Got my sister to start in on this show knowing she would love it, she was skeptical to start but finished the whole thing within like 3 weeks.
She finished last night and basically called me in tears haha. We had some massive text chains going back and forth so I started watching certain parts again.
― IKEA metaballs (Spottie), Monday, 21 April 2014 23:54 (ten years ago) link
Giving it a third try, made it pretty deep into the first season and I'm starting to get into it.
Still bothersome stuff, like Coach Taylor talking to Matt in the second episode and covering the whole "Grandma with dementia, no parents, etc." thing then telling him to FOCUS ON FOOTBALL DAMMIT. I could understand that conversation with Smash or pre-injury Street but Saracen was never anything but backup before and showed no indication that football was important to him. Plus the Odessa-Permian coach (essentially) being clueless and appalled by recruiting the guy from Leverage.
As I type this, it just got to "my Panther wants me to do a three-way."
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Monday, 27 April 2015 23:01 (nine years ago) link
I know it's the nature of the beast but it's hard to suspend disbelief on 90% of the players being high school sophomores.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Monday, 27 April 2015 23:04 (nine years ago) link
thought id hate this having gone through smallish town texas hs and having thus had first hand exp with every trope they hit but man i have nothing but love for fnl.
second ep of the first season is one of my favorite tv experiences of all time
― head clowning instructor (art), Monday, 27 April 2015 23:09 (nine years ago) link
Any Schumer did a pretty awesome FNL parody- did anyone else see it?
http://youtu.be/TM2RUVnTlvs
Her Tammy is hilar + Josh Charles as coach <3
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 27 April 2015 23:13 (nine years ago) link
xp these days and esp in big football programs, there are a lot of kids that are pretty physically advanced (is there any non-creepy way to say this). like the most physically imposing kids / kids with the best shot at the college game are groomed early and its not uncommon to find groups of them on the same squad.
in any case i thought they did a pretty decent job at the casting, knowing that acting ability had to be considered
― head clowning instructor (art), Monday, 27 April 2015 23:14 (nine years ago) link
I laughed (very) out loud when Amy Schumer did that walking-to-the-house-with-hands-up walk.
― Who M the best? (Will M.), Monday, 27 April 2015 23:17 (nine years ago) link
right!? best part
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 28 April 2015 00:41 (nine years ago) link
Just starting this--three episodes in. I know it's very early, but two things are really getting in the way so far. 1) The way it's shot: cinéma vérité , endless close-ups. 2) How grim everyone is. I'm generally simpatico with the friend who bought it for me, so I expect I'll start to warm to it at some point.
― clemenza, Saturday, 2 May 2015 14:01 (nine years ago) link
1 never goes away, but 2 does. It's very funny at times.
― Jouster, Sunday, 3 May 2015 02:41 (nine years ago) link
1 actually does ease up a lot 6 or 7 episodes in.
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Sunday, 3 May 2015 03:50 (nine years ago) link
I'm just past the thread-title episode, and I am liking it better. Still new to these prestige shows (or whatever) of the past few years, but in the four that I've watched, it takes them a few episodes to get their footing, then they get better.
Like the coach's wife a lot; her gentle mocking of the coach is always great ("Our daughter is now interested in football--good job, honey.") Smash gets better and better; when he's really hammy, he's funny, but lately he's added some shading. I thought Smash's mom telling him about his father was the first really great dramatic scene thus far. Landry and Tyra are really good, and even Riggins has loosened up. Haven't connected with much of the music so far, though.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 01:08 (nine years ago) link
I always thought the thread title was a joke until I got to that episode. Getting the feeling that this was initially planned with Street and Lyla as much bigger players before they realized that everyone else in town was more interesting, including the Mayor and her partner (how the fuck does the mayor of a 10k person town hide their live-in gf?).
Kinda weird how the Internet fervor was about how wonderful Coach is and generally he seems to be a bit of a compromised dick - not firing the racist coach, etc.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 01:11 (nine years ago) link
Street and Lyla are still front and center where I am right now. (The lawsuit has just been launched.) Minka Kelly is gorgeous, but she's...not a great actress. If her part gets smaller henceforth, maybe that was a factor. The episode or two where she became a total pariah was moving anyway, and she had that one great line to the cheerleading judge: "Yeah, it's me, the slut with the website."
― clemenza, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 01:17 (nine years ago) link
Like the coach's wife a lot; her gentle mocking of the coach is always great
imo they're the best portrayal of a married couple ever on television.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 01:45 (nine years ago) link
otm
i also really love the way they handle the parenting-a-teenage-girl issues
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 02:07 (nine years ago) link
we loved this show, just finished it a month or so ago.
this show is so clear eyed and compassionate w/ all its characters. every single character has value
― ⊚ ⓪ ㉧ ☉ ๏ ʘ ◉ ◎ ⓞ Ⓞ (Lamp), Friday, January 7, 2011
so true
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 02:22 (nine years ago) link
i still adore most of these actors based almost entirely on this show
tyra is kicking ass on Agents of Shield btw
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 02:26 (nine years ago) link
https://scontent-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/t31.0-8/11187177_10153328246187146_8074973265860351374_o.jpgex-roomie's response to this unfortunate pause: "it's comforting to know even she can look unattractive in a photo"
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 02:29 (nine years ago) link
tyra4life
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 02:40 (nine years ago) link
I'm no Tyra stan but she's not even a little bit unattractive in that pic.
― Madison Dumbbarfer (Leee), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 04:27 (nine years ago) link
everything clemenza said leads me to believe that friday night lights will have a new superfan in ~60 hours
tyra is kicking ass on Agents of Shield btw wait whaaaaaaaaaaat that's her????????
― Who M the best? (Will M.), Wednesday, 13 May 2015 06:51 (nine years ago) link
They were working on her own Shield spinoff actually, but it got nixed. Just like her Wonder Woman movie.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 08:06 (nine years ago) link
she was wonder woman in a david kelley tv pilot. you can find it online. it is... not good, although she did the best she could with what she had.
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 08:54 (nine years ago) link
100% cosign
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 08:55 (nine years ago) link
xp oh that's right. it was tv. there have been so many failed wonder woman projects in the last decade i confuse them.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 09:13 (nine years ago) link
and we have more failed wonder woman to look forward to! thanks dc!
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 09:31 (nine years ago) link
friday night lights will have a new superfan in ~60 hours
Probably--but much faster. Same with House of Cards; really skeptical at first, got better and better. Six Feet Under and Mad Men were better from the start, but even they didn't hit their peak till three or four seasons in.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 12:52 (nine years ago) link
Halfway through the second season. A friend warned me that it was the weakest, but so far I've liked most of it. The daughter bugs me sometimes--she mopes around and cries a lot. Riggins, who was such a drag the first few episodes, gets better all the time; him calling the radio station about Jesus and the Turin Shroud killed me. The music, almost none of which I know, usually works; "Now That I Know" is the first Devendra Banhart song I've ever heard, and I love it.
― clemenza, Sunday, 28 June 2015 04:01 (eight years ago) link
Riggins is my favorite
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 28 June 2015 04:34 (eight years ago) link
If nothing else, S2 has one of Saracen's best scenes and a pretty amusing guest star in the finale
― the naive cockney chorus (Simon H.), Sunday, 28 June 2015 06:16 (eight years ago) link
Smash is another character who was very one-dimensional for the first few episodes--the vainglorious, refers-to-himself-in-the-third-person show-off (and being black, they caricatured him even further)--but has settled down and gets better all the time. That side of him is still there, but ever since that one girl called him out on it (Waverly; hope she comes back), he almost treats it like a joke, and it's kind of charming; there was also the great episode where he led the boycott of the coach, and that took him somewhere else. The scenes with him and his mom are among the show's best.
I hope they figure out what to do with Landry and Tyra now that the murder's been resolved. They're such an interesting pair.
― clemenza, Sunday, 28 June 2015 13:24 (eight years ago) link
Finished season two.
If nothing else, S2 has one of Saracen's best scenes
His drunken scrimmage?
Landry having to choose between Tyra and Jean is pretty hilarious--they're like the two versions of everybody's dream girl. The cutting during the volleyball games could be a lot better; every close-up of Tyra underscores how awkward she is out there. The drug dealer guy was scary.
― clemenza, Monday, 29 June 2015 13:44 (eight years ago) link
As I tend to do, I obsess over the music. I wrote about Devendra Banhart's "Now That I Know" (season 2) for a movie-music blog a friend and I intermittently keep:
https://heardjustwhatiseen.wordpress.com/2015/06/29/make-them-disappear-now/
― clemenza, Monday, 29 June 2015 22:03 (eight years ago) link
That gap from the end of S2 to the beginning of S3 is jarring--I took the DVD out and made sure I hadn't rented the wrong season.
― clemenza, Monday, 6 July 2015 03:39 (eight years ago) link
yeah it's weird huh
from wiki:This season ends on a cliffhanger due to the Writers' Strike. The show's head writer and executive producer, Jason Katims, stated that this last episode was “not in any way viewed as the season finale... If we were leading to the end of the season [under normal circumstances], we would have most likely brought the story around to the coach and his family again,” and there would have been a strong football element as well, Katims said. Seven of the 22 episodes NBC ordered for Season 2 weren’t made.[41]
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 6 July 2015 15:44 (eight years ago) link
When 2 ends, the team is trying to get into the playoffs so that Smash can return from his suspension. Within 5 minutes of the start of 3, you find out that Smash has graduated (?) and is recovering from a knee injury (??), and then the Coach gets into his car and refers to his wife as the principal (???).
Once you get into the first episode, it's no big deal (although something I read points out that Diego never shows up again, with no explanation). I'm five or six episodes into 3, and most of it has been very good, with the exception of Tyra's Linda-Lovelace-for- President run at student council--that seemed like a stretch. It took about four false starts for Smash to go through with his walk-on tryout, but the wait was worth it--him getting accepted, and the way he fakes out his mom, was very moving.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 01:24 (eight years ago) link
Was season 3 the first Direct TV season?
― :wq (Leee), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 16:07 (eight years ago) link
that was 4 i think
― Spottie, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 16:18 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, first 3 were on NBC, last 2 were on DirecTV.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 16:21 (eight years ago) link
Hoping another VegemiteGrrl shows up on ILX, just so I can designate one of them VG-1 and the other VG-2.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 17:30 (eight years ago) link
she would not last long, i would fight her in the thunderdome & win
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 17:44 (eight years ago) link
No Mud Bowl showdown?
― :wq (Leee), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 18:20 (eight years ago) link
>:(
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 18:44 (eight years ago) link
Season 3 was the first DirecTV season, not 4.
― Jouster, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 21:34 (eight years ago) link
The early Direct stuff ended up on NBC as filler programming a few months later.
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 21:45 (eight years ago) link
Ssn 2 had the incredible disappearing Santiago storyline iirc
No that later seasons were much better with stray plots--Hastings Ruckle wtf?
― Is It Any Wonder I'm Not the (President Keyes), Wednesday, 8 July 2015 01:23 (eight years ago) link
I didn't think S2 was as much of a comedown as everyone else seems to think. The problem with the Tyra/Landry detour, for me, wasn't so much the murder itself, but that a smart guy like Landry wouldn't realize he had an obvious self-defense alibi. It took him most of the season to do what I would have thought he'd do right away.
Anyway, S3 was definitely better. Found lots of scenes surprisingly moving--I think I got verklempt every time someone got accepted into college (first Smash, then Riggins and Tyra), or when people selflessly urged them on (Billy to Tim, Tim to Lyla, Tyra's mom and Landry and Mrs. Taylor to Tyra). I did think there was an obvious flaw or oversight at the end of the last episode. The surprise coup worked well; I'm really looking forward to this fictional team and fictional coach getting their fictional revenge in S4. But there seemed to be no interaction between the coach and Buddy Garrity over what was engineered, unless I missed it. You'd think that Taylor would have been furious with Garrity, yet at Billy's wedding, there didn't seem to be any acknowledgement of that.
Sorry to say that I bet that's it for Devin.
― clemenza, Thursday, 9 July 2015 00:29 (eight years ago) link
Oh, Devin............
― :wq (Leee), Thursday, 9 July 2015 19:35 (eight years ago) link
reminiscing abt Tim RigginsI may have to rewatch this whole series again
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 9 July 2015 23:50 (eight years ago) link