Friday Night Lights - NBC run

It's the little things...

When Saracen gets grandma back from the home and takes her to the wedding, breezes right past Julie and starts to dance with g'ma, Aimee Teegarden (Julie) does this magnificent bit of acting, where she looks like she has just so much admiration for Saracen.

When Billy tells Tim that he's having a baby, and they get into that brotherly wrestle, you could not tell me that they aren't real brothers in real life. Even the way Tim approaches him, like he's gonna fake punch him...that's just too real.

When Buddy approaches Tyra's mom at the wedding and asks her to dance, so sheepishly, and Tyra's mom caves in, that is small-town Texas to the tee. The both of them realizing that, Well, this is my lot in life right now, and I better accept it.

This is the best show on television, and nobody can tell me otherwise.

Oh, and also, Tyra's college letter speech was one of the best scenes I have ever seen on television.

 

Great post. I completely agree.

 

I suppose Saracen could get his associate's at Dillon Tech. Maybe Buddy stays with Coach and gets the district lines in his favor.

 

I thought Julie wanted a Toyota? But I'm not going to quibble, thanks Chevy for sponsoring the show.
I can only imagine how pissed I'd be if this was the end of the series. Too bad NBC couldn't air this on Tuesdays in the fall before American Idol kicks off.

 

Me too. Best show on TV, hands down.
I had to watch two episodes last night to get caught up, and both were outstanding. The Tyra essay was great, and I thought Billy's speech had a lot of impact. I expected him to just accept Tim's decision for his own selfish reasons, but he finally really looked out for his little brother. I was sort of expecting Taylor to end up at East Dillon, but still liked the way they played it. I also wondered why he didn't have more support, but I guess hanging on to JD was more important.

 

Wonderful, wonderful show; in my top 10 all-time and best on TV today.

Where does this rank in the surprisingly underwhelming array or sports-based TV series? I argue it belongs on top. Am I missing others?

 

I'm sure after Joe beats the hell out of J.D. again and Wade Aikman sleeps with a student, all will be right in the world again of Dillon, Texas.

 

I really hope they keep JD around, though it might be tough if they split scenes between the schools. Considering he's the only developed character who is a starter coming back and the conflict he has going on in the family it would be a letdown to see it not played out.
Figure some of the players will end up at East Dillon, though I think in most cases like this, upperclassmen would be allowed to stay and finish up and not have to spend a Senior year at a new school. Though with Landry, he'll probably go to East. I just hope they don't erase the Coach goes to a new school thing, like they did with the TMU gig.

 

After Coach Taylor wins State and is runner up, all in 3 years, the town just up and pushes him out the door? JD is gonna his ass whooped when East Dillon beats Dillon for their only win of next season

 

In terms of all time best sports shows, I am partial to Sports Night.

But Friday Night Lights may have eclipsed it with the last couple of episodes.

 

Not sure if this post will mean anything to anyone, but it's been two days and I have to write this somewhere, so it might as well be here. The brilliance of this show has been well documented by others on this thread and elsewhere, so I won't even try to expound upon the staggering quality of the acting and the writing, which astounds me only about 12 times per episode.

What I will say is the show's depiction of small-town Texas is so thoroughly accurate that I've learned things about my childhood and adolescence I didn't even notice while I was living it. I hung out with Landry growing up, got drunk with Riggins, fell in love with a girl undeniably similar to Julie (although, unfortunately, we never had a Season 3 rekindling -- the network pulled the plug on us after the Swede took her away in Season 2). That wedding of Billy's that most viewers got a kick out of? I used to go to about six of those every summer. And you will never convince me that Connie Britton's character is not, in fact, based on my mother, who was all at once exasperated by the Dillon way of life and hellbent on preserving the good in it.

For three seasons, I watched this show with awe, admiration and more-than-occasional nostalgia. It made me feel good in a way few pieces of fiction or art ever have, and I came to expect that feeling. But then came Friday's season finale, which was about as difficult to watch as anything I've seen on a TV screen. Once again, I saw a scene from my past, and the details were overwhelming.

I have never known, nor will I ever meet, a finer, more decent, truer-hearted man than my father. He was born and raised in his version of Dillon, left to go to college, then came back home to work for the school. He taught one generation of kids, coached them on playing fields, drove them home on the bus. Then he did the same with those kids' children. When one of them would pass a test, or score a touchdown, or get a job, or get married, my father was as proud, almost, as he would have been for me. He was as much a part of that community as anyone, and his legacy was not a large house or anything approaching fame, but rather the hundreds of boys and girls he'd helped mold into fine, decent, true-hearted men and women.

And then, 10 years ago this May, there was a school board meeting almost exactly like the one in Friday's season finale. Dad, like Eric Taylor, didn't want to go at first. He thought his record stood for itself. He knew the guys on the board. They'd grown up together, climbed the water tower together, watched each other's kids. Surely they wouldn't vote against him. But Mom was worried anyway, and she told him he needed to fight for himself, and so he did, reluctantly, only by that time it was too late. The deciding vote was cast by the guy who, as a high-schooler in the 1960s, used to line up behind my father's rear end and take snaps from him in some of the greatest games the county had ever seen. I never saw Dad cry, but I know he did.

And that is why, as I watched the end of Friday's show, I worried. I worried that the message of the next season of this show will be that Eric Taylor is courageous because he chooses to stay in Dillon and prove them wrong. I worried that he will consider leaving town, but won't because that would be The Easy Way Out. I worried that people will believe that. Because 10 years ago, my father left town, and it turned out to be the most courageous thing I've ever seen. He left town because he still had some pride, and it was the best way he knew to show it. So at the age of 55 he moved to a new city for the first time in his life, embarked on a new career, met new people, and both he and Mom thrived in a way I never dreamed was possible.

So as you watch Season 4, in which Eric will undoubtedly turn the Giraffes into a powerhouse, please know that what happened to him is not contrived Hollywood conflict. It really happens. And also, please know that Eric is to be admired not for sticking around after disappointment and betrayal. He is to be admired for forging on. And that can happen outside of Dillon, too.

 

Dedo, That is one hell of a post. Dug it man. Really.

It's funny, I'm watching the episode for a second time. I didn't grow up in Texas. Played football all four years. Our teams weren't that good, but we had a coach we respected. He was a straight-arrow. We used to joke about him, impersonate him, but he didn't lie to us and never gave up on us. The guy was a solid "old-school" coach.
Anyway, our season ends. A week or so later some of my teammates show up at my door and tell me to get my jersey on, some parents were having an off-campus meeting. We show up, apparently we weren't expected or invited. The principal was there, he knew me pretty well, my parents were past presidents of the booster club. We said if there was a meeting about the football team, we felt our input was needed. Clearly, the parents were uncomfortable. Apparently, some parents whose kids weren't allowed to play the previous year because they weren't going to be back from Europe for Hell Weeks in time. They were pissed that coach told them the deal that spring and didn't back down. Our coach "retired" a few weeks later. The school hired a hotshot young guy who put in a veer. The next season's team sucked just as much as we did and the hotshot young coach was eventually fired for embezzling funds for his personal use. I don't think there were any players showing up to defend him.
I don't know if our old coach ever heard about what we did, I didn't care, but that was the kind of people he taught us to be.