Monday, February 11, 2008

Friday Night Lights - May The Best Show Win, Or Survive Even

May the Best Man Win - Ep. 215 - Season or Series Finale?

Oh man, I was truly sick to my stomach watching this last Friday Night Lights, if only because it may have become the default series finale as the strike cut off the rest of the season and it's on a critical bubble for its return on NBC. The ratings are crap but as Scooter points out, sales on Amazon are higher than 30 Rock which seems safe (yet doesn't exactly have spectacular ratings either). People are watching Friday Night Lights. Just not on Friday nights.

So if NBC decides not to renew the series, we are left hanging midseason with stories that hadn't completed their run yet. I'm left longing for more already. It hurts (Yet if that's not a sign of a strong series, I don't know what is?). So Jason Street got the waitress pregnant (what?!), Tim Riggins is attending church (oh, sorry, Timothy Riggins) and joining the Christian radio with a new sports show (what?!), Smash must swallow his pride and realise that he's tarnished his own image and gets rejected by the other top schools he wanted, and ends up at Whitmore (in the middle of nowhere) which may end up being a better match in the end.

Oh, and series producer and pilot director Peter Berg finally shows up (to finally help save the show? Despite looking a little gaunt and being off the radar as a recognizable actor of lates?) as Mo' Morris McArnold, a former boyfriend of Tami's, which hilariously irks Eric of course. Especially when Mo' was holding Gracie while Eric was coaching the big game.

So just before the penises could have been pulled out to be measured as Mo' takes out the Taylors to dine at a fancy restaurant, Mo' and Eric try to top each other with shots of whiskey as the original politeness disintegrates into Mo's jealousy over Eric's life. Eric defends Tami's honour (and as Julie points out, with his face?) by punching Mo' out and toppling tables at the fancy restaurant as Tami walks out.

With Eric bruised and hungover, Tami and Gracie attend church without Eric, but when Julie wants to stay home because dad is missing church too, I loved how Tami turned the tables when Julie realises why Eric is skipping church. Loved when Tami tells Julie to yell "bye" louder.

In defense of Eric, Coach Taylor pleads with Smash to listen to him once and for all, and to consider Whitmore, a school in the middle of nowhere that Smash wants to ignore, even though every other school he wants to attend (like Alabama) is no longer interested in the controversial Smash.

When Smash finds out that Whitmore had been tracking Smash since the 7th grade, Brian reconsiders with a fantastic talk from the coach from Whitmore and Eric. Brian "Smash" Williams decides to give his verbal agreement to attend Whitmore, much to the delight of his mom Corina, who has been amazing in this whole ordeal, trying to give the right amount of guidance without making Smash feeling too guilty for his poor decisions.

Lyla and Chris are still getting hot and heavy, with Chris pulling out stopping things just before it gets too unChristian. Lyla gets to visit the ranch, meeting Chris' family, and things are going well, but Riggins is still on the hunt, doing everything and anything to get closer to Lyla and while Lyla's mouth says no, her eyes say yes yes yes.

Meanwhile, Riggins is adorable as he plays nice to keep within Lyla's radar. Joining the radio station with his sports show, a move that Chris thinks is brilliant even though he knows what Riggins is up to (giving him a verbal warning as he protects his territory/girl).

Landry and Matt FINALLY talk to each other like best friends again and finally bring up the whole girl issues thing. Landry with hot girl Tyra? Matt with hot woman Carlotta? Yeah, we viewers were all wondering about all that this season and each question each other about it too. Still, Tyra and Landry have been a long time coming and if anybody finally deserves to be together, those two should, after all the turmoil they've gone through.

Finally, off in his own world, Jason Street sees the waitress that saved him from the peeing blind date girl, and she's pregnant with his miracle baby. Since he's in a wheelchair and the chances to conceive are highly improbable for him, Jason wants to keep the baby, while the waitress freaks out and wants to abort, but Jason eloquently gives a convincing reason to keep the baby which may have just convinced her to do so... but the show ends and we may never find out, unless NBC saves the show! PLEASE!

I could rhapsodize more lovelies here about the show but I'm going to think positively and pretend that wasn't the last episode (or else I'm seriously going to mancry) and I'm sure I'll get more chances to talk lovely in my Best of lists.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe I missed it again. Seriously, this Friday night showing is not helping AT ALL.

Anonymous said...

I think I cried more in this episode than usual because I knew it might be the last ever!! So sad. But I just signed the petition. Too bad I don't have a lot of faith in the NBC guys to keep it around...

Anonymous said...

I just started watching the show. I purchased the first season on DVD and watched the entire thing in 3 days. Then, I just watched the entire second season on NBC.com and the final episode on my DVR. From a new FNL fan, this show must continue or I will be devistated. Lyla Gerrity is one of the hottest women I have ever seen put in front of a camera. This show is great. Don't make a mistake here NBC. It takes more then 2 seasons for a show to completely get picked up. I look forward to future Fridays on FNL and Las Vegas.

Vance said...

YEY! A new fan! Now we just need like 4 Million more and maybe NBC may save it! bit slowly and surely, I will make everyone watch and love this show!

Scooter McGavin said...

There is nothing more annoying when suits talk about ratings to why shows are canceled. Considering we are in an age when people are continually watching shows not nessisarily on their TV's that certainly there is someone smart enough to squeeze enough money out of Applebee's, Gatoraid, and UnderArmour (who have an overabundance of product placement in the show) by pointing out next day DVR (which FNL is in the top 5 of), internet streams and DVD sales for another season. Did none of these executives take an economics course and just blindly follow a deeply flawed ratings system just because that what was done for the past 75 years?