Friday Night Lights, Season 2

Loved, loved, loved the episode tonight. Love the Riggins ordeal, ESPECIALLY his brother dating the neighbor, which I just knew would happen. Love the Street/Coach thing, which wass about as fucked up as they come. Love the Saracen/Smash thing because Smash is a prick and Saracen is getting some balls. Love Lyla in a bra. Oh, and I almost forgot: I love Lyla in a bra.

Also, how ridiculous is this line, and how perfectly does it some up Texas HS football...Friday night at last Friday night at last, thank God almighty its Friday night at last. great, evoke Martin Luther King Jr. about the beginning of HS football season.

 

Just got around to watching it after I DVR'd it yesterday. Got to say, not a fan. The show is becoming so incredibly predictable in pretty much every fashion and it's not a good thing because it really does feel like a soap opera now.

Since I just record it every week, I'm definitely going to keep watching it since I can catch up whenever. But, the show quickly went from being one of my favorites to something I don't mind fast forwarding through just to get to something exciting that isn't along the lines of a love triangle/murder/amenesia/coma/awakening from coma/magic.

 

I don't see how the show has become predictable at all.
I thought for sure Tyra would give Landry somewhat of a blowoff after they had sex. Didn't happen.
I thought for sure Landry's dad would give him shit for having a girl stay overnight. Didn't happen.
I thought for sure Riggins was gonna be "saved" and rolled my eyes at that, but they saved it by having him use it as a ploy to get into Lyla's panties.
I didn't see Saracen having the balls to take down "Smash" in front of everyone.
I thought Julie was gonna say something stupid in front of her older friends (like almost every show that tries to teach the lesson that younger kids shouldn't hang out with older people) but she held her own.
After the new coach gave Street some responsibility, I didn't see the "team mascot" thing coming.

Some things ARE just predictable because either A) we've gone over every possible scenario on this thread that there's nothing left for the writers to come up wit that would surprise us, or B) it's just the natural order of things.

The reason why we all like this show is the realism of the characters. Some of them are very predictable and some of them surprise us. Depends on what week it is. Like someone said above, I'm gonna quit overthinking it. I've done that this season and I've enjoyed the ride with these characters I developed a bond with in Season 1.

So, does anyone else get the feeling that Coach Taylor is about to be ASSISTANT Coach Taylor? That should be interesting.

 

Agreed. The show's still better than most stuff on TV but its heading the wrong way and far from what it was last year. Less of the authentic chemistry and believable little moments that made this show special and more movement toward sensationalistic soap opera type writing.

In particular, the whole stalker/murder/cover-up angle was a big mistake. They changed the tenor of the show and two of their best characters with that. And there's no easy way back. It's such a huge hanging plot line that it'll have to consume a major chunk of the season before it plays itself out.

 

Ok so now coach taylor will be coming back....But when and what will happen to him??? Also I thought he got a bigger job at TMU then what I have seen so far??? What is his position at TMU?? Some little asst coach?

Julie broke it off with the star quarterback because of this old guy and Connie is going nuts because of it and Taylor will do something in the next episode to fix this mess.

Landry almost got caught not having his watch and will now be in even more throuble when his dad finds out its lost.

I don't know about the show anymore....It is taking a trip in the wrong direction and like last season to much shit is going on at the same time.

 

I'm with SuperFly and OnTheEdge, this show keeps getting better ... and I was skeptical at the open of this season.

And agreed on Julie's character. While I think she's a bitch, that girl can act very very well.

I also liked how they handled Coach's return, and props to whomever predicted earlier on this thread that it would happen after MacGregor ran someone into the ground.

Lastly, I let out a loud, "Oooohhh!!" when he called Street the team mascot. As has been said, didn't expect that. Very well done.

 

also, loved when the dude at wheelchair rugby told street not to become a cliche and try to get mexican stem cells

 

I think Taylor is just the quarterback coach at TMU - though I can't believe how much that kid they had throwing last week at practice sucked. the kid had a throwing motion that reminded me of Koy Detmer somehow. Either that or Robert Conrad in that TV movie where he joined a college football team after he retired. Good stuff.
Julie is going to realize Swede is kind of a loser or jealous of the flock of chicks Saracin is attracting now that he's free of her.

 

Oh, Saracen is going to bone the live-in nurse. Bank on it.

 

I think Season 2 is superb. I have regularly watched a couple soap operas for a long time, so if you're going to give me a soap opera with sports thrown in, I am so loving it.

 

I was OK with most everything up until the point when Saracen attacked Smash right after the victory. That was completely out of character. It's one thing for Matt, the shy, stuttering, humble QB, to confront Smash after practice about obsessing about himself. It's another for him to tackle Smash from behind and try to punch him because he just scored the winning TD. That was weak.

The rest of the show was fine, some of it very good. I've lowered my expectations a bit, and it's fine. I'm not sure the Riggins-to-Jesus thing was a complete ploy. I think he was feeling kind of lost, he did feel something, and he still loves Lyla, and all those feelings got mixed together. I think it would be kind of a clumsy departure for the writers to have Riggins character fake a moved-by-the-spirit moment just to get in Lyla's pants. I thought the church part was well done. I've said before, I think this show has always treated religious with great respect, and even though I'm not a religious guy, I appreciate that. I think it's a legit part of life in Texas and its rare to see a show delve into that.

I still think Julie's transformation is totally legit. 16-year-old girls go 'effin crazy all the time. But her line to Tami about "you left me when you had Gracie and dad left" was a bit puzzling.

I liked Coach Taylor's frustrations over Glen being over at the house fixing the ice box.

Carlotta's immediate attraction to Matt is flat-out stupid. If she were 18 and a college freshman, I might buy it, but she looks close to 30.

Buddy's line to Riggins about "I've seen you play hungover before, Tim, and you always played like a champion" was great.

I was glad to see Herc, street's wheelchair buddy, return. I was worried after he showed up on Bionic Woman that we'd never see him again.

 

One thing that's easy to forget is that in the grand scheme of the show, a lot of these little plot lines don't really make much of a difference. I watched all of Season 1 on DVD over the course of about two weeks. (Probably should have just bought the whole show instead of renting it disc-by-disc.)
But think of all the things that happened in Season 1 that don't really seem to have a bearing on where the show is currently:

*Smash's girlfriend being bi-polar
*The out of town guy telling Tyra he had to be with her, but then going back to California after having sex with her
*The steriods
*The game with Smash's old school
*The fact that Voodoo Tatum didn't go back to La.
*All the stuff with Tyra's Mom and Riggins' Dad and brother

While those plotlines were little things to move the story along week-to-week, they didn't really impact my ability to enjoy the show one way or another, it was a great first season, to be sure, but I think we may be getting too deep in our analysis here. Not that it isn't fun. I say, enjoy the ride.

But Connie Britton with a little baby around all the time isn't as fun as Connie Britton just being a hot mom with 15-year-old daughter like last season.