In less than a week, Friday Night Lights will be closing up shop for the second time. After finishing up its final season on DirecTV earlier this year and releasing the entire season on DVD before its run on NBC, the show will be airing its series finale on Friday, July 15th. It's a sad time for the small but passionate fan base of what some consider to be one of the greatest shows of all time, but it's also a time of reflection and looking to the future.

After Friday Night Lights was canceled by ABC Family after only a couple of weeks living in syndication, I was pretty upset, as this show needs to be exposed to as many people as possible and it looked like it was going to have to rely on word-of-mouth once again. That is, until ESPN came into the picture and, according to The Wrap, picked up reruns of Friday Night Lights starting the week the show finally signs off. On Tuesday July 12th, the first two episodes of Friday Night Lights will air on ESPN Classic (beginning at 8:00) with a season one marathon airing on the 14th and 15th. The show will then settle into its new Thursday night home starting July 21st, where it will air two episodes weekly starting at 9:00.

If you think that Friday Night Lights is just a show about a football team, I highly encourage you to actually sit down and watch the first few episodes of season 1 when ESPN Classic starts airing it. You'll find that the show isn't flashy Sportscenter highlights with a thin story rigged up just to have some semblance of a show; it's a deeply emotional, realistic, rich look at marriage, growing up, small town life, and finding that last kernel of strength when you think you can't go on any longer. This is organic, outstanding storytelling at its finest and easily transcends its label as a "sports drama" when it's oh so much more. Even though the show is available through several outlets (DVD, Netflix Instant Streaming, etc.), I hope that enough people watch the show to keep it on air for years to come because this isn't just television. It's art.

Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose.

What do you think about the move by ESPN? Will you be tuning into the show in syndication? Do you think this'll introduce the show to more people?

Friday Night Lights Reruns Set to Air on ESPN Classic

Well now you can be. Sort of.

It was reported by NBC today through press release that you can now own a part of the small town depicted in the critically acclaimed series, Friday Night Lights.

In support of their airing of the fifth and final season of this remarkable show, the network will begin auctioning off prop pieces on nbcuauctions.com beginning on April 19th. Items will include Coach Taylor's (Kyle Chandler) East Dillon Lions playbook and game balls as well as Dillon Panther trophies and helmets among many other props from the series five season run.

The auction is slated to last until September with new items added each week. In addition, the NBCUniversal store is also bringing back the jerseys and other wardrobe items seen on the show for purchase beginning the 29th of this month. You don't have to wait for all the new merchandise though as they've just recently added new items including blankets, signs and iPhone covers with Coach Taylor's team motto: "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose."

Part of the proceeds from the auction and wardrobe sales will benefit youth football programs in need as chosen by NBC Universal's "Green is Universal" initiative.

I'm sure Coach Taylor would approve.

Don't forget, if you haven't already seen the final season of Friday Night Lights by way of DirectTV or DVD, catch the 5th season premiere tomorrow night at 8pm EST on NBC.

And get your credit cards ready and let us know what part of Dillon you'd like to own in the comments below!

Did you ever want to be a part of the Dillon Panthers or East Dillon Lions??

The fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed show Friday Night Lights was released on DVD last week.  The season already aired on DirecTV and will be airing on regular cable on NBC beginning April 15.

To celebrate the DVD release and the show coming back to NBC, we've put together a slide-show of the present and upcoming roles for the main cast members of the series (as defined by Wikipedia).

If you're wondering about Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Taylor Kitsch and Adrianne Palicki's upcoming roles, look no further.  We also look at the upcoming roles of Minka Kelly, Scott Porter, Matt Lauria and others.

In anticipation of the premiere on NBC, you can also watch sneak peeks for the season 5 premiere episode that were posted shortly before the fifth season premiered on DirecTV.

View the Friday Night Lights slide-show below and make sure to tune in to the fifth season on NBC, beginning at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, April 15.  And if you can't wait to see it play out on NBC, then go buy the DVD (for more details, view the Amazon page for the box set).

Kyle Chandler

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Chandler will play Deputy Lamb in the upcoming summer movie Super 8, directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. Given Abrams and Spielberg's history, this movie is sure to be a blockbuster and could do great things for Chandler's big screen career.

clarissa @ tvovermind.com
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Friday Night Lights Stars: Where Are They Now & What's Next?

You don’t realize a show is really over until its regular time slot approaches and their is nothing on your television screen. Wednesday night is arriving slowly and the fact that no new episodes of Friday Night Lights will ever air again, is starting to sink in. A horrific feeling of loss is slowly taking over and the only comfort is knowing that a perfect series ended just right.

The series finale embodied everything the show stood for the last five years; heart, soul, guts and glory.

The ending was bittersweet, heartbreaking but overall satisfying. None of the characters had unbelievable futures, no open-endings and most importantly we were left with the feeling that our beloved characters were going to be fine. There were no long, tearful good-byes for the Taylors and thank the writers for that, It would have been too hard. However this incredible duo do deserve a standing ovation. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton were flawless for five years and played people/parents/lovers we could all aspire to be.  When Julie said her parents were her inspiration, she also spoke for every FNL fan out there. These 2 actors held the show together and sadly were never really recognized for it.

This episode was all about moments and Friday Night Lights knows how to deal with emotional moments. First with Landry and Matt having one last sarcastic conversation about Julie and Matt proposing to Julie in front of the Alamo Freeze was epic, perfect and as sweet as #22.

However the character who truly embodies the soul of Dillon, Texas is Tim Riggins. Riggins, like Dillon, has no artifice; he is simple, heartfelt, raw and pure. Taylor Kitch’s performance was flawless and, if possible, made us fall deeper in love with Tim. Riggins is definitely one of the best characters ever written for television. His growth is like no other and he was never static, always moving, brilliant.

However the  show’s biggest strength are the transitions. From the seniors to the juniors, to the goodbye episodes for Smash, Street, Lyla, Tyra, Matt and Landry,to the switch from the Panthers to the Lions and finally to the arrival of the new kids, the writers always made these characters family, never strangers, even if it was their first episode. During the finale, Vincent, Jess, Luke and Becky had their place in the sun and were as heartbreaking as the original crew.

The best part of this finale however are the hints of FNL history which were scattered everywhere during the few last episodes. Smash appearing on a televised game at Buddy’s, the shot of Jason Street’s name tagged on the wall of the Panther’s locker room, or Buddy supervising the hanging of the Dillon credo, were all  perfect. All in all a perfect ending to a great television show.

Clear eyes, Full heart, can’t lose FNL forever!!

I will be completely honest with you, I’ve avoided reviewing the last handful of episodes of Friday Night Lightsbecause it’s just been too damn hard to let go. From “Fracture” onward, I’ve basically been left in a heaping ball of my own tears by the time each episode has ended. I had so many things to say about those episodes but actually putting them down made it more real that this beautiful, wonderful ride was about to come to an end and I just couldn’t deal with that. I tried to make up for it yesterday by posting some thoughts on my top 25 episodes of the series before “Always” aired, but even that was difficult to finish because there are so many other episodes, even in that rough second season that I just adore.

I haven’t been watching television like I do for that long, but I’ve experienced my fair share of final seasons and series finales and FNL has impacted me the most in both cases. I know that this final season didn’t have as much to accomplish as say the final season of Lost or the final season of Battlestar Galactica, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that season five of this series is one of the best final seasons ever, capped off by the most satisfying series finale I have ever seen in my young life. I never had a doubt that “Always” would be a fantastic episode, but somehow this is an episode that meet and then surpassed every single one of my expectations I had going in. I watched this episode early this afternoon and basically could not function from then on — thankfully no one came to my office hours — and I just watched the last 20 minutes again before finally deciding to bite the bullet and rambling on here about how much I love this series and how much I will miss it forever.

Friday Night Lights has been about a lot of things over the years, football, small-town politics, love, family, economics, and a dozen other things. But for me, this is a series that’s always been about community and not just in the broadest sense, but this specific community of Dillon, Texas and what it’s like to love it, leave it and maybe return again someday when you recognize that things weren’t half bad inside the city limits of Dillon. So much of this series has been about people trying to figure out how the hell they’ll get out of Dillon as if it’s a suffocating and repressive place to be (it probably is in a lot of ways). In the early seasons, Julie, Tyra, Lyla, Jason, Landry, Smash, Matt, they all had dreams to be elsewhere. And for the most part, those people have gotten their wish, they’ve moved on to presumably bigger and better things.

But this season, it’s been about not Dillon the physical space, but the Dillon in your heart and what it truly means to be apart of a community and a family that will always have your back no matter where you go and what you do in life. Lyla figured it out last year when she returned from break and Julie and Tyra seemed to experience the same sort of phenomenon when they returned at various points this season. We didn’t see much of Street and Landry or any of Smash, but there’s still a sense that even when they’re gone, Dillon never, ever forgets them and they’re most certainly not forgetting Dillon. This is a place that burrows deep into your soul and no matter how much you might hate it when you’re the football coach’s daughter or when a dweeb who basically joins the football team to impress a girl way outside of your league, Dillon is home for all these people.

And throughout its running time, “Always” either explicitly reminds us and characters of this fact or implicitly shows it through various events and circumstances. People like Landry, Tyra, Matt and Julie might live elsewhere and plan to do so for the majority of their life, but they’re still home for holiday breaks and to support Coach Taylor and the Lions. Dillon and its people have changed their lives, presumably for the better. Tyra’s prospective goals to be a “Mrs. T only bigger” would have never happened if Tami didn’t take an interest in her. Landry and Matt wouldn’t be as confident in their own skin without the tough nurturing of Coach Taylor and without he ever taking the job with the Panthers in the first place, Julie never meets her future husband in one Matthew Saracen. You can leave Dillon, but Dillon never, ever leaves you.

This applies just the same to Coach and Tami. Their relationship has been taken to the brink this season with the struggle over whether or not Coach would allow Tami’s professional goals become the primary driver of their personal interests and with Matt’s out-0f-the-blue (and super Saracen-esque in front of the Alamo Freeze) proposal to their daughter, the Taylors see themselves in Matt and Julie, even if they don’t want to admit it. Coach is furious with Matt’s assertion that he’ll marry Julie no matter what Coach thinks and tries to give them the big speech about trust, compromise, etc., which only makes both he and Tami recognize that something isn’t right in their relationship no matter how much they want to present themselves as together to their daughter and future son-in-law.

Since Tami’s been given this offer, Coach has spoken a lot about Dillon being their “home” and how they’re a “Dillon family” and whatnot, but he slowly begins to realize that he’s had one hell of a ride in Dillon, but if it’s time to go, it’s time go. They can be in Philadelphia and still fondly remember the time spent in Dillon, Coach can be a Texan and still leave on the east coast. And though this wasn’t the town’s intention, being in Dillon has taught Coach that there’s nothing certain in this world and you have to stick by the people you hold dearest. With Julie set on her path and Coach’s unbelievable experience with the Lions, he’s got nothing else to do in Dillon. He’s a legend, he’s made a connection with the town and its people that no one can ever take away from him, and in the end, he recognizes that it is in fact Tami’s turn.

It’s an obvious statement, but let me just say it anyway: Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton are fantastic in this episode and they’ve been so throughout this mini-arc to end the season. We at home knew that Coach would eventually see the error in his bull-headed ways and make the right call to leave Dillon so that Tami can have her time, but the last three or four episodes pulled every last bit of tension and struggle out of it that they almost had me going the other way. This season hasn’t been afraid to make Coach look like kind of an ass at home — with this plot and the drama with Julie — while he’s found himself professionally and that’s a massive testament to both the writers and Chandler. I think season five is most certainly his best work on the series ever, and that’s obviously saying a lot. And what else can be said about Britton? Tami’s been heartbroken for a few weeks now and even though she doesn’t fully agree with their decision, the scene where she slowly warms up to the idea that her daughter is going to marry Matt Saracen is just beautiful.

I’ve made it 1300 words in without talking about the Lions and the new kids and that’s not particularly intentional, it’s just that there is so much to discuss about this episode that I didn’t know where to start or how to structure it. In any event, for people like Vince, Jess, Tinker and Luke, this championship game is their last chance to feel apart of their little rag-tag band of Lions who took the community by storm and literally willed them to support the team. Vince and Tinker end up playing for the super team while Jess moves down to Dallas with her father and Luke joins the military, but no one can ever, ever take this season and this experience away from them. This experience is certainly inherently Dillon, but the Lions have been their own little subculture throughout their two-year run and so while they might not have the same initial connection to the town at-large, I have to imagine that Luke, Jess and Vince never let Dillon out of their hearts. And despite all their struggles both internal and external, these kids are better off for being Lions and even better off for spending some time in Dillon.

And finally, for the man who, since the beginning, has never wanted to leave Texas, “Always” sees Tim Riggins follow that promise home. Throughout all his ups and downs, from the drug-dealing ferret lover, to his relationship with Lyla to prison, Tim has stayed true to himself as an honest, wandering kind of dude just looking for a place to call home. Little did he realize until he got out of prison that it doesn’t really matter where he lays his head night, if he’s in Dillon, he’s home. Really, Tim Riggins is Dillon, Texas: He’s rough around the edges, but heartfelt and emotional in the center. He’s often a giant mess in the macro sense, but he’s always ready to do the right thing for the people he cares about. Dillon might be a hostile place to be if you’re involved in the football culture, but the town itself is so unique in its sense of community and togetherness, even in the most difficult of times. So in the end, while everyone else decides to keep Dillon in their hearts, Tim does what he does best: Finds a new place to live inside Dillon’s limits, this time by building a house on all that land he purchased.

As Billy says to him during construction, “Texas forever.” Texas forever, and Dillon always, Billy. Life goes on, people move away, but nothing can take from the experiences these people have had in this town over the past five years and even before we joined them. It’s been a beautiful, emotionally-wrenching and fully satisfying ride for five years Friday Night Lights. You will be forever missed.

A few random thoughts:

• Both the state championship and the final montage were fantastically well-done. The game montage was probably the best of its kind throughout the series and the flash forward finale struck a great balance between providing some answers and letting the world continue onward. Similarly, the music played a big part in the success of those sequences. It was great all episode.
• Landry only had one scene here in a conversation with Matt, but it was fantastic. Though I have fully enjoyed this season without the two of them hanging out together, the conversations in either one’s yard/driveway make up the backbone of this series.
• The season and this episode did a beautiful job of circling back around to moments, scenes and threads that we cared about from earlier seasons as to show the real development. Tyra and Tim’s relationship is a great example of this, as is Julie’s line to her parents that they are her “inspiration” to get things right with Matt after we remember the nonsense she was selling in season two about not becoming Eric and Tami.
• I really do adore the original characters, but thanks to great writing and really tremendous work from Michael B. Jordan, Vince is right up there with Matt and Riggins in terms of the younger characters. The scene right before the game where Coach tells Vince that he’ll never know how proud he is was the exact moment where I knew I was going to cry right up until the end. Vince’s domination of the story probably led to some short-changing of characters like Hastings or even Jess, but ultimately it was worth it to see Vince Howard become a confident, respectful young man instead of the immature, confused boy he was when we met him running down the street from the police in “East of Dillon.”
• Though I just mentioned she got short-changed a bit, Jess’ scenes with Coach were great all season and helped fill in a lot of the blanks that we didn’t really get in the actual story. The way the two of them exchanged knowing looks on a regular basis made it work.
• Stacey Oristano and Derek Phillips have been the unsung heroes of this season and that only continued in this episode when Becky revealed that she was going back to live with her mother. Oristano was particularly great in the scene where she and Billy drop Becky off in the same location that they swooped in and saved her not too long ago. Mindy and Becky are closer than Mindy and Tyra ever were and I’m not sure Mindy ever wants to let go of that. That relationship also hammered home the idea that everyone in Dillon is family.
• I could seriously go on forever talking about this series and I just might since I’m considering writing about it for my master’s thesis, but I’ll close by ranking the seasons since that seems to be the hot thing to do: 1,5,3,4 and 2. Of course, those first four are thisclose together.

Friday Night Lights 5.13 "Always" Review

The critically acclaimed series, Friday Night Lights, will be coming to an end on February 9.  Former cast members like Taylor Kitsch and Adrianne Palicki will be making guest appearances in the finale episode, which is apparently an hour long without commercials.

The fifth and final season of the show is set to be released pretty quickly on DVD - on April 5, to be exact.  FNL fans who don't have DirecTV can also rest easy: the final 13 episode season is set to air on NBC, although the exact date for that is yet to be determined, according to TV Line.

Below are 9 sneak peeks from NBC, as well as quite a few promo photos from the upcoming February 9 series finale of Friday Night Lights.

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FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS -- "Always" Episode 513 -- Pictured: (l-r) Madilyn Landry as Gracie Taylor, Connie Britton as Tami Taylor -- Photo by: Bill Records/NBC

Friday Night Lights Finale Sneak Peeks & Photos (Plus DVD Information)

Again, my apologies. I don’t get around to watching FNL as quickly as I should these days.

This is obvious and I also tweeted it when I was watching the episode a few days ago, but my goodness Kyle Chandler has been devastatingly great this season. He’s always fantastic and it was nice to see him get that Emmy nomination for season four, but that wasn’t necessarily his strongest work. I think, after eight episodes, season five is. Though Coach had a lot of heavy lifting to do in the early episodes of the fourth season, the middle was about Matt and Julie and then the end was really carried by Tami and a lesser extent, Vince.

But season five has been a great one for both Chandler and Coach Taylor. The season has really dove in to the questions and concerns that arise when trying to build a successful sports program from the depths of nothing. The series doesn’t always hit the sports beats as well as it could because it is more worried about the personal drama, but this season has been particularly strong at letting the issues of control, maturity and teamwork with the structure of a football team power the personal drama.

Coach has made sacrifices this year, and really dating back to last season. He’s sort of looked the other way to his players’ unlawful activities before if you think back to season one and the player who beat up on Matt and Landry’s random nerd friend, but for the most part, Coach is a straight shooter. He doesn’t want to cheat, he doesn’t wan his players to break the law and he wants to do things the right way. But son of a bitch, he’s been screwed over by the powerful people in Dillon, those who booted him from the Panthers and stuck him in a seemingly no lose situation just because he stuck with the guy he trusts in Matt Saracen. Coach doesn’t let his emotions show in all instances, but it was apparent that he wanted to just kill West Dillon last year and ever since, he’s kind of reveled in the success of his team. He’s also smart enough to know that a team’s personality dictates the way they play on the field, but this isn’t a team that responds to the kind of structure that a team led by Matt Saracen or Tim Riggins would need. Vince, Tinker and company need to let it loose a bit to really play to the best of their ability.

Earlier in the season, Coach was experiencing the benefits of that kind of coaching. He was getting more recognition than ever, with magazines calling him the Kingmaker and all sorts of buzz surrounding his ability. As he sat outside the hotel a few weeks ago and listened to members of the Lions really come together, not only as teammates but as friends, Coach had a reason to be proud. By letting them be who they wanted to be (to some extent, obviously), the Lions became a real team and a real force.

Unfortunately, by letting them be who they wanted to be also means that the celebration and excessive penalties are just the beginning. Now, Coach is experiencing the consequences of his new style. Vince ego is swelling with each new and possibly fake offer from major programs, the rest of the team is now resenting him for this and while the Lions are undefeated, they’re primed to implode at any moment. This aptly-titled bring us the first major fight between the team’s other stars and Vince and also between coaches Crowley and Riggins. The Lions are reeling and Coach is stuck. Pushing too hard means losing the team and probably its best player. Letting it go means giving up too much of what he really believes in for the chance at glory and yet another middle finger to the people of West Dillon.

I’m not sure where Coach goes from here, but I do know that Kyle Chandler has been stellar in capturing Coach’s frustration, inner strife and confusion with this whole situation. Until this episode, most of Coach’s thoughts and problems with this team weren’t expressed outwardly, but instead written all over Chandler’s face. He saw this coming and tried to ride it out for as long as he could, but there’s no going back now.

Moreover, what’s really interesting about this team, these players and some of the East Dillon students in general is how they do mirror a lot of the older fan favorite characters from West Dillon. You’d expect that to be a bad thing, but Jason Katims and his team have used those similarities to the series’ advantage. As Myles McNutt pointed out on Twitter, they’re kind of counterfactuals. Similar types, slightly altered circumstances and thus slightly altered results.

This Lions team is a lot like the Dillon Panthers of 2007-08 (season two) with Vince and Luke filling the Smash and Saracen roles. There’s a lot of hype behind the team, just as there was for the defending champ Panthers. In that case, the new coach didn’t let the team’s personality shine through, punishing Riggins too much and pushing Matt’s inherent leadership to the side in hopes that Smash’s inherent skills would be enough. That tension led to Smash and Matt getting into it on a regular basis and the team combusted before the former was hurt in the playoffs.

Here, Coach tried to avoid that tension by letting Vince do his thing, but also making sure Luke had things to do, whether it’s on defense or through the wildcat offense. He saw the mistakes made with Saracen and Smash and did his best to fix it, but there’s only so much he could do. And because Vince’s story this season is basically Smash’s story from seasons one and two without the helpful and educated mother figure, the parallels continue. Smash’s mother had his best interest at heart, but was willing to push him on the differences between right and wrong in hopes of doing right by her son. Vince’s father, though well-intentioned, doesn’t seem to have the same kind of perspective and is thus filling his son’s head with a lot of big ideas without a lot of morality or consequences found within.

Meanwhile, Luke is something of a shadow for Matt. He’s a worker, but with more talent and thus more pride. Moreover, he’s been given a different kind of support (sort of like the difference between Smash’s mom and Vince’s dad). Being yelled at to bench press a fender by Billy Riggins is slightly different from a motivational pep talk delivered by Coach Taylor and when combing those circumstances with Luke’s increased talent level, he’s obviously going to have a bigger problem with Vince than Matt ever had with Smash. Matt Saracen is just a generally great dude and he can’t hate anyone, damnit.

Now, Coach Taylor has to decide who he wants to be to solve the Lions’ issues. Does he be Coach Taylor, the authoritative and supportive man behind the Panthers’ title runs in 2006-2007 and 2008-2009, or does he continue to be the looser Coach Taylor of 2010?

Other thoughts:

• The character parallels continue with Becky, who is basically Tyra 2.0 in a lot of ways. The main difference is that Becky just wants a family and has no problem hanging out with Mindy or the Riggins clan whereas Tyra always thought she could do better even though she had a really great support system around her. I tried to come with a reason for why Jess and Lyla are similar, but that would require the series to give Jess something more interesting to do. Don’t get me wrong, I like her as a character, but she’s obviously been the least developed of the new class, unless we’re counting Hastings, who basically only exists so that Vince isn’t throwing the ball to Luke every single time during action.
• I guess Julie just never wants to finish this semester. Glad to see her realize that what’s best for her is some time with Matt, but running away from her problems didn’t really work when she came back home for a few weeks.
• Tami Taylor, always doing right by those downtrodden kids.

Friday Night Lights 5.08 "Fracture" Review

Ten is a round, perfect and predictable number. In the spirit of Spinal Tap, this list goes to eleven. Here are my selections for the best of the small screen in 2010:

1. Lost

Favorite episode of season 6: “What They Died For”

Those who absolutely loved the series finale will defend it forever, and those who loathed it will argue with the same fervor. After watching the final episode several times, I strongly feel as though Damon, Carlton & co. gifted their dedicated fans with a finale that exceeded expectations and will continue to inspire many of us for the rest of our lives. The flash sideways memory revelations (Jin & Sun and Juliet & Sawyer in particular), the long overdue father & son Shephard reunion and those last ten minutes in the church were extremely satisfying on every level.

2. Breaking Bad

Favorite episode of season 3: “Fly”

The ability to create and sustain nail-biting intensity throughout each episode is rare, and Breaking Bad consistently achieves that accomplishment every season. Coupled with the powerful presence and performances of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, this is a show filled with jaw-dropping moments that deserves a much wider audience. Anna Gunn had an outstanding season as well, and really is one of the more underrated actresses on television.

3. Fringe

Favorite episode of season 3: “Entrada”

Fringe has certainly upped the stakes and ante this year with a very compelling first half of an amazing third season. From the stunning visual presentation of the alternate universe to Anna Torv’s Emmy-worthy double duty, Fringe has inched up my list and is fast approaching favorite current show status.

4. The Good Wife

Favorite episode of season 2: “Poisoned Pill”

Featuring one of the most talented (and, arguably, most attractive) ensembles on television, The Good Wife is anything but a weekly procedural. Every episode is a pleasant surprise, an hour chock full of sexually charged dalliances and intriguing legal cases. Archie Panjabi’s Kalinda is easily the most interesting, frustrating and mysterious character, male or female, to grace the current television landscape.

5. Terriers

Favorite episode of season 1: “Sins of the Past”

Disappointed doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about the cancellation of this stellar series. Ted Griffin and Shawn Ryan created a unique and quirky show about two friends who unofficially investigate local crimes in San Diego, and established immediate emotional resonance with both characters from the very first episode. Terriers had heart, and FX broke ours when they had to cancel the series due to low ratings.

6. Community

Favorite episode of season 2: “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”

Aside from Lost, this was the only show that required multiple viewings in order to pick up integral background conversations and character interactions that took place in the blink of an eye. I am blissfully in love with Community’s pop culture references and homages (both the obscure and the obvious), as well as the off-kilter cast of characters who make me feel as though I am a welcome guest at their study hall table every week.

7. Modern Family

Favorite episode of season 2: “Unplugged”

The very best scenes may as well be titled Those Dizzy Dunphys and The Crazy Cam & Mitch Mockumentary.  Modern Family is an incredibly well scripted series that continuously pushes the envelope, resulting in more laugh-out-loud moments than any other comedy on my very crowded DVR.

8. Mad Men

Favorite episode of season 4: “The Suitcase”

Although the focus of show is always going to be Don Draper, this was Peggy’s season. Elisabeth Moss was nothing short of phenomenal in every episode, and truly had the opportunity to shine while January Jones was oddly relegated to occasional appearances.

9. Friday Night Lights

Favorite episode of season 4: “The Son”

Coach and Tami Taylor are candidates for the most realistic and likable parents on television. It is admirable that the true spotlight on the show still illuminates their relationship, above and beyond all football and high school drama. This season, the heartbreaking and the heartwarming were intermingled brilliantly, especially when Riggins and Saracen were involved.

10. Damages

Favorite episode of season 3: “The Next One’s Gonna Go in Your Throat”

The web that ensnares Patty, Ellen and their associates continues to be a deliciously taut and tangled mess. I enjoyed attempting to put together the pieces to the 13-episode puzzle that they dangled from that web, and this season was just as enigmatic as the first two. Thank goodness Ted Danson is also on Bored to Death, because he continues to steal every scene when he appears (far too infrequently) on Damages as Frobisher.

11. Dexter

Favorite episode of season 5: “Everything is Illumenated”

In previous years, Dexter was featured much higher up on my list. While many were dissatisfied with this season, I found the show and Michael C. Hall to be quite riveting. Julia Stiles was the perfect addition to the cast and a welcome change of scenery in Dexter’s life.  I continue to be baffled by the lack of nominations for Jennifer Carpenter; there is simply no other actress or female character like Debra Morgan on television, and she definitely deserves the recognition.

What are your top shows and favorite episodes from 2010?

{Follow Jo on Twitter @jopinionated}

This List Goes to 11: The Top Shows & Episodes of 2010

I haven’t written about FNL in a while (I think since episode three) because of odd scheduling and general end-of-the-semester busyness and also because I’ve been a little frustrated with things. It’s not that season five has been bad, I just didn’t feel like the stories were coming together as well as they usually do. Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton and Michael B. Jordan have been fantastic all season, but I wasn’t really feeling like this season had the same kind of direction that the past ones had.

Then last week’s episode happened. “Swerve” is most certainly the best episode of season five and one that suggests all the disjointed threads were purposefully written as such, because when so many of them come together in that episode, it’s a beautiful thing.

Of course, of all the complaints I had with episodes 1-5, most of them had to do with Julie Taylor. Julie has definitely been the most frustrating character throughout the series’ run. Without Matt, she usually becomes less interesting and more childish, which is unfortunate for a character that was initially based in this wise-beyond-her-years aura. But when Julie has to go out in the real world, away from Matt and away from her parents, she usually makes really, really stupid choices. On one hand, it’s interesting to watch a person who thinks their so mature and wise get smacked around by the world. On the other hand, it’s just frustrating because we’ve already been down this road with Julie, multiple times: The Swede, the high school English teacher, last year when she pouted on the college visits. Basically, Julie Taylor likes to pretend she’s smart and wise and mature against the backdrop of Dillon, Texas, but the rest of the world doesn’t really care about all that. They can see through it.

So to see Julie walk right into this mess with the TA was just overwhelmingly frustrating. She knew she was wrong and just continued to make really horrible decisions and when the TA’s wife came to lay the smack down on her, you couldn’t be too upset. Julie deserved it. And because Julie was also fractured from the rest of the stories happening in those first half dozen episodes, it was even more frustrating. I just wanted it to go away.

Thankfully, it didn’t go away and instead last week’s “Swerve” made it all kind of worth it. Terrified of what could happen back at school, Julie purposefully wrecked her car and then tried to cover it all up. But you can’t cover it up for too long when Eric and Tami Taylor are your parents, the guilt is too difficult to deal with. But even when Julie admits her errors to her parents, she’s still not aware of the damage she’s done, to the TA’s life, to her parent’s lives and most importantly, to her own. Tami is confused and hurt, Eric is filled with rage and it’s just a heartbreaking sequence to watch Coach try to force Julie out of the hallway and out of the house so she can sack up and return to school. She doesn’t and I’m not sure where it leaves Julie now.

It’s kind of unfortunate that this happened to Julie because she is smart and likable and obviously we don’t want her to not go to college or something. Obviously, it sets things up for a Matt return during Thanksgiving break or something, but I hope her whole arc this season is defined by mistakes that keep her in Dillon.

Meanwhile, I think the last two episodes have been particularly good at establishing a nice dynamic between the five Lions players that we really know — Vince, Luke, Tinker, Buddy Jr. and Hastings — so that when things get rough (and we know they will), it actually matters. It’s not that we didn’t know Vince, Luke and Tinker were friends, but with the two new characters thrown in the mix, it actually feels like the Lions are a team and not just Luke and Vince doing all the work and getting all the lines. Obviously, there are more people on a football team than just five players, but the more about the Lions’ players, the better. And these guys seem like they enjoy each other’s company, even more than the S1 Panthers did. It’s a great dynamic to watch unfold, particularly because it seems like the team’s closeness is actually going to be their downfall. They’re too rowdy, too defensive and because this is FNL, that’s going to be a problem very soon.

Finally, I just have to give props to Derek Phillips and Stacey Oristano, because Billy and Mindy have become my favorite part of an obviously great cast. Sometimes it feels weird that Tyra is never mentioned and Mindy basically treats Becky like a Tyra replacement — which is exactly what the series wants her to be anyway — but my goodness are Billy and Mindy great this season. Billy’s taken Luke under his wing, been able to fire up the team and served as more than just goofy comic relief. Same for Mindy. That’s a good thing.

After “Swerve,” it seems like the final season of FNL is kicking more into gear, which means I’ll probably be writing it up more consistently moving forward. Again, my apologies.

Reviewing the last three weeks of Friday Night Lights

Sometimes, amid the top-notch acting, rock-solid writing and professional direction, we forget that Friday Night Lights isn’t any different from other mostly-soapy dramas. The series has done a number of goofy and stereotypical storylines throughout its run — many of which were found in the season we shall not speak of — but it’s the execution of those stories that takes FNL to another level.

The series is rarely doing anything new or original with its storytelling, but it continues to add subtle layers and fine execution to those basic tropes and beats. A number of plots in “The Right Hand of the Father” display these ideas very well, as most of the plots could have been much, much worse if were not for the performances (and probably the writing, but we never know exactly how much of the final product comes from which).

“Father” still feels like the series is setting the table for the season to come. Luke is still without a real story apart from his longing looks at Becky, who herself has had little to do this season and in this episode. New arcs for Buddy and Jess are introduced here, but again, the movement is fairly slow.

However, the one character who has been given a fully formed, multi-faceted story to deal with thus far in the early going helps anchor the episode in some really fine emotional moments. I made this observation back during the second half of season four, but it seems like the Matt Saracen-style story approaches have been applied to Vince since Matt took his drive to Chicago, wherein the world is always trying to beat him down, even while he tries to do the right things.

This season has extended that idea, because as I said, he’s the only student who’s been given both a football story and a personal story, both of which intertwine well to pack an emotional punch that most of Matt’s journey did. Here, Vince is yet again the center of attention and despite some initial trepidation based on my concerns about the clichéd nature of the story, by the time he breaks down in front of coach due to all the personal and professional stress, I was sold. Michael B. Jordan sure can act, right?

As we’ve seen in the season’s first two episodes, Vince has completely gotten his life together after the criminal entanglements that brought all the drama last season. He is staying out of trouble, he is in a healthy relationship with Jess, he is doing extremely well on the football field and perhaps most importantly, his mom has her life together.

But as we all know, getting your life together doesn’t mean that A.) it gets easy or B.) it stays that way. “Father” sees Vince experience the stresses of life related to those two changes, as Coach’s desire for him to be a leader and his father’s return home from prison push Vince to the brink and ultimately, over it in Coach’s office. As he says to Coach, he doesn’t really know how to be a man, how to be a leader. He’s good at football, sure, but he hasn’t really been asked to lead anyone but his mother, and with the father back in town trying to subvert that, Vince doesn’t really know what the heck to do.

Of course, this is Friday Night Lights, so what the heck to do usually involves responding to an emotional speech from Coach Taylor and kicking some ass on the football field. I don’t care that it’s typical that those two things happen in rapid succession here, because Michael B. Jordan sells every single scene to the best of his ability. Jordan has an inner strength that Zach Gilford didn’t need to bring to Matt, but he can still sell the sadness and pain in the eyes, and when he explodes in Coach’s office, it’s a wonderful moment, supplemented of course by Kyle Chandler’s subdued reactions.

Unfortunately, the rest of the episode doesn’t pull its weight behind Vince’s great arc. After the video of Maura being sort of-assaulted at the party hits YouTube, Tami and Eric take similar paths in attempts to clean up the actions of both the team and the school. For Coach, that means kicking off two screw-offs and forcing the team to wear shirts and ties on game days.

But for Tami, that means giving a whole lot of speeches to students who don’t seem interested in listening. In one of Connie Britton’s best moments of the series, she literally screams at a mouthy student, which is great, but the rest of the plot doesn’t really hold together. Tami continuously pesters Maura in hopes that she will turn her life around, and by the end of the episode, it seems like she just might. It’s not that I don’t think Tami could motivate a weak student into doing the right thing, it’s just that I don’t believe she could motivate this specific student in just a few days, particularly when she starts from a place of such opposition. It’s a little too convenient.

Moreover, Julie Taylor continues to act like a fool in her relationship with the scumbag TA. I get that Julie doesn’t really have any friends at Unknown U — even if I don’t buy that no one, particularly boys, would avoid her — but I am so enraged by both her actions and the actions of the douche TA. It turns out he’s married, but apparently he’s not really happy and also abides by the Zip Code Rule, as he lets Julie regurgitate his discussion of “taking chances” as a way to make the move. They end of having sex, and everyone involved should be disappointed. I assume this means Julie will eventually get scared and come home to Dillon, which would be better for us as a viewer, but not for her as a character. Just send her to Chicago already!

Buddy bring his son back to Dillon could be interesting as could Jess’ new role as the equipment manager, but neither get enough mileage here to really be worth writing up. Not the best episode ever, but Michael B. Jordan helped make it much better than it probably should have been.

Friday Night Lights 5.03 "The Right Hand of the Father" Review

Sorry for the delay, folks.

After my reaction to last week’s premiere episode that succeeded mostly when focusing on the departure of old favorites, I was particularly interested in watching “On The Outside Looking In” to see how Friday Night Lights worked in its first episode ever that didn’t include Riggins, Matt, Landry or a combination of all three.

Unsurprisingly, the answer to that question is Friday Night Lights still works pretty damn well.

One of the (many) things I love about this series is how it’s able to take fairly rote and basic set-ups and inject life into them with relative ease to create interesting and complicated stories about the human condition. That’s probably a hyperbolic statement, but “Outside Looking In” features a slew of stories that are not only familiar to the sports and/or teen drama genres, but ones that the series itself has already kind of explored before, but for the most part, they’re successful.

For those of us who’ve watched the series from the beginning, Vince’s newfound stardom, attraction from colleges and issues with his mother recall the journey Smash took over the first three seasons. However, there are enough tweaks here to make the whole thing seem fresh. Whereas we were dropped into the world when Smash was already an established star who knew he was going to play college football (it was just a question of for who), Vince is experiencing this all for the first time. He doesn’t know how to react when people around town recognize him, want to buy his dinner and ultimately, decide to give his mother a job. And even though he’s self-aware enough to know that he is a damn good football, he’s completely shocked to see that Coach has received countless letters from all the biggest programs in the nation, all of which are interested in him.

And perhaps most importantly, Vince handles these new circumstances with more grace and humility than Smash ever did or even more than he would have had it come last year. For the most part, Vince is a quiet kid who just wants to do the right thing and make sure Coach is happy, whereas Smash was often out to get his and worry about the rest of the world later (not that we didn’t love him for it, however). Of course, Michael B. Jordan handles every one of these scenes with a quiet intensity that totally emphasizes the fact that Vince is shocked by all of this newfound situation that comes with winning.

That theme of the aftermath of winning permeates throughout the episode. Pumped up by their big win against the #8 team in the state last week, everyone on the Lions is more interested in hype than last week. Players and coaches are psyched to see where the team is ranked, and even though he doesn’t express the feelings in public, Coach feels the same way.

But this being Friday Night Lights, where every time an Eric Taylor-coached team is riding high the world smacks them down, it turns out winning that game has major consequences. The Lions do not get ranked in the Week 2 polls and the team they beat only falls one spot, destroying the morale in practice and in the locker room. Moreover, Luke’s big hit last week comes under fire when Texas football politics rears its head in the form of an advisory board that doesn’t like Coach Taylor or the small East Dillon program and ultimately, Luke is suspended for a game.

I don’t know how the series does it, but somehow, every single time that the Coach’s teams are doing well, something awful happens so that they’re underdogs yet again. It shouldn’t work. It should seem obvious. But formula or not, it’s all in the story execution and FNL executes its story just about better than anyone.

A lot of the episode is still laying the groundwork for some probably interesting stories to come throughout the rest of the season. Jess finds that being the girlfriend of the best football player in the school is going to be more difficult than she thought, especially when slutty Rally Girls aren’t willing to take no for an answer (another familiar story) while Julie finds that being a freshman in college is a daunting experience, but thankfully there’s always an inappropriate relationship with a teacher around the corner (hey, we’ve been there too!). Luke acts like his bitchy self due to the suspension, the new guy has little to do but smolder and Tami finds it difficult to fit in at work (been there, done that as well).

However, one final subplot really stands out as an example of what this series does so well. After her obvious hesitation to Becky moving in last week, Mindy spends a scene or two throughout the episode seeming totally pissed that Becky’s still around. And yet, there she is at the end of the episode waiting up for Becky when she’s out late at a party. She gives Becky a great speech about what happens in the Riggins household and it is just such a wonderful, heartwarming and natural moment, one that comes from a supporting player but one that bumps the episode up to another level of quality.

It is those kind of moments that make Friday Night Lights a tremendous television program and one that can take the simplest or most familiar material and raise it to a completely new level.

Friday Night Lights 5.02 "On the Outside Looking In" Review

Pardon the pun, but coming into Friday Night Lights‘ fifth and final season, we as an audience have certain expectations. Because this is the final season, we expect some sense of closure for the characters we’ve loved for five seasons (and in some cases, less than that). Though we know many of the original Dillon Panther students won’t be around for much of the season, we want them to either have great send-offs (in the case of Julie, Landry and in sense, Tim) or small, but satisfying returns that still serve as additional layers of closure from their “original” send-offs (in the cases of Street, Smash, Saracen, Tyra and Lyla). And because this series has been so damn good with emotional pay-offs from the beginning, we expect that the whole story of Dillon, TX to be wrapped up in a way that’s both subtle and substantial.

As the season premiere to that season packed with expectations, “Expectations” is a relative success, but ultimately an episode that raises concerns about how our hopes for a conclusion could be at least partially derailed.

Like most FNL season premieres, this oftentimes a table-setter for the 12 episodes to come. Because individual seasons always coincide with football, the series premieres have to catch the viewer up on what’s happened between November and August, and there’s certainly some of that here. After their crazy win over West Dillon at the end of last season, East Dillon is now something of a buzzworthy team in Texas high school football. Sure, they were 2-8 last year, but they have Vince and Luke, and in television series about football that aren’t really about football, two good offensive players = state champ contenders! Coach has to manage those expectations as well as he can. Tami’s dealing with her digs at East Dillon and finding it’s going to be harder than she thought. The male East Dillon’ers are doing well, while the females (Jess and Becky) are having some family issues.

But apart from the table setting and the various scenes that reintroduce us to the characters brought to the forefront last year, this episode finds most of its success in the goodbyes. In a chilling opening scene, Billy goes to visit Tim in prison and it’s obvious that though he was happy to make the sacrifice back in November, his time in lock up has made Tim cynical. I don’t want to say “hard,” because this isn’t Locked Up. Billy feels guilty for all of this, so he wants to channel some of that into helping out with the team, particularly because he thinks he helped Tim along during his career. Of course, Tim doesn’t really find that to be true, noting that “Coach was my coach, Billy.” In the end, Tim clearly wants to be left alone for his last three months in the pen because he can’t really look the people he sacrificed his life for in the eye anymore.

Meanwhile, Julie and Landry find themselves as the last remaining members of the original high school cast, and it’s finally time to go off to college. Landry has a heartfelt goodbye with Matt’s grandmother (instant tears), gets to play one last show with Cruxifictorious (that’s wildly over-populated based on their previous shows) and ends things with a nice time from a stripper, courtesy of one Julie Taylor.

But while Landry’s looking for one final bang-up time, Julie’s apparently just ready to move on, even if her school is (presumably, since Aimee Teegarden is still a main cast member) not too far away. She doesn’t necessarily run out the door or anything, but she spends just enough time with Eric and Tami before heading off on her own, not even allowing them to drive her to college. I think Julie became much more responsive to Dillon over the years, but this is still her dream, and as someone who’s gone through this kind of process, it’s hard to balance wanting to get the hell away and making sure your parents know you’ll still miss them.

Of course, this is Friday Night Lights, damnit, and every one of Julie’s scenes with the family is tremendous. Teegarden plays the trepidation of the situation well, and of course, Connie Britton nails all the worried, longing mother stuff with ease. But my absolute favorite moment of the episode is right near the end when Julie’s getting ready to pull away and they all share this knowing look of love and then Kyle Chandler delivers the perfect Coach Taylor “Alright.” Chandler knows exactly how to play Eric in a way that makes him say so much with just a few words, and much like his scenes with Matt in “The Son,” Coach is the emotional core of everything without really doing much. And then after Julie drives away, the episode lets it marinate over the Taylors for more than five seconds, because it’s a big moment that deserves it.

In that sense, I think you can tell my expectations were met with this episode. However, I’m a little concerned that the best moments here were all centered on characters who won’t be around as much. I know there is some extra punch to any goodbye-type situation, but I’m very, very interested in seeing how the series plays with literally know one left from the original team around. Vince is a wonderful character to build around, Luke’s fine and the two ladies seem to work well off those men, but I’m wondering if they had it easy in season four because Landry, Tim, Matt and Julie were still around to carry a lot of the story weight.

Thus, at least for the first half of the season (before all the older characters make their returns), Friday Night Lights faces something of a challenge. I don’t think it’s as big a challenge as the first few episode of last season, but the added weight of “The End” hanging over festivities that don’t really include many characters most people would consider crucial to that endgame makes for a complicated story. I’m pretty sure the writers will handle it with relative ease, particularly because Coach and Tami are still around, but let me say that I am, more questioning than I’ve been before.

Friday Night Lights 5.01 "Expectations" Review

The fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights will premiere on DirecTV on October 27.  Back in June we posted an article about a few former stars who would be returning in the final season this fall.  Now, NBC has released several sneak peeks (including a recap video of last season).  Watch them all below!

Coach Taylor led East Dillon High School to a thrilling Thanksgiving Day win over their cross-town rivals to end Season 4. Now get ready for the fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed series.

It begins on Wednesday, October 27, at 9pm ET, commercial-free and in crystal clear HD — only on The 101® Network, only on DIRECTV.

Sneak Peeks - Friday Night Lights Season 5

At the end of season three, if most Friday Night Lights fans were asked for guesses about the end of season four, I’d imagine many, if not most of them would have said something like this: After a season of adversity, the rag-tag group of East Dillon Lions pull it together just in time to beat the villainous West Dillon Panthers. Well, on a basic level, that’s exactly what happened.

But the best thing about FNL is that even know most of us saw this ending to the football season coming — and really, the endings to many of the season’s climaxes — it’s all about the journey and the execution. It’s fairly obvious that there’d be a minor, low-key scene with Coach Taylor marinating in the glow of victory, but actually watching Kyle Chandler smirk and rub that goofy-ass trophy goes far above what the image could have been in my head. Same goes for the goodbyes between Matt and Julie and Tim and Billy. Everyone knows this, but the way that this series and its whole production team craft a scene is just glorious. There wasn’t one unexpected moment in this finale, but the execution of every single one of them brought a smile or tear to my face.

The thing about this season’s finale is that so many things are still up in the air. That might seem like a super obvious statement, but think about the S3 finale. That episode smartly jumped ahead to the end of the school year and away from football, allowing a number of the stories to feel finished (Tim/Lyla, Landry/Tyra) while pushing off for S4 (Coach’s new position). But this season, things just happened and there isn’t a whole lot of introspection or analysis of what those things mean to the people of Dillon. This approach is far from a bad thing and I understand the decision to climax here, with this story, but perhaps more than last season, I’m ready for more Friday Night Lights. I want to know where Julie and Landry are off to, what happens to Tim, where Luke goes to school and how Coach deals with his re-established credibility in the town.

With the season ending, it makes sense to look back a little bit because this was the season with the most balls in there and storylines to juggle. Perhaps it’s too early to judge critically since I’m still feeling the high of “Thanksgiving,” but in the end, I think the writers handled themselves pretty darn well. There were some issues early in the season because it was obvious that the series needed to tell the final tale of Matt Saracen, but had created a void where an entire world needed to be established as well and both deserved A story status. The juggling act worked at a fairly high level, though not the series best, but both stories had extremely high points individually. Once Matt went east, Luke, Jess and even Landry (who had been given a short stick on his transfer) came alive and felt like more fully-formed characters that we needed to root for. Really, even the whole area of East Dillon felt more natural, subtle and complicated once Matt was out of the picture.

I can’t quite determine where this season fits in the larger scheme of things (though it’s clearly better than season two), especially because the pay-offs we need to certain stories aren’t coming until season five. Moreover, though this season doesn’t make the series feel like it’s coming towards an apparent end, it’s hard not to judge it in that way. So although I think a few moments earlier in the season lacked emotional complexity or subtly like the high points of S1 and basically all of all S3 did, basically everything from “The Son” on has been stellar.

Your thoughts on “Thanksgiving” and S4 in general?

Friday Night Lights 4.13, "Thanksgiving" Review

I’ve always thought if the end of a season sneaks up you, chances are that the series has been doing something right all year. Such is the case for the fourth season of Friday Night Lights.

There were some early issues with balancing all the characters and really a whole new world while still servicing the FNL veterans, but ever since Matt’s departure, the series has transitioned nicely into the new characters’ lives and the stories that will surely drive the fifth and final season.

At one point earlier in the season, I noted that Vince was being put in position to take over Matt’s role as the beaten down, never can catch a break kid with a good heart. I’d say that role has been officially grasped and I’ve been enjoying watching Vince’s life slowly crumble to the ground just as he actually tries to do something with it. Vince’s life is certainly more difficult than Matt’s, and despite my initial hesitance on the series pursuing more criminal stories — literally — the story of East Dillon’s QB1 has progressed nicely with the right combination of grace and drama. There’s a tendency to paint in broad strokes — season two certainly did that in relation to Landry’s crime — but that hasn’t really been the case here.

Vince’s struggles have brought him closer to Jess, filling out the love triangle with Landry that the season tried to shove down our throats early on with little success. I think there was just too much going on earlier in the season to completely sell the triangle and even the meet cute with Jess and Landry seemed partially forced at that point (though, perhaps my love for Tyra and Landry together skewed my opinion of that moment). Anyway, as all three characters have been given more to do, their relationships have felt more organic and although we still don’t quite know the history between Jess and Vince, the last string of episodes (and the great chemistry between the actors) has sold me on their inevitable hook-up once Landry goes off to college next season.

And with this being the penultimate episode, it’s no surprise that Coach, Tami and Tim all face major stress and obstacles. For the Taylors, it’s all about the professional struggle that’s ultimately become driven by personal attacks. Coach finds himself and his field under attack when the mostly absent Joe McCoy returns to complain about the field conditions for the upcoming East-West game while the radio is all a-buzz about the makeshift (and kind of legitimate) civil war in Dillon. Friendly pranks between the teams quickly turns nasty and eventually Coach is screwed — just like always. Meanwhile, the media dives into Tami’s advice to Becky and the town’s conservative folk are out for blood. As their house is hammered with spiteful, nasty phone calls, the Taylors have to decide if they’re going to swallow their pride or fight back. Not surprisingly, one of them holds back a bit while the other looks ready to fight.

And finally, Tim Riggins. Oh, Tim Riggins. Thirty-three newfound uncle-dom gives him a life high, until it all comes crashing down once the police finds out about the Riggin’s bros. illegal activity. As suspected, Tim’s hauled off to jail and I believe I predicted that he’d bite the bullet for his brother a few weeks ago. That looks to be the case, unfortunately. If that does happen, what was truly the arc for Tim this year? I guess one could say that with dropping out of college, having a job, taking care of Becky and buying some land, Tim finally learned how to be responsible. But his illegal actions nullify that. I can’t really buy that it was all so he could have that moment where Becky tells him he’s a great guy, because we already knew that despite his float-through-life attitude, Tim is there for the people he cares about. Maybe I’m thinking too hard and should realize Riggins came back because Katims and company want T. Kitsch back. And I can’t blame them.

So who is pumped for the finale?

Friday Night Lights, 4.12, "Laboring" Review

Last week, I assumed that Becky's pregnancy would surely be given its time in the limelight in future episodes. But I was pleasantly surprised that the series had enough gumption to embrace and examine the possibilities of teen abortion, especially on a major broadcast television network.

Of course, I'm not saying that abortions are right or wrong, but it's rare that a major television series actually tackles them, and even more rare when the execution is this well done. But really, what should we expect from Friday Night Lights? Becky wasn't portrayed as a whiny brat or a wise-beyond-her-ears "TV high school student," but instead subtly shown as a confused, hurt and cautious teen who needed some guidance. Thankfully, Dillon, Texas has the best advice-giver in the world in Tami Taylor and Tim Riggins is smart enough to bring Becky to her. Their two conversations were wonderful, and the second one is notable for Becky simply, logically going through the process of what would happen if she would keep the baby. As she says, she could be a good parent. She could love the baby. She could deal with it better than her mother. But that sliver of doubt means that she actually cannot. And that's all she needs to know, she can't derail her life or Luke's life.

I do, however, think Luke was left on the sidelines a little bit. He hasn't shunned away from the responsibility of his choices, but Becky's been fairly distant from the beginning and I would have liked to see more of his involvement. I guess we're supposed to read that Becky just can't deal with Luke's inherent goodness in the situation and probably can't talk to him, either. Based on the preview for next week, it seems like that Luke's reaction to the whole ordeal could come later when combined with his injuries. I smell a pill addiction coming.

For Tami, it looks as though the conversations with Becky will have a lasting effect as well. She wakes Eric up in the middle of the night, bugging him about what they would do if Julie came to them with a similar situation. All season, Tami's had a bit of trouble connecting with her daughter and I'm assuming that the talk with Becky is making her think that she doesn't totally know what's up with her own daughter (a daughter who is about to go away from college, too). It will be interesting to see if Tami starts prying more into Julie's life both as a way to check in and also make sure she's still doing her job. And again, based on the promos, it looks as if Luke's ultra-religious parents will be coming after Tami and her level-headed advice.

Meanwhile, Vernon took a more active role in Vince's life in "I Can't." The Lions QB finds himself in trouble both at home and on the field and the former player and BBQ shack owner finally lets his guard down to embrace the young man who is a lot like himself. He gets in Coach Taylor's ear about not restricting an athlete like Vince with all sorts of constructed plays, which leads to an interesting night of drinking, and then tries to help Vince deal with his OD'ing mother. The scene between the two of them in Vernon's home is fantastic, with Vernon telling Vince that he can't give him the money, but he'll do everything he can to help him. The sudden interest in Vince will hopefully lead to some real meaty stuff for Jess as well, because she's clearly confused as to why her father is now randomly so invested in a kid he spent so much time hating. Jess is a character that has had little beats with a number of characters, but hasn't been given a full-on arc herself, and hopefully the last three episodes bring a little bit of that to the forefront.

Not surprisingly, Tim and Billy figure out that their get-rich plan isn't going as well as they thought. They stupidly decide to bury the car frames that they can't discard anywhere else and despite Tim's rational plea to end it all, I have a really bad feeling about this whole thing.

All in all, a fine episode. I can't believe there are only three left! A-

Friday Night Lights, 4.10 "I Can't" Review

Despite its ability to tell stories that are extremely personal and full of emotion, sometimes Friday Night Lights makes me cringe just a little when it gets into racially charged tales. Let me be clear: I’m totally happy that the series expanded the universe of Dillon, Texas in season four so that it can tell stories that were big parts of the book. But early this season, I found it difficult to buy into the large group of African-American folks that we had never seen, the project-like areas we had never seen and the stereotypes that both of those new developments brought forth.

But through Vince and Jess’ father, things slowly improved over the middle of the season and “The Lights of Carroll Park” feels like the first time the storytelling intent has matched up with the execution.This episode is also the first one that feels totally confident in where its going without Matt Saracen around — the last two have felt a little off-balance, for good reason I guess — and now, I’m totally confident as well.

In a way, it looks like Vince has taken Matt’s place as the beaten down, wannbe do-gooder. He has the issues at home with a loved one’s illness and a lack of money. He needs and gets a dead-end job that allows people to come visit him and heckle. And he wants to date the daughter of a strong man (maybe a reach, but go with the comparison). I guess the biggest difference is Vince is legitimately talented on the football field. But anyway, I think the move to putting Vince at the center of the series has kept the last two episodes interesting and the rest of the stories caught up this week. Michael B. Jordan plays the outward strength with inner turmoil very well and he makes Vince almost as great to root for as Matt. Almost. Can I just say I miss Mr. Saracen?

The A story with Coach trying to get the lights turned on in Carroll Park started a little rough and cringe-worthy just like some of the earlier episodes. However, once Coach and Buddy decided to meet with the East Dillon community leader (played by Larry Gilliard Jr. of The Wire), the story kicked in to a more realistic — and enjoyable — drive. Not only was it awesome to have the man who played D’Angelo act in the same episode as the boy who played Wallace (Jordan), but I really liked Gilliard’s character. He wasn’t overly combative with Coach and Buddy and stuck to his honest guns. The episode was smart about not making Coach and Buddy the great white hopes, but just people who wanted to help in any way they could.

And although I do find it a little unrealistic that Coach would be willing to let all his players — except Luke, I guess? — play an unsanctioned game during an off week, even playing two-hand touch without pads due to a fear of injury for his already small team, I liked the intent. I especially enjoyed the little moment with the 13-year old player on the “street” team who Coach absconded for a future try-out. I hope we see that kid again in season five.

On the other hand, Becky’s pregnancy and possible abortion not only came out of nowhere, but seem a little misguided — even if I ultimately enjoyed it thanks to the performances. Not only did we not see any sort of physical interaction between Luke and Becky, but I’m not sure I buy that the nice-to-a-fault Luke would ever have unprotected sex with his crush. I’m not saying his hormones didn’t get the best of him, but if we’re to buy that explanation, then him acting like totally calm, rationale and mature in the aftermath doesn’t quite fit either.

HOWEVER, I like those two characters/actors together and I think  they sold it without drawing attention to the melodramatic aspects. Plus, having Riggins be the voice of support gives him something to do aside from chop up cars. I’m sure more attention will be paid to the story in the coming episodes so I’ll stop with the opining for now.

Finally, really loved the few moments between Coach and Tami this week. I’m glad the series spotlighted the fact that they’ve been unable to share much time together this school year, but a lesser series would have made a much bigger and more melodramatic deal of it. But not Friday Night Lights, not Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton. All we need is a couple of scenes, a few looks and boom, that’s a little story for the week. A-

Friday Night Lights, 4.09 "The Lights of Carroll Park" Review

With Matt gone from Dillon, “In The Bag” felt like somewhat of a transition episode, as the series finely moves away from the original lead Panthers and towards the story of the East Dillon Lions. Of course, Tim is still around and we’ve spent a lot of time with East Dillon all season, but the first six episodes did a lot to build up and conclude the story for Matt and Julie. Here, she deals with the aftermath of his decision to leave while Tim struggles with his abandonment issues.

With Matt gone, “In The Bag” is very much Julie Taylor’s show. She’s on the verge of tears throughout and I loved the scene where she signs up for every school club while Landry humorously questions her intent. This is the type of scene that FNL nails so damn well. It’s small and ultimately not that crucial to the plot of the episode, but it balances the humor and heart perfectly and nails the relationship between Landry and Julie as well. And while I’m not sure I fully believe that Matt wouldn’t at least call Julie if he’s calling other people, I’ll go with it because Aimee Teegarden sold the frustration, confusion and despair so well.

Meanwhile, when Becky’s deadbeat dad visits, Tim takes it upon himself to make sure his neighbor is treated right. He finds out that the father not only doesn’t plan on staying long or ever coming back to Dillon for his daughter, but he also has another, new family in Seattle. And although Riggins tries not to say a word, his own past starts creeping in and he lets Becky in on the secret. This isn’t Riggins trying to look good or be the hero, he’s just remembering how terrible he was treated by his father. He knows how the game works. First it’s a dog, then a car, then whatever — it’s all just a way to keep the child from feeling awkward around the deadbeat parent. This was a welcome story for Tim in my opinion, because although it is great to have him around, his aimlessness has equated to nothing to really do within individual episodes, so with one former Panther out of town, it looks like the focus is turning to another.

Meanwhile, both Taylors see initially good situations turn sour, albeit on different levels. For Coach, the team is on a little bit of a high once Vince is given the QB1 role. And then Vince’s locker is searched because of a possible gun. Bummer. Coach does his best in a sticky situation, trying to ask Vince about the possibility of having a gun without making his best player feel like a criminal. Vince thinks it’s still just all about the football, but after a conversation with his player’s mother, Coach lets Vince know that his interest goes past the game. He needs Vince to avoid juvenile detention not just for the Lions, but for his trying-to-recover mother. This is another instance of racial issues popping up that never seemed to exist in Dillon before, but both actors sold it well and I know many people are happy that these stories from the book are finally being given their due in the television product.

For Tami, her work at the school leads to a major academic award, which allows Glen to convince her and all the other staff members it’s time to celebrate. After trying to get everyone fairly drunk, Glen makes the mistake we’ve been waiting for him to make for years: he tries to kiss Tami. It seems out of nowhere, but hey, Glen!

Also: Tinker helps Luke build a fence! Love it. A-

Friday Night Lights, 4.07 "In The Bag" Review

Hiya TVOvermind faithful! I'm Cory Barker. I'm new to the staff and will slowly be working my way into the fold here.

Since its debut, Friday Night Lights has been critically acclaimed, but lacked any mainstream support from viewers and ultimately NBC as well. That lack of awareness has translated to the Primetime Emmy Awards, where the production has only been nominated five times in four years, three of which were for casting. No one on the much-praised-by-critics cast has been nominated.

But this year, there's a chance one performer breaks that trend: Zach Gilford.

Yes, Gilford garnering an Emmy is a longshot, but there are more things in favor than perhaps there has ever been for a FNL performer. The episode he'll be submitting -- "The Son" -- was hyped by critics both during its first DirecTV airing in the fall and the re-airing a few weeks ago on NBC. Time's James Poniewozik noted that "'The Son'" was one of the most fantastic episodes of TV to air in 2009." Alan Sepinwall said that the episode "was one of the best in the run of this wonderful series." And of course, all that hype centered on Gilford's emotionally powerhouse performance.

Moreover, "The Son" is totally Gilford's episode. He is in more than 75 percent of scenes throughout the episode, making him seem like the true star and catalyst for the story. That might seem like a small thing, but never underestimate -- or perhaps overestimate -- how the Emmy voters think.

Gilford smartly entered himself into the guest actor category instead of supporting where the competition is seemingly more difficult. While there are certainly more actors in the guest category, the prestige isn't there. There's no way that Gilford would even be on the top 25 of the supporting actor ballot. But in the guest category, with an episode that everyone with an opinion loved and talked up fervently, there's a chance.

There's one final element to consider here, something that will probably result in absolutely no effect on the actual nominations -- the Facebook campaign. Popeater started the campaign earlier this month right after "The Son" aired and since its inception, multiple mainstream media outlets have highlighted it with stories (see Popeater's coverage of the campaign's progress). Now, Variety has Gilford on their "one to watch" list of possible Emmy nominees. We know what Facebook did for Betty White and although this is a completely different circumstance, a Gilford nomination could lend some value to the social network's power over culture.

So the buzz is certainly building for Gilford. Lots of people, including the right kinds of people, are behind him. But sadly, this is the Emmys we're talking about. These are awards given by a group of voters that have recently awarded the likes of Jon Cryer and Jeremy Piven over dozens of more deserving candidates. In the end, don't expect Gilford to be a nominee in the Outstanding Guest Actor category, but if anyone from Friday Night Lights is ever going to be nominated, he is the one and now is the time.

Can Zach Gilford garner an Emmy nomination?

It looks like the fifth season of Friday Night Lights (slated to return in the fall) will likely be its last.  And the producers are parading out former stars of the show for FNL's swan song.

Taylor Kitsch, who played original cast member Tim and then went on to star in movies will appear in the final four episodes of season five.  Adrianne Palicki (Tyra) will make a guest appearance in the season's final two episodes.

In addition, Zach Gilford, who played Matt, will be returning for four episodes, including the finale.  Finally, Scott Porter will be returning for the seventh episode.

Friday Night Lights airs on DirecTV.

Source: Ausiello

Friday Night Lights Spoilers - Who's Coming Back for the Final Season?

With Season 4 of Friday Night Lights finishing its run on DirecTV tonight (Season 4 will air on NBC beginning April 30), word comes that Season 5 will be the show's last.  An NBC representative has told Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly that while no official decision has been made, all of the principals at FNL have been given permission to seek other work once the shoot for Season 5 concludes in June.   As Mr. Ausiello points out, the actors and creators of FNL have received this information at a fortunate time: right at the start of pilot season.  A critical darling, especially for its acting, there is no doubt the folks on FNL will have little problem finding work this fall.

What's your reaction to the end of Friday Night Lights?  Sad to see it go?  Think the timing is right?  On what current or future shows would you like Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton and the rest of the cast to appear?  Be sure to check out TVOvermind for updates to this story and all of your TV needs.

Friday Night Lights to Make Season 5 Its Last

Previously on FNL: Tim tried to blow off the jailbait girlfriend-wannabe; Vince had issues with former Panther Luke joining the Lions; Matt's artistic mentor told Julie she was holding Matt back, but Matt told Julie that she was the most important thing in his life (awww); and the East Dillon Principal told Coach that the school was so strapped for cash that, should the football team not produce results, they'd shut it down.

Tami drives to work, listening to Slammin' Sammy Mead talk about the Panthers, who are still smarting from their forfeit last week (because Luke was playing for them illegally, don'tcha know). All the callers want to talk about is how Tami "hand-delivered" Luke to her husband's team. Tami looks as frustrated as Eric has for the last few years every time he listened to that show. Over at East Dillon, Coach greets the principal, calling him "Levi". Levi passive-aggressively congratulates Coach on finishing a game; Coach ignores this and suggests that a pep rally would help the team's morale. Only when he tells Levi it won't cost the school a dime does Levi give his okay; he's out the door before he even says it. Tough crowd. Across town, Julie and Matt sit together as Jules finishes her final applications. She's applying to Brown, NYU, and a lot of other schools not located in Texas, with the exception of UT Austin. Matt, shocked at just how far and how fast Julie might be gone, says nothing.

Lions practice. Vince (#5) and Luke (#44) get in each other's faces over a play, with Vince yelling at Luke to "get out of his way." Coach calls them over for some old-fashioned tough love, telling them that everyone's getting tired of them letting the team down. Coach, when has that ever worked for you on this show? On the next play, Vince gets slammed by a tackle; when he asks Luke where his coverage was, Luke shrugs that he just got out of Vince's way. "Why aren't you in the end zone?" Hee! It's like a prequel of the Riggins/Smash relationship, in a way. There's much charging at each other, and coaches stepping in to separate the two alpha-male wannabes. On the sidelines, Coach stares at the heavens for guidance, and then happens to glance over at the chicken-wire fence. A faded old sign, partially obscured by heavy vines, reads: "Dillon Lions Football: 1983 STATE CHAMPIONS." That's what I'm talking about. Coach glances from the sign to his team, and we go into the credits.

Riggins Ranch. Mindy and Billy sit at the dining room table as Tim walks in holding two huge hunting rifles. He's there to talk about the upcoming weekend, which will involve "deers and beer," because it's hunting season and the Riggins boys are supposed to go shoot things this weekend. Mindy is not feeling this, as you might imagine, asking if Billy - who's wearing a "Landing Strip" T-shirt, which is a nice touch - is planning on leaving her all alone. Tim is wearing a sleeveless tee in this scene, and I'd just like to thank the producers for being such giving people. Thanks, show! Billy tries to talk Mindy down, telling her that he and Timmy can go hunting anytime. "No we cain't! That's why it's called hunting SEASON, Billy," Tim argues, claiming the best line of the episode less than one minute after the credits. Billy: "Seriously, I'm gonna put your head through a wall." Oh, Riggins boys. Never, ever change.

Friday Night Lights 4.04 Recap - "A Sort of Homecoming"

Previously on FNL: Tim dropped out, Vince joined the Lions, Monty's still a jerk, and Coach forfeited. I still can't quite believe that last one.

All the Dillon boys are having a rude awakening. Tim's getting hassled by the local PD for sleeping in the bed of his truck on private property; Coach is grumpy at Saracen, who's hanging out at Chez Taylor with Julie. He walks outside to get the morning paper and discovers his amazing wife, who's pulling little surrender flags out of their front lawn. Ouch. Over at Dillon High, the team is watching last night's game film and cheering themselves on; JD and Luke high-five each other as Wade notes that they're a hell of a combo. By contrast, over at East Dillon, the team hasn't even shown up for game film, and why would they? Eric stomps to his car as Buddy Garrity, of all people, drives up, telling Eric that he has to show him something. Cut to Buddy and Eric standing in an empty lot with a single mailbox out front. Buddy tells Eric that he's standing at the address listed for Luke Cafferty, "star running back of the Dillon Panthers, future superstar." Coach asks where he really lives, and Buddy tells him: East Dillon, of course. "He's supposed to be yours." Eric looks at the empty lot in disbelief as we go into the credits. I gotta say, I still don't know what that brunette's weird dance move is about.

Taylor Kitchen. Tami fumes over Luke's deception; Coach tells Tami not to tell anyone that Buddy's the source of the info, because Buddy's concerned the town will boycott the dealership. I'd say that's a valid concern. Tami feels terrible for Luke, Coach takes umbrage that poor Luke will have to come to his shoddy team, and I eyeroll because: come on. Julie and Coach leave for East Dillon, so I guess Tami accepted that decision; she tells her daughter to be careful, and Julie eyerolls that it's high school, not a prison yard. Cut to cops circling the basketball court outside the school, wup-wupping their sirens in a warning way. East Dillon's predominantly African-American, apparently, and we get shots of kids hanging out, playing basketball, leaning on the cars before school starts, and Julie tries to find her way around. Elsewhere in the school, Vince slaps hands with a few people as he climbs a stairwell. He stops dead when he sees "LIONS R LOSERS" scrawled across a Lions banner, but doesn't do anything about it; he's angry when he finds little surrender flags stuck into his locker.

Over at Dillon Tech, Matt's art teacher tells him that she secured an internship for him with a local artist who's a "genius", and I start laughing immediately. I know Texas is nothing like Florida, but if my past experience with genius artists down south is any indication, they are pretty damn out there. She tells Matt that he picked Matt, and that it's an honor; she asks him to go to Richard Sherman's house that afternoon. Matt asks why she suggested him for the internship, and she tells him he has what every artist needs: pluck. Oh, saints preserve us. Matt goes to the address, which has rusted metal lying willy-nilly all over the yard; he's wearing a tie and blazer, bless him. Richard Sherman answers the door smoking a cigarette, wearing tattered grey briefs and loafers, and yells at Matt to move some junk out to the back. Hee - I told ya!

Landry tries to park at East Dillon, but loitering students refuse to clear the space. When he tries to leave, he backs up into a pretty, sassy, bicycling girl - Jess Merriweather - who tells him that he will reimburse her fully for the damages. Later, in the cafeteria, Coach corners Landry and tells him that he needs Landry to get the team back together. Landry evenly asks why Coach called the game. Eric starts to play the Coach card, saying that he "doesn't need to explain himself" to Landry, but Lord love him, Landry is completely unimpressed: "Well, I can explain to you that everyone gave absolutely everything that they had out there, and you just quit on us?... I'm done. And everyone else is done." Y'all, when Landry has made his mind up about something, he is just amazing. Coach stands stunned as Landry walks away.

Panthers practice. In the rain, JD throws a pass to Luke (#4), who executes it flawlessly into the end zone. Tami stands nearby, holding one of those big golf umbrellas, and calls Luke over. He is all beaming smiles and "yes ma'am"s, asking her joyfully whether she just saw him make the catch. On top of the world, ma! Not for long, kid. Tami asks him his home address, and he provides the number and street of the empty lot Eric saw the day before. She repeats the question, and he lies again. She tells him that he actually lives in Kilroy, which is zoned for East Dillon. Luke starts to backpedal, saying it's all he ever wanted, and could Tami write a letter to the governor? HEE. Tami is firm that the only way Luke can go to Dillon High is if his parents move. I wouldn't be surprised if Monty bought his parents a house, frankly. Tami sincerely apologizes - she knows better than anyone what football means in this town, and how kids grow up dreaming of nothing but one day playing for the Panthers - but tells him that he has to pack up his stuff and attend East Dillon High starting the next day. Luke utterly loses it, begging and crying and bargaining that he will get an A in every class, slamming through all the stages of grief at once. When Tami insists that this is the only way, he says he's fine, and even thanks her for her time; she turns to go, but he calls her back, apologizing for lying to her. At first I thought this was another appeal, but it's not - he's genuinely remorseful, and Tami graciously accepts the apology immediately. She is such a class act; I like Luke a little more for recognizing that. Luke finally twists away, openly crying but still thanking Tami (you southern boys kill me). He runs to tell Wade he has to pack up his stuff.

Friday Night Lights 4.02 - "After the Fall" Recap

Previously on FNL: Saracen decided to stay; Billy read Tim the riot act about going to college; Coach Taylor was ousted as Panthers coach, and Monty-puppet Wade got his job; CT took the head coach job for the newly re-established East Dillon High; he and Tami went to visit the wasteland of the East Dillon High football field.

It's a rough start for our beloved Dillon boys: Saracen's delivering "Panthers Pizza," Tim's baffled by college, raccoons are nesting in the travesty that is the Lions' locker room, Landry's been redistricted into East Dillon High, and Buddy is persona non grata on the Panthers football field. Up is down, ladies and gentlemen. At East Dillon, Eric stares at his desolation of a football field; he picks up an empty beer bottle on his field and throws it in disgust. Texas Forever, y'all! Elsewhere in Dillon, a shirtless, hot, young African-American man is pretty effectively running from the cops. A police car cuts him off and the officers yell at him to get on the ground. He puts his hands on his head - welcome to the gun show, btw - and the officers cuff him. Back in the locker room, Eric weighs the new team in. I think it's safe to say it's a more ethnically diverse group than the Panthers were. One of them initially refuses to take off a big gold chain, leading me to term him Bling. All of them want to play QB, but they're useless on the field. Coach calls practice after 18 minutes and tells them to go home and think about whether they want to be here or not. After they leave, Coach marks the field lines when a cop car pulls up; a police officer, Detective Shaw, gets out with the kid who was running from the cops earlier. Shaw, whose brother Mike played for Coach years back, asks Coach to take the kid on, which will keep him out of juvie. The kid introduces himself as Vince; the sheriff, hilariously, says that the kid is great at running, as we saw earlier. Coach asks Vince to show up at 6AM sharp. "Six AM sharp means quarter 'til six," he clarifies. Hee! Vince will be there. At the second practice, CT's only assistant coach quits the team, just because one of the players accidentally hits him in the face with a football and bloodies his nose. The kid apologizes sincerely, but the Asst Coach could care less. Good riddance, but now Coach is literally on his own.

Credits, from which all Panthers colors and flag-waving has been removed. I really like how committed the writers are to this new storyline.

Tami has apparently been called to the Panthers' locker room. When she arrives, Wade stands up to applaud her for "all the hard work (she) put into redistricting" when she arrives, telling her how strong the Panthers team is as a result of it, and thanks her "for steppin' up and doin' the right thing." Monty, grinning broadly, informs her that they want her to do the coin toss at Friday's game - the night Eric will have his first game as coach of the Lions. You know, I almost forgot how despicable this character was. Buddy and CT's former coaches sit in silence around the table, ashamed and mortified. Monty goes so far as to tell Tami that she could call heads, just to emphasize how very IN CHARGE he is, and then laughs at her disbelief, claiming he was kidding. Tami draws strength from her well of awesomeness and diplomatically thanks them for the honor, saying she'll think about it as she leaves.

Tim Riggins, bless him, is sitting in a college classroom, listening to his female professor talk about Odysseus. "Every hero has a journey," she explains, saying that Odysseus' journey helps him to appreciate his earlier life and the home he left. You don't have to tell Tim Riggins, lady, who is already packing up and driving back to Dillon, throwing his textbooks out the window one by one, smiling with obvious relief once they're all gone. Oh, Timmy. Back in Dillon, Saracen talks about his art with a community college instructor; she tells him she wouldn't call it "art", but "drawing without a point of view." Saracen responds that the University of Chicago liked his art, and they're a much better school than Dillon Tech. The instructor reasonably asks why he's at Dillon Tech, then, and Saracen has no response.

Tim, Billy and Mindy sit at the Riggins dinner table; Mindy asks Tim what his life plan is. Ha! Oh, honey. Tim tells her that he'll work at Riggins' Rigs, Billy's garage, and he'll stay with them. A very pregnant Mindy rises, asking Billy for a moment of his time to ream him out over this latest development, and Billy follows, seething at an oblivious Tim as he goes. Dare I hope that this will dissolve into another bout of infamous Riggins wrestling before the ep is out? Stay tuned, gentle viewer.

Friday Night Lights 4.01 - "East of Dillon" Recap

If you happen to be a Directv subscriber then you're in luck.  On October 28 the series Friday Night Lights will enter its forth season and will premiere exclusively on Directv's channel 101.  Of course, if you're a Friday Night Light's fan, you were already very aware of that fact.  The rest of us, will just have to wait until 2010.  The word is that the season 4 episodes of Friday Night Lights won't air until the summer of 2010, but at the rate that NBC is currently burning through shows, don't be surprised if FNLs returns before the summer.

Below are two of the most recent promos for the new season 4, where things are still reeling from Dillon being split into two school districts, and a focal point of the season will revolve around the Lions, where Eric will be coaching them and "Striving for mediocrity."  Take a look at the clips below and see if they get you ready for season 4.

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Friday Night Lights Returns (to Directv) October 28

In the world of high school football, you'd kind of expect more characters like this.  Friday Night Lights is looking to add a bruiser to their roster.  Somebody who really knows how to throw their weight around, and it seems like this particular portly new addition will be recurring.  Click on to find out more about Friday Night Lights' latest player.

[JULIO GARCIA] OVERWEIGHT ACTORS ONLY, BUILT LIKE A TANK. 18 year old to play 16, Latino. The older of the squabbling Garcia brothers, Julio somehow makes his considerable weight into a virtue, "owning it," as they say...RECURRING GUEST STAR

High tolerance for intense cardio required, right?  I'm told this breakdown has been sent out before, but since I haven't seen it published, I figured I'd pass it on.  Anybody have any clues as to who is playing Julio?  Since they start work next week, I'm assuming the role is close to being filled.

Here's a few details on Friday Night Lights.

Expanding on the hit feature film and best-selling book Friday Night Lights, this award-winning series centers on life in Dillon, Texas, where high school football brings the community together -- and the drama of small town life threatens to tear it apart. Coach Eric Taylor (Emmy nominee Kyle Chandler, Greys Anatomy) faced countless challenges over the course of the first two seasons, but he isnt the only one juggling responsibilities between family, work and pressures from the community. In season three, Coach Taylors wife, Tami (Connie Britton, "24"), also has her hands full as Dillons new high school principal: managing a shrinking budget, a lack of school supplies, decreased teaching staff and student issues, as well as a baby and coming of age teenaged daughter, Julie (Aimee Teegarden, Hannah Montana) at home.

Friday Night Lights Adding a Big Guy