, Direct TV might be willing to cross promote the series with a broadcast network and split the production costs to keep the series alive so no one is losing too much money.

Here’s a New York Times profile piece of Wendell Pierce, detailing his career and his new role on Treme, David Simon’s new series that we’re going to mention with every opportunity we get. Not just on this site, but in everyday conversation. “Did you enjoy that french toast, state school elitist?” “Treme is David Simon’s new series, it’s set to premiere this Fall.” Basically my life has turned into an endless stream of non-sequiturs.

Looks like the creators of the original Office have reason to believe that yet another spin-off could gain traction in Israel, because they’re getting their own version in the Holy Land. That makes six in total: Chile, US, France, Canada, Russia & now Israel. That’s seven countries that some variation of this series has aired. I wonder if Ricky Gervais had this in mind when he wrapped up those six months of shooting fifteen episodes of television.

In his never-ending quest to relate to the younger demographic, Jimmy Fallon, along with attempting to reunite the Saved By The Bell cast, has a new feature on his show in which he visits a random bar unannounced and buys a round for everyone. This follows up nicely to his beer-pong efforts with female tennis players (even when one of them sticks to root beer). Personally, and maybe because I’m a member of this younger demo, but I like the injection of alcohol imbibing on late night television. I hear people use to come onto Carson all loaded and everything, so in a way it’s retro and contemporary, because I’m willing to bet that Johnny Carson went to his grave never knowing what beer-pong was.

The transition has to be rough.

Wire alums are really making headlines today, as Dominic West has gone out of his way to chastize British television for their lack of high end drama. To be honest, I’m surprised more people from The Wire are not on record as saying something like this. I mean, can you imagine going from working on The Wire to Heroes or Criminal Minds? It would be like going from dating a Supermodel to Bridget Jones. None the less, I don’t know what Dominic West expects. British television hardly has time for drama when there’s men dressed up as women to be watched.

My Boys is premiering I think their third season tonight, and we’ll probably end up watching it because it’s mindless, and that’s kind of what we’re in the market for today. Plus, it has Jim Gaffigan, probably one of the more underrated comedians around. You know how you know when you’re either underrated or just terrible? When the best comedy work you can find is on TBS.

And finally, someone is voicing a request to improve 30 Rock that we can get on board with: Stop bringing in guest celebrities. I understand why they do it: an attempt to improve low ratings, but it kind of drowns out a lot of the comedy for semi-forced scenes with recognizable faces. Not that everything with all of them is bad, but more often than not it seems like more of a distraction at the expense of loyal viewers for the benefit of Deal or No Deal fans.

Probably it for today, back later with some more news items.

Due to our traveling schedule we’re mixing things up this week (New York on Thursday), so here’s our recap on Monday. I know, it’s a weird feeling, us having something completed in a timely manner. Trust me, it won’t last. This is a total aberration do to unusual circumstances. This time next week we’ll be posting shit several days late, just like we’re all accustom too. Sorry for the two FNL posts in a row.

Kind of an anti-climactic episode but to be honest, it’s kind of appreciated. It’s felt like the atmosphere has been entirely too tense ever since Street was brought back into the fray, even for this show. Of course it had its moments: Joe McCoy cartoonishly losing his cool and beating his JD unmercifully outside of Applebee’s and Grandma Saracen’s dementia reaching heights unseen. Both of which were horrifying but felt isolated from the rest of the episode. Lyla and Tyra’s plights, at this point, are just retread time filler.

For example, I have a hard time listening to Tyra breakdown in tears for the umpteenth time about her college aspirations. For starters, it isn’t much of an obstacle. Just take financial aid, go to community college for a year and get some of your electives out of the way before applying to a four year state university your sophomore year. Ta-da! I just solved your crisis, now go fuck Landry and just be done with this plight, it’s terribly uninteresting.

Not to mention, as well-written and developed as this series is, I think Tyra’s mom is about as poorly constructed as I’ve seen on television. Her mood and temperament alters daily without any explanation, she has seemingly no job, no prospects and no alternative means of income. As far as we know Tyra and Mindy’s father(s) are dead or their births were immaculate, because there is no mention of any father or surrogate father or anything else that we’ve been offered from the other and many broken homes in this series. She’s completely oblivious and the series seems to want us to admire her for her small town, sassy charm. but to be perfectly honest she just seems like a borderline bad person. Not in any evil sense, but just someone you really shouldn’t model yourself after.

That said, Jesse Plemons and Adriana Palicki have an easiness to which they communicate onscreen, and that makes their scenes together redeemable. Despite the overwhelming redundancy and unlikelihood of the entire structure of their relationship, they’re chemistry is enough to set every complaint we might have about them together and just enjoy it.

Lyla, on the other hand, has every available resource to her with her sterling academic reputation and still manages to complain about her state in life. Does she have every right in the world to be disappointed by her dad? Absolutely. But you jsut got accepted to Vanderbilt, a top five school in the south. Odds are you can find the wherewithal to get the tuition paid for. Also, as impressive as Riggins was in this episode, I kind of miss the Riggins from season one and two. The siftless layabout who played football when he wasn’t getting hammered. Maybe its a better trajectory for the character, but since he isn’t a real person I’d rather see him dismissing everything and everyone with a drunken quip in between liquor store runs for my entertainment, damnit.

Now, I know they’re setting up the McCoy’s as recurring characters for the likely prospect of a fourth season, but do Eric and Tami have to be involved in every pivotal moment of this family’s development? Joe McCoy is obviously a scumbag, but I might be a tad irritated to if I couldn’t talk to my kid, abusively or otherwise, without this guy interjecting. You have to admire, as I am sure is common in these situations, that the one time JD picks to defend himself is the absolute worst moment to do so. He could have told him to fuck off in that game of one-on-one last week and his Dad would have maybe shook him or something, but nothing like what happened on Friday. Ultimately though, no overbearing, control freak father is going to be able to compete for the attention of a fifteen year-old boy in the same manner a girl like Madison can. It’s a futile exercise. He might as well try to walk the Sahara.

Still, it’s nice to see that the Taylor household is open to yet another Dillon family. They could probably afford that new house if they started capitalizing on all the dysfunction by charging rent. In the past three seasons they have played landlord for Riggins, Saracen, Tyra, Lyla, Landry & now JD. Not to mention Tami’s sister for the entirety of season two and Buddy after the breakup of his marriage. And about the only two people you could say they have an obligation towards are Riggins and Saracen. Everyone else they brought in like they’re running a soup kitchen.

Speaking of Saracen, it’s always nice to see some sort of emotion from the kid even if it is misplaced. Though at this point, as much as he might care about his grandmother you’d think he’d be almost relieved to cease being the primary caregiver. His behavior is such that you’d think he saw Happy Gilmore one too many times growing up, because anyone with half a brain can decipher that an ill-equipped high schooler and his well-intentioned but fuck up of a mother do not posess the necessary skill-set to care for someone in her condition. I understand that the closer you are to a situation then the worst your judgment is going to be, but was he planning on having her shack up in his dorme room? There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of other alternatives here.

That last thematic element to this episode was the redistricting that would theoretically cut the football team in half and probably drop them down a division. I don’t know why Eric is so opposed to the boosters involvement in this, I get the sleaziness of it but this is pretty much on par with everything else they’ve ever done. Though being from an over-zealous college football town, I could appreciate Buddy’s speeech about the resilience of the Dillon Panthers. The machine is much bigger than any individual, and lives to protect itself, not to accomodate the well-being of the community. As much as it may seem to be in peril, Panthers football is the one aspect of Dillon that doesn’t have to worry about any setbacks.

With only two episodes left it looks like there is going to be heavy emphasis on giving everyone a sendoff. Naturally, there isn’t going to be enough time to give everyone a farewell the likes of which they gave Street and Smash, but we expect relative happy endings for all those involved. We know that at the very least Minka Kelly and Adrianne Palicki (Lyla & Tyra) will be gone, and if they do come back it will be in a guest star fashion. But really none of the “seniors” should be back in a star capacity, if the series hopes to redeem themselves at all with their many continuity issues.

Essentially, expect the finale to seem series ending and not season, akin to that of The Wire’s season three finale, where they were unsure if they would get renewed. That is to say: a lot of finality but a window for new development. In other words, if FNL’s season three finale can measure up to The Wire’s it can’t be considered anything other than a success. It won’t, but I think comparing FNL to the greatest series ever made is fair.

Links later today if we can find the time, or tomorrow otherwise.

We really need to start posting this sometime earlier in the week. You know, I understand people are scheduling their lives around these recaps, but even those masses need more than a couple of hours before the new episode. It will never fucking happen, but it’s a pleasant thought to have. Though it does present the opportunity for us to acknowledge Friday Night Lights’ pending renewal, which the official announcement of is being drawn out like it’s for an Arrested Development movie or something.

But this episode was effective in its familiarity. Tami and Julie having another sex talk, Saracen being scared shitless of Taylor again, Lyla abandoning her father again, Landry and Tyra pushing and pulling again, etc. We’ve seen all of this in the first two seasons and they’ve all been relatable, entertaining, dramatic and balanced. But the thing is, see, is that we’ve kind of already seen them.

He needs to do something untoward so he stays human.

We enjoyed it. Generally as you sift through your high school years, it is rare that things of this nature are brought into the fray and never mentioned again. So hearing Tami’s follow up to her infamous “sex talk” from “I Think We Should Have Sex” was interesting and for several loyal viewers I am sure it was moving, but it didn’t do much for us. We recognize it as well executed television and admire it, and maybe it’s because this is the kind of instance we would never, ever find ourselves taking part in, but we couldn’t have been more indifferent to the whole thing. Because it just felt so…redundant.We’ve seen this once already, Julie took it to hear and now it’s coming after the fact. And we get it. But I don’t know how many more evocative mother-daughter conversations I can stand between these two before I swear off ever talking to women again. Because they’re insane, you see.

On the other end of the spectrum, and I think it was acted much better by Kyle Chandler and Zach Gilford because it involved more than delivering heavy-handed lines with fake tear stained faces, was Coach reconciling with the fact that his daughter is…uhhh…maturing, and accompanying her in the process is this kid whom he’s a father figure for. It is often said about FNL that some of the quieter moments are it’s better ones. I think Julie’s retreat from Matt’s house to her Dad’s car and Matt confronting Eric were two of the better moments of this episode.

Lyla leaving her dad felt — and I hate to say this — a little incestual. I don’t know, it was weird to say the least. It probably doesn’t help that I know Minka Kelly is older than me and that Buddy Garrity (played effortlessly yet believably by Brad Leland) exudes the type of personality of a guy who would date a woman half his age. Our personal unease aside with the dynamics of it, however, is the fact that we’ve already been here and done this. I guess it’s been building to a climax (no pun intended), but we’ve known Lyla has been overly-sympathetic towards her father and he’s been unwittingly and recklessly neglectful. In other words, he means well but is basically a fuck-up a la Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, he’s just managed to mask his failures/indiscretions a little better.

Anyhow, Lyla’s disappointment, anger and frustration is all understandable, but she’s always been somewhat entitled. But this girl is so world-weary now. For two seasons the world’s been dumping on her, and given our innate subjectivity when it comes to all things Minka Kelly, we can’t help but find ourselves sympathetic. What can I say? She’s has good legs. I mean, uh, a good heart? Yeah, that’s what I meant.

How much do you want to bet there will be a SXSW reference before the end of the season?

And finally we get around to Tyra and Landry, the former of which I only like when in this arrangement and the latter of which I hate. But it was turned on it’s head last Friday. Well, not entirely. I don’t hate Landry for making Tyra analogous to the spoiled little boy in “The Giving Tree”, but her trying to make amends with someone for…the first time ever that we can recall made Tyra much more tolerable, even if complete and utter narcissistic tendencies were driving it.

I think it is obvious, and I hope I’m not spoiling anyone here, but there eventually going to get back together. It’s just a matter of how long or how hard he will make her work for it. In reality, a guy like Landry and a girl like Tyra: Not very. In the framework of this show, which prides itself on realism but only is when it’s convenient and regards certain normalcies of gendered behavior: an episode and a half. We’d like for them to stay honest on this and quite possibly they will, but who knows? Maybe his newfound status of that lead singer from the one good performance at the rundown bar will land him with enough options to tell her to fuck off, though all we could think while watching that was of Doug’s performance with the harp and Mel’s realization that it was a masculine instrument. I said it once and I’ll say it again: Jean was the superior mating partner.

Other notes:

-Loved the symbolic camerawork this week, including all the scene cuts that gave us an impression of where one character has been and where the other is heading.

-Oh right, the game. Well, I’m undecided as to whether or not Taylor intentionally got himself thrown out of the game to keep the refs honest because they have a personal issue with him, or if he just lost it because of everything with Julie, Buddy, etc.

-Is Riggins’ mentoring of JD an appropriate yin to JD’s yang? It’s better than nothing but I’m not sure if his mom would approve.

Did anyone else share my concern?

-We love the budding conflict between JD and his dad, but we don’t really understand the mother. “This whole football thing is starting to concern me!” Uh, where have you been, you fucking idiot? Starting to bother you? What did you think moving from Dallas to Dillon in West Texas was all about? Also, imagine my relief when I went to imdb and discovered the actress playing Madison is 21 going on 22.

-The confrontation between Buddy and Tim on Tim’s porch was one of those instances where this series really relies on its viewer for the deeper appreciation of it. All season long Buddy has been doting on Riggins for being A) A fuck-up, B) An idiot, and C) A womanizer; now he’s gone and gotten arrested for mercilessly beating someone in a strip club over a business deal gone awry and was relegated to seeking Riggins’ approval instead of the other way around. Just spectacular fucking work from the writing team.

All in all, a decent episode that was expertly paced and had some real seminal moments, which is really what FNL is all about. Those moments where you can appreciate the melodrama and relationship quandaries but not feel overly feminine about it because it all revolves around FOOTBALL! GRRR! But it wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before, literally. Still, if we said we weren’t considering skipping the first half of the second two tourney games tonight to watch this live, we’d be lying.

Maybe some links tomorrow, otherwise we’ll be back Monday.

I’m not really feeling compelled to right some sprawling, self-fellating dissection of this episode, as is usually my wont. Partly because I feel like watching basketball without being bothered, but I also feel like that’s a sufficient excuse because this episode was mediocre to the point that I can get away with it.

I’ve made it clear on a number of occasions that while I enjoy this series, it has a tendency to be a little too exploitive of its characters for cheap tugs at audience heartstrings. Last Friday, I felt acutely aware of what was taking place and didn’t enjoy it. I am speaking, mainly, of Tyra Colette. While I can appreciate the fact that some women are really terrible with men and she didn’t deserve any of what happened to her, when you’re developing a character and you want us to empathize with her, isn’t she supposed to be remotely likeable. She’s not the spawn of the devil or anything, but her demeanor is very ugly at times. And when you base an entire storyline around her plight, it makes me entirely less sympathetic.

Or better yet, just make her a Tony Soprano like anti-hero, so when she does some relatively horrible shit

Actually, I might enjoy such a plot twist.

(i.e. lead Landry around like a lost puppy dog), I’ll feel perfectly fine about being indifferent to her being dragged out of a Dallas motel in the middle of the night because she ran off with a clearly unsuitable companion whom she fell for because he likes baby horses. It would be absurd and ruin the show, but at least I wouldn’t be so ambivalent about it.

The Lyla-Mindy pairing that allowed the two to set aside their differences and revel in their communal love-hate relationships with everything Riggins was charming at times (and lead to the excellent exchange between Riggins and Lyla with apologizing and announcing that he’s going to “San Antonio State” while she was hungover), I have to wonder one of two things: 1) Do any of the writers on this show know how women interact? Or 2) Is this how women actually interact? Because it’s bizarre in it’s lack of irony. Maybe I’m too cyncial, I don’t know. But the dancing around and reading women’s magazines was deeply upsetting.

But our main justification for kind of detesting this episode was how inconsequential the main theme ended up being. I mean, usually when something is incorporated into the title, it’s significant in some way. Here, we just learned that their game was going to be nationally televised, Taylor gave a few menacing winces towards everyone because he knew it would be a distraction. We saw no evidence of that distraction and…that was pretty much it. Nothing else happened with the game of the week other than Saracen converting a 4th & 7 because he’s the only receiver for the Panthers on an incredibly stupid play call from Taylor.

Doesn’t it seem like their could have been more source material than what they went with? Like, I don’t know, an actual distraction coming about as a result of having a high school football game on NBC. Sure, some kids danced around all crazy at school, but that’s the extent of the repercussions for that much exposure?

We’re looking forward to tonight’s episode, which we might end up watching tomorrow, but the anticipation is admittedly lacking.

And just like that, he’s gone. Yet another formidable presence in the cast has been vanquished for greener pastures and is given his final farewell on the best drama the broadcast networks can produce, and for some it was a gripping, emotional scene. On some level I’m willing to agree, their was certainly nothing wrong with it. But fuck this series if they think they’re going to make me cry. I’ll be damned if I’m going to stay in on a Friday night to watch a high school melodrama and go to be in tears. That’s just a level of involvement were not willing to commit to towards a television show. If The Wire didn’t make us cry, then neither are you, Friday Night Lights. So get fucked with Riggins’ truck, FNL, because I’m as dry-eyed as the dead guy Landry murdered and threw off a bridge.

That said, it was an appropriate send-off for one of the series’ most consistent actors. We would have liked to have seen a lighter Street at some point in these four episodes because lighthearted Street was always amusing (even in its rarity), but this series isn’t about lightheartedness. It’s about life-altering, pivotal moments in these character’s lives that takes place roughly every fifteen minutes the show is on the air. And this was the worst/best of it, depending on your perspective.

The episode as a whole, and it seemed pretty consistent with the main plot as well as all the sub-plots, was making a pitch. Whether it was Street selling himself as an under-educated prodigy or Tami selling her husband on the house she was all dreamy-eyed about or Saracen trying to convince Coach to let him play receiver, Wade making the hard sell for himself as offensive coordinator (how is he not making more money as JD’s personal coach?)…basically, all our protagonists seemed dead-set on convincing each other of their own worthiness. And in every instance but one, Eric Taylor was on the receiving end of that pitch. Ironically, that exception demonstrated the best the series had to offer.

Taylor Kitsch in particular was in rare form, playing the supporting role, the comedian and the deserted party all at once. I could nitpick or, not really nitpick but just draw attention to the gaping continuity errors in this road trip: Why was Street’s friend signing with anyone while still in season? (that’s a major, major NCAA violation for the uninitiated). How was Riggins able to get the time off of school and away from practice? (This may be addressed in the coming episodes, similarly to how it was addressed when he returned from Mexico). Why wasn’t Herc with Street and Riggins? Where were his parents? How did his kid’s mom know when he showed up to her house?

Fishes out of water is an understatement.

But I’m just going to look past all that and appreciate the scene for what it was: two characters with almost unparalleled on screen chemistry executing their last twenty minutes on the series together perfectly. It was moving if illogical. I’m also enjoying Riggins’ effort as the effortless and witless mentor first with JD and now with his in to Grant’s sports agency, but in neither situation was he treating it all that importantly but rather as just a means to an end. In the former, it was to appease Coach Taylor and get a sheltered kid some sunlight, and in the latter it was to go see Gypsy. Really, I can’t recall a high school character that is this authentic ever being portrayed in film or television before.

The episode belonged to Scott Porter, however, who apparently still hasn’t seen his last four episodes on the series that will have proven to make his career (if he ever has one to speak of). The final scene on the doorstep of Erin’s parent’s house in Boston, from the fist bump to the reassurance that he will be back in Dillon to the tearful plea to his now fiance, he really saved his best moments for last. The transition from the “Texas forever” to the inability to ring the doorbell at Erin’s house was what the last five episodes have been building towards (including the season two finale), and it was well worth the wait.

The other half of the episode (or at least a good majority of it) belonged to Saracen struggling to convince Coach that he was worth the risk at wide receiver. Now, again, I could dwell on the obvious inconsistencies here: That Matt has lamented the fact that teams lineman/linebackers are faster than him (for those who don’t know, speed is an integral part of play wide receiver because they, you know, the general description of their job is to run down the field faster than everyone else) and that no one ever switches from one position to the next with such little preperation. But just like with the Riggins-Street triage to New York, this series isn’t necessarily for people who watch football and it’s not really the point.

You see what happens, Donny...

The point is Matt’s acceptance with his place in the world (unfit to compete for quarterback) and his attempt to improve it (transition to wide receiver). The final scene that culminated between Matt him his now surrogate family kind of cemented him beholding my favorite remaining character arc. The development of the bond between Eric and all of his players is seminal, but none more so than the one he shares with Matt, whom he’s been forced to bench and is now willing to offer a spot at wide receiver for the playoffs after a scene that was a testament to the characters reseliance. I will give them points for this, if they have a standout wide receiver on the team they’ve certainly kept him hidden. So thematically it makes sense to move him to a position where they’ve had at least a non-extra acting vacancy for two and half seasons now.

And though it seemed to be all for nothing we enjoyed the failed attempt by Tami to harass her over-stressed husband to buy a house they couldn’t afford. It might have come off as nothing more than a highlight reel of their imperfectly strong union, but this series is supposed to be a slice of life piece as much as it is a coming of age tale. And this was one of those slices of life that we enjoyed watching them resolve, especially since it culminated in Eric’s frustration at the dinner table and taking Saracen up on his route challenge.

Other notes:

-Julie said Matt was a senior, so that settles it, if the deal for a fourth season goes through I don’t want to see any of these same people milling around at that high school as students. As hanger-ons and going-nowheres sure, but not as students.

-We hope this doesn’t mean the end of Herc on the series, but we’re not naive to actually think it doesn’t. Much like when Smash left and that meant the series run was over for Mama Smash and the rest of the Williamses, this means the run is over for Herc and the rest of the Street’s we haven’t seen since the first season. When you lose a CEO, you lose the rest of his team in FNL.

-Yeah, we know Tyra’s storyline this episode was integral, but it’s just too frustrating to watch. Maybe it’s frustrating because we see her making the same mistakes that her mother and sister made. Kind of akin to what made The Wire frustrating, but I don’t think this is written that well. This seems more along the lines of, “there’s really no conflict here and the notion that Tyra would prioritize her boyfriend over school at this point is just too disbelievable”. Let me put it this way, we knew where Dukie was heading in The Wire and as a result we would have welcomed the optimistic conclusion with him going to college or something, because we wanted to see the character land on his feet. With Tyra, we know everything will end on the up and up for her, but we won’t really care if it doesn’t.

I think this has to do with a lack of real development. Again, if she was supposed to be a sophomore in that first season and started to turn her grades around at the beginning of it (which is where she would have been at in her second year because it took place during football season), getting into some run of the mill state school in Texas wouldn’t be that much of a stretch. Just to exascerbate the ridiculousness of it, I think UT-Austin has exceptionally lax admission standards for instate applicants. Like, if you can read grafittied vandalism they let you in, and it’s one of the better state schools in Texas.

But that storyline, a few logic issues and some football inconsistencies aside, this series is humming right along. We only have five more episodes left, and I assume there will be a lot of finality in that thirteenth episode given the regular uncertainty of the series’ future. But with no Smash and now no Street, we’re wondering how it can actually be topped.

South Park recap later.