Friday Night Lights: The Second Season Review

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(More customer reviews)Update: FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS has been saved!!! I promised to keep posting updates on FNL and I finally have an exciting one. Multiple sources are now reporting that FNL will be renewed for a 3rd Season! According to Mike Ausiello, a deal with DirectTV is in place, but not signed. To their credit, NBC, although they knew they would no longer broadcast the series exclusively, went out and sought a partner to keep the series alive. It isn't clear yet how the deal will work, but most likely DirectTV will pay NBC for the rights to broadcast new episodes first and then NBC will rebroadcast them a few days later. I personally hope that DirectTV will show it earlier in the week and NBC on Friday evening. It just seems appropriate. So, if this story is true, FNL truly has been saved. I'll come back later an reedite my review as a whole, excising completely the memory that we very nearly lost this brilliant show.
I write this only a few minutes after the final episode of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS was broadcast on NBC. This past week Ben Silverman, who took over as the head of NBC this past summer, threw ice water in the faces of all those who hoped that this extraordinary series might have a future on NBC. For years NBC has been my favorite network, just as FOX, which has killed shows at the drop of a hat, was my least favorite. The irony is that the former head of NBC, who was responsible for keeping such critically acclaimed shows (but ratings challenged) like FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, THE OFFICE, and 30 ROCK is now one of the powers that be at FOX, while my formerly favorite network is threatening to pull the plug on this absolutely brilliant series.
Here is the situation as we know it: although 22 episodes were contracted for the 2007-2008 season, only the 15 episodes that were completed before the strike will be broadcast and no new episodes will be made this spring. Tonight's episode is the end of Season Two for certain. And given Ben Silverman's gruesome statements (in essence he was asked repeatedly and pointedly about FNL, but each time deflected the question instead talking about how great 30 ROCK is -- other NBC insiders say FNL is dead at NBC).
Before I write about Season Two it is fair to ask, is there any hope for FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS? According to Mike Ausiello at TV Guide, many people inside the industry still believe in FNL. There is a chance that it could resurface on another network. Surely the CW could use a teen-oriented show this extraordinary. It would instantly become the best show on the CW by a gigantic margin. Heck, it would immediately become the best show on Showtime or HBO if they were to pick it up.
In the meantime, what can we do? One thing we all can do is buy these DVDs! Right now multiple sources are reporting that the DVDs will be released in April 2008. That is not very far into the future. If you haven't bought Season One, do so immediately. Right now it costs only $18.99 on Amazon. That is dirt cheap for one of the very best shows on TV! The other thing you can do is hit the FNL boards and see what kind of fan organized Save FNL efforts are taking place. If a show like JERICHO, which is 20% as good as FNL, can be saved, surely a show as splendid as this one can as well.
Last year I told everyone I knew that this was the best show on network TV. A couple of shows on cable -- BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE WIRE -- were as good or better, but nothing else on ABC, NBC, CBS, or FOX could top it (though LOST at its best could come close). This year I feel that it was one of the two best shows, along with the utterly extraordinary PUSHING DAISIES. To be honest, Season Two is not quite as good as Season One. There were a couple of missteps, but they were not fatal (well, one of them within the context of the show was literally fatal, since it concerned an instance of accidental murder) to the show. Most of the things that made the show so brilliant in Season One either continued at the outset of Season Two or returned within a few episodes of the start.
In brief, the situation at the start of Season Two was this: Coach Taylor has left Dillon High School to become an assistant coach at TMU (Texas Methodist University) in Austin. His wife Tami has given birth to Little Gracie as she is called. The state champ Dillon Panthers are not flourishing under their new head coach. Finally, the utterly unpredictable romance between Landry (who has adopted as his personal philosophy the principle of WWRD, or "What would Riggins do?") seems to be evolving in unexpected ways when her stalker/attempted rapist from Season Two reappears while she is waiting for Landry outside a convenience store. Landry grabs a pipe and smashes his head in, killing him instantly. This plotline is in the opinion of most the weakest aspect of Season Two. The other is the way that Coach Taylor's job at TMU keeps him away from home for the first few episodes. But Buddy Garrity brokers a deal to fire the current coach and bring the increasingly discontent Taylor back to Dillon. And so on. The truth is that Season Two has a host of small story arcs, most of them brilliant, a couple of them amiss. But all in all this is a stunning season.
If you want a scene that demonstrates just how great this show could be at its best, there is no finer moment than the next to last episode. Saracen, who has been going through some really bad emotional times, has in an attempt to deal with his grief (his grandmother's live in nurse, with whom Matt has had an affair, has left the country) gotten profoundly drunk at a strip club with Riggins. When he is summoned to go to the hospital to get his grandmother, he is physically incapable of doing so. Coach Taylor gets them both home and then explodes in the direction of Matt, grabbing him, yelling at him, and throwing him in the shower, which he turns on him. Then Matt, sobbing, asks Coach Taylor why everyone he loves leaves him, asking if he is worthless. Taylor, completely stunned, tells him, "No, you're not worthless." It is an extraordinary scene, as Coach Taylor suddenly becomes aware of the unbearable amount of pain that Matt is experiencing.
My favorite part of Season Two might have been the ongoing, improbable, but mutually empowering relationship between school beauty/hot girl Tyra Collette and brainy Christian nice but ugly guy Landry Clarke. This is one of those relationships that makes a lot of unexpected sense. When the series started Tyra was basically one of the school sluts, a smart but underachieving girl dating teen drunkard Tim Riggins. But after Tami Taylor becomes the school counselor, she convinces Tyra that she can be more. Though her mother is an aging party girl and her sister a stripper, Tyra is motivated by Tami's confidence in her and goes to Landry for some tutoring. There is a fascinating divergence between Tyra and Riggins in the show. While Tim continues to struggle with drinking and other forms of irresponsibility, Tyra begins to do well in school and forms a healthy friendship with Landry, who idolizes her. Eventually they are thrown together by the stress of her stalker/attempted rapist, but it is still obvious that Landry is really, really good for her. But the brute fact is that Tyra is stunningly attractive while Landry is just not a good-looking guy. And she is from a bad family while Landry's dad is a sheriff. Still, you can tell that Tyra and Landry are really good for each other. One of my favorite moments of Season Two is when Landry's Dad asks Tyra, who is obviously way hotter than any woman than Landry should end up with, what she sees in him. She talks about his intelligence, his decency, his sense of humor. She helps his esteem while he provides her with a relationship better than any she has ever experienced. But two things intervene. First, Landry's Dad, concerned with the quality of Tyra's family, asks Tyra to stay out Landry's life. In one of the most heartbreaking moments of the season, Tyra tells Landry that it is absurd to think that they could be together and orders him to look in a mirror to know why. Meanwhile, she goes back to her car and begins sobbing hysterically. In the end, love conquers all. Some speculate that if the series had continued that Tyra wouldn't have stayed with Landry. But I see the central theme in her character the possibility of redemption. Just as I think she would continue to be serious about her studies, I think she would have stuck with Landry. In an earlier episode, just before Landry declared that anything between them was over, she told him she needed time, that she had never been in a real relationship before. When confronted with the possibility of losing Landry, she finally makes a commitment, even to the point of holding hands with him at school. Tyra is the great redemption story on FNL.
This show suffers from an embarrassment of riches. There are an almost endless number of tremendous storylines on the show. There is Smash Williams and the blows to his dreams. There is Buddy Garrity, who started off as a minor supporting character and grew to become one of the most appealing characters on the show. There is Lyla Garrity's discovery of Christianity (and her involvement with new boyfriend Chris, played by THE GILMORE GIRLS's Matt Czuchry) and Tim Riggins's ongoing pursuit of her. More to mention than there is room to mention.
If this show is dead, it releases a staggering amount of talent for other shows. Kyle Chandler should have won an Emmy last year for Best Actor in a Drama, just as Connie Britton should have won Best Actress. Canadian actor Taylor Kitch not only made a convincing Texan as Tim Riggins but also displayed wonderful acting talent as well as impossible good looks (my female friends all gush when they talk about Riggins, though they also want to give him a...Read more›

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Friday Night Lights shines brighter than ever as the critically acclaimed series arrives in a 4-disc collection in 5.1 surround sound! From producers Brian Grazer (The Da Vinci Code), Peter Berg (The Kingdom) and Jason Katims and inspired by the best-selling book and hit film, Friday Night Lights provides a heartfelt look at the families, friendships, and faiths of residents in a closely knit Texan town. Featuring an incredible ensemble cast, this intense and compelling show has critics saying "there is no finer or truer drama on network TV" (Matt Roush, TV Guide).

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