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

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.

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.

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/

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.

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]

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.

Was season 3 the first Direct TV season?

that was 4 i think

Yeah, first 3 were on NBC, last 2 were on DirecTV.

Hoping another VegemiteGrrl shows up on ILX, just so I can designate one of them VG-1 and the other VG-2.

she would not last long, i would fight her in the thunderdome & win

No Mud Bowl showdown?

>:(

Season 3 was the first DirecTV season, not 4.

The early Direct stuff ended up on NBC as filler programming a few months later.

Ssn 2 had the incredible disappearing Santiago storyline iirc

No that later seasons were much better with stray plots--Hastings Ruckle wtf?

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.

Oh, Devin............

reminiscing abt Tim Riggins
I may have to rewatch this whole series again

http://youtu.be/Cuxz0pvWu14

Borrowed S4 from the friend who got me going on this in the first place. When he and his wife went to Texas a few years ago--a trip that he said was partly inspired by wanting to visit some locales from the series, which they both love--the guy who plays Saracen was on the plane back with them.

First four episodes of S4 were pretty good, although Taylor's "Let's finish this"-type motivational speeches are starting to blur together at this point. Liked Vince from his first scene, and Joe McCoy has turned out to be a great villain. (When I was double-checking his name on Wikipedia, I stupidly glanced at the results of all the games for this season. So I know now what happens when East and West Dillon play...not that I didn't expect something like that anyway.)

That song at the end of "Stay," the episode where Julie and Matt sneak off to the Austin Music Festival--I thought it was Springsteen as it played, Matt driving off (presumably to Chicago), and it felt good to respond emotionally to Springsteen, as I rarely do. In some ways, he feels like this invisible presences throughout the whole series. Anyway, wasn't him; "This House of Cards" by Jamie Mefford & Blue Light, whom I've never heard of. When I checked the credits online, they said "Don't Think Twice" was used in the Direct TV version (I'm watching DVDs right now), which I don't actually understand--my friend's wife said yesterday that "Don't Look Twice" would turn up, and I was looking forward to that, but evidently that won't happen.

I think this is the bingiest day I've ever had. Trying to decide if I should watch the last two episodes and finish up tonight.

The actress who plays Vince's mom is beyond great. The scene where she went to thank Taylor was incredible. Something else I loved: Buddy, after he proposes the idea for the late-night game between the park guys and East Dillon--initially ridiculed by Taylor, quickly accepted by the old-guard community guys--saying "Everybody loves football." It was such a perfect, simple, and heartfelt line for that character.

Getting tired of Julie at this point. And when Becky's mom comes home and completely misunderstands what's going on, I just thought "Is this really necessary? We already had this scene with Riggins and Julie." (Becky going to Riggins right after was nice, though.)

Getting tired of Julie at this point.

That ain't gonna change much.

Meant to talk about Glenn, too. The scene where he apologizes to the Coach was fantastically awkward. Coach's "You know this means I've kissed Glenn by proxy" might be the funniest line yet. And there's apparently a rule in these things that bizarre social misfits must be named Glenn. (Speaking of which, agree with something I read online about Gracie Bell possibly being from another planet.)

Should be the subtitle of the series

Friday Night Lights: Tired of Julie

Gracie Bell is the weirdest looking baby ever

right? really nailing that alien hick look

that thing julie keeps doing with her lips is extremely annoying

Four episodes into the last season. My favourite performers are Vince's mom (still) and the guy who plays Luke--he's great. There's a lot of things they could have done to make Julie's time at university interesting, but this romance with the married T.A. is pointless. Third song I'd never heard and took the trouble to find and download: the National's "Start a War."

I've never seen a film as mediocre/annoying as Me, Earl and the Dying Girl have so many references to famous, great, and sometimes esoteric films and directors, right down to Brakhage, Eames, and using David Shire's Conversation music on the soundtrack. Almost all the reference are via a far-fetched plot device. I'm posting here because the main character's mom is played by Connie Britton, Mrs. Taylor. She only get three scenes. Really threw me when she showed up, but she gets a nice moment when her son heads out the door for prom.

More Connie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl0olb-_iaQ

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