"BECAUSE I'M A CRIPPLE AND I WANT TO LISTEN TO NIRVANA NOW!" the Friday Night Lights TV series thread

awesome thread title btw

I've been torrenting the third season episodes (DirecTV only for now, NBC airings next spring) and it's even better than the end of last year.

So far, no Jason Street at all but Smash has been awesome.

And I'll just say it again: Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler play the most amazing married couple currently on television. Every second they're on screen together (and apart, too) is awesome.

Season 3 has been really excellent so far, each episode better than the last. If they keep it up the season finale will be the best episode they've ever done (fingers crossed).

Johnny Fever - I think Street comes back in the next episode (number five). I assume they didn't want to do the Smash story at the same time as the Street story, both of them being out of school and not really involved much with the other characters.

I wish more people had DirecTV (or cared enough to find other ways to watch).

I haven't grabbed ep. 4 yet, but I'm going to do it and watch it tonight.

Where can I find it?

http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=friday+night+lights

a definite return to form this season. I was a bit worried about the shortened season, but they're handling it really well so far. Truly quality.

This season is really working for me. All the characterizations are back on track and interesting, kinda complex stuff is happening again. They've also allowed the characters a bit of happiness again, which is so heartening after season two essentially being "everybody's miserable." Some shows can do that really grim stuff, but it didn't work for FNL.

Favorite moment this season was Smash's walk-on at Texas A&M...just that moment when they're told to 'go away and come back tomorrow'...the look on Smash's face, Coach knew that if they left, Smash would lose all of his confidence and never come back, that Smash needed to know that people believed in him, and could help him. So, so, so cool.

And how great is Matt Sacracen this season? That kid has got some serious acting chops.

Yeah, this show is totally back on form. Only 3 episodes left until inevitable cancellation.

have fought the urge to torrent; episodes will be on real tv starting 1/16 i believe & cant wait

i am on ep 4 or 5... not as sucked in as i was in earlier seasons, but maybe that is because of my present situation and not the show. i dunno. there are so many otm things about the south and its culture/characters.

just catching up on season 2

forgot how much I <3 coach

didn't even KNOW there was a season 3

: DDDDDDDDD

still a great thread title

o thankig u

i saw "mud bowl" again on some random HD channel + it was grebt

Season 3's final few episodes resume in January, and I really can't wait. Outside of Mad Men and 30 Rock, I think Kyle Chandler is the best thing on television right now.

he is great

you know who else is great? smash's mum, shame she only ever gets airtime as a byproduct of smash storylines

http://www.insidesocal.com/outinhollywood/,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,kyle.jpg

ws

anyone seen "early edition"?

matt saracen also great (whole reg cast great rly) but he has tht retarded z.deeschanel voice thing going

"I'm not retarded. I google."

the smash storyline at the beginning of season 3 is heartbreaking

"no wants to know about your pubic hair."

Coz I have had a mad crush on Kyle chandler ever since middle school because of early edition!

really liked newest episode. side storylines of buddys kids & landry and hot devon are aok w/ me. lol @ the ^^pubic hair^^ line xp

poor Landry...

TWO more seasons!

hot damn

No way, really?!!!

I haven't been watching on NBC because I've already seen all the episodes, but I'll be VERY interested to see how they pick things up next year.

really!

Tyra and Lyla will be back to wrap up their storylines next season, and then they'll be gone. Not sure about everyone else except Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton.

that excited 'really!' should have been an xpost, and was not as sarcastic as it might have read. I'm really excited.

Got it. I just went and read the bit at AV Club. Will miss both of them, but we know now how well the writers can do a worthwhile sendoff.

What about Julie? Isn't she tramping around on BH90210?

Oh no! I don't want a reason to ever watch that show.

She is, but it's only a couple episode guest-starring thing, I think.

OK I just watched the first 2 episodes of this...does it get way better or something? I know all pilots lay on the exposition thick, but I've never felt so spoonfed in my life. Here's a THEME, here's an important CHARACTER TRAIT, here's a CONFLICT, here's a METAPHOR -- like literally two consecutive scenes of uncommonly worldly teenagers going "this town is...a crossword puzzle!" and "Moby Dick is a good metaphor for...this town!" Oh yeah and I can't even remember what the town is called, just that everyone says "this town" 80 times a day. Plus the editing from scene to scene to scene is so relentless that the whole thing feels like one exhausting montage. I don't wanna be all Shakey-on-Wire-threads about this, but should I go on? I don't even know if I can get through the other 2 episodes on this disc before sending it back to Netflix.

the editing and handheld gets reigned in after a few more episodes. stick out the first disc and see how you like it. lots of goodness there.

first episode promises awesomeness for the season to come. that said, wish the would ditch saracen and riggins, as they're too depressing at the moment.

they*

I'm sure they'll both end up OK. Or at least Saracen will.

Just making way through season 1, and there are some great bits here and there (watch it at least until you see landry's christian metal band! actually almost all of the landry stuff is gold!)
but can't see committing to season 2 unless lesbian seduction of Mrs. Taylor comes to fruition (does it?)

haha, crucifictorious!

season 2 sees a lot of excellent acting on some really duff storylines. the writer's strike saved it by cutting it short. season 3 is quality and is helped by the 13 episode season.

they made the new h.s. age chick look A LOT like an ethnic lila...lol @ her 1st scene w/ riggins having hooked up w/ her mom...dont think ill ever get sick of piling on riggins plotlines

glad they made j.d. into a big cocky jackass, hes embraced his birthrite

I thought there was a strange disjunct between JD last season (generally decent but deeply conflicted because of his asshole father) and now he's suddenly a drunken jock asshole. They seem to be working extra hard to make Dillon High (save Connie Britton) villainous. I imagine the season will climax with the Panthers v Lions game, but it doesn't really ring true with the rest of the show (aside from Voodoo).

yeah idk it's a believable character arc imo. yes they are of course gonna make dillon THE DEVIL and play up some real dichotomy btwn the schools...i thought i was watchin a scifi movie w/ mrs taylor's line @ the school assembly of 'julie's been zoned for dillon high'

also lol @ this i read on a diff borad:

does that one black guy know that landry killed a guy and is a straight gangsta?

like an ethnic lilatyra i mean, dang

new season is looking pretty great - brilliant gambit dividing the town and making the panthers the villians.
that said, the logic of re-opening a second school to save costs and apparently re-segregating the town is kind of WTF. in the book - in reality - the opposite is what happened. the black school was shut down and integrated into permian - and the gerrymandering that happened was to get black kids w/ football skills into the school.

A lot of things about The Spectacular Now bugged me, chief among them the "What universe is this?" problem you get with certain movies ("Wait a minute--didn't she just get flattened by a fast-moving car?"), and also--turned up in every review I skimmed afterwards--Miles Teller's uncanny resemblance to John Cusack. That was a major distraction. But Kyle Chandler was good, Shailene Woodley was really good, and I was moved by scene near the end where Jennifer Jason Leigh pointed out Teller's essential goodness.

Oh yeah, that car wreck thing involved a lot of suspension of belief.

On the DVD, there are some deleted scenes that, while of some merit, would have made the film a little less special by tilting the narrative a little closer to conventional teen movie territory.

improbable car accidents seem to be a running theme in Teller's movies

especially weird considering he was nearly killed in one irl

sometimes i forget that FNL was a movie first.

every time i see this thread i want to go back and watch s1 again.

Every time a see this thread I do go back and watch s 1

A friend just gave me the movie--it'll be weird watching it after the series, but I will.

I found so much of The Spectacular Now just really odd. I didn't know beforehand that Chandler was in it--when Teller's character placed the call to him, for 30 seconds I was thinking "I know that voice, I know that voice."

Started my first re-watch tonight, about five years removed from the first time. On this thread and elsewhere I posted that I thought it took a few episodes to lighten up, that the first few were nothing but close-ups and an air of grimness. The first episode didn't really feel that way this time. One thing that made me laugh was the coach and his assistant mock announcing that "It's only a football game."

Beautiful scene: when Taylor goes to basically apologize to Smash for being so tough on him (after learning of the supplements), and they end up playing football with the neighborhood kids.

Loved the first season this time, start to finish. Lyla is a weak link--Minka Kelly just isn't up to her big dramatic moments--and Saracen's aw-shucks stammering can be wearing at times, but Tyra, Waveryly, and everyone else more than make up for that.

Finished S5 last night. Dug up this excellent review of the finale from 2011 (James Poniewozik, who wrote Audience of One--turned up when I searched "Did the East Dillon Lions win?):

http://entertainment.time.com/2011/02/10/friday-night-lights-watch-lets-go-home/#:~:text=The%20East%20Dillon%20Lions%20won,manned%20up%20and%20shown%20up.

Definitely moved up my all-time TV list: top 5, for sure. I wouldn't have spent nearly as much time on Julie in that last season--next to all the compelling stuff going on in East Dillon, it was a drag every time they switched over to her. (Salvaged somewhat in the end.) And post-prison Tim didn't really work for me either, though again, salvaged once Tyra shows up. (Such a great shot when she turns up at the bar and emerges from the shadows.) I wish there'd been some final grace-note with Epyck, but I realize it's truer not to have that.

Those are my quibbles; I could go on and on about all the stuff that got to me emotionally or that made me laugh, starting with how the Philadelphia-or-Dillon story played out. Funniest line in the finale: "Clear eyes, full hearts...yeah, we'll deal with that later."

One scenario re Epyck that I don't think is implausible (and maybe even implied): Tami was brought to this college with the specific job of revamping the admissions process--to start looking at the student rather than the SAT score--so I could see where four or five years down the road she brings Epyck to Braemore.

Go on now, get the hell out of my office.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/fnl.jpg

omg I want that shirt

Very cheap -- under $25 Canadian, including shipping.

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/220256834/east-dillon-high-panthers-football?ref=hp_rv-1

oh snap

i have a Panther Football tshirt I bought from Television Without Pity what feels like 9000 years ago

it’s a bed tshirt now

I was glad to get an East Dillon. I grew to hate the Panthers those last two seasons because of J.D.'s evil father (and then, eventually, J.D. himself).

QB1 lives in my heart forever

Every time i read through this thread and theres a hint of any badmouthing of 7 i get an itchy fp finger

I've been periodically posting Zoomcasts--here's one we did on FNL a few months ago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxExASYAVhw

Among other things, my friend talks about running into Zach Gilford at an airport--on a trip to Texas that he and wife took precisely because of FNL.

John Corbett in Northern Exposure

Proto Riggins

I thought about JC for yr third worst actor thread

Were your eyes open

hmm

i dunno deems

i think Chris in the Morning isn’t enough of a willful dirtbag to lead the Riggins path
He’s too...Buddhist? his overall hippy vibe gives me problems wrt Riggo

would I hate Northern Exposure if I watched it now ? cuz I loved it when I was a kid for some reason

I always thought riggins played riggins' abs well enough and he was imo good in true detective

But im watching him doing a quiet bogey impersonation in this german ww2 aftermath detective series and i swear to god never, i mean never have i heard a worse vocal performance from a lead

The face is fine, better than fine, but the voice oh man the voice, like a keanu cold read on a sleepy day

reading the book

its great but a very different thing

100%
book vs tv are poles apart. both great, but for WAY different reasons

movie maybe bridges the two

Annual rewatch (sparked by a friend and his wife watching for the first time), middle of S2 right now. A couple of lines really made me laugh in E6, both having to do with Riggins:

Tammy - 'Cause it looks to me like your little sojourn, Tim, you missed yourself, oh, two biology exams.
Tim - I don't know what a sojourn is, ma'am.

Later, Smash's description of Riggins, which is almost like a meta-joke about what a cliché the character is (don't get me wrong, one that's great anyway--or at least, for me, until the last season).

Smash - Look, we're different, you and me. Me, I'm the Smash. I'm throwed. I'm prime time, 24-7. And you? You're that brooding, rough...whatever.

Those kids were all so perfectly cast for those roles. Whenever I see them in other things i feel like a parent, just happy to see them out there & working lol

and that “sojourn” line still cracks me up

This is not quite the same thing, but I just started Lansky, which came out a couple of years ago and evidently disappeared into a COVID hole--watching not for Harvey Keitel as Lansky, but for Minka Kelly!

The out-of-nowhere reappearance of Landry's friend--he gets beat up in the second or third episode, then disappears until he turns up in S3 as part of Landry's band--made me laugh. They seemingly bring him back for one minute and a couple of lines--he quits the band, and I don't recall that he's ever seen again.

In S4's first episode (2009), one of the new East Dillon players refers to Landry as "that Opie-looking dude." Four years later, in Breaking Bad's fifth season, Badger refers to Todd--also played by Jesse Plemons--as "that Opie, dead-eyed piece of shit." First in line for The Ron Howard Story, Jesse Plemons.

The hardest thing to write on this show must have been Coach Taylor's motivational speeches--they start to blur together after three or four seasons.

Taylor: "Gentleman, the word of the week this week is focus."
Player: (knocks forehead with palm) "No, no, no--that was the word of the week last week, Coach. You gotta give us something new to work with."

One thing that's weird is introducing Buddy Jr. halfway though S5, then putting him on crutches for the last few episodes. Don't really understand why they turned him into a mascot, basically, with no lines.

Anyway, finished up. I count Tammi Taylor's line in the final episode, about having the grace to say what her husband never said, as one of the most moving lines in any TV show or film this century.