I am a very patient man; you may not find a more patient man than me. Yet waiting for the new season of Friday Night Lights to start on broadcast television was excruciating to the point that I was asking everyone I know if they had DirecTV last fall knowing NBC wasn’t planning airing the new season until this summer. The Jay Leno debacle gave me some hope of the show returning earlier, but alas we had to wait until May, a full year after the season three finale, and thanks to a tornado, I had to wait a couple days longer.
The show did not disappoint. Even as they recycle out some old cast members (so long Tyra and Lyla) they still manage to find ones to replace them that just intriguing. We meet Michael B. Jordan (a name made for a sports show) running away from the cops, who is lucky enough that one of the arresting officers brothers played for Coach Taylor and Coach is in desperate need of players even if the only football he ever plays is Madden
. Another entertaining introduction, but for an entirely different reason, is when Riggins tumbles out of bed to the sound of flings daughter Becky Sproles singing, who asks possibly the harshest question ever delivered from a sunny disposition, “So what is it like to be the guy who used to be Tim Riggins.” Ouch. That almost makes up for the show trying to make us believe that the pale redheaded Alicia Witt has a high school aged ethnic looking kid.
But that was all peripheral to Coach Taylor who went to three straight playoffs, two championship games and one win but because he took on the rich guy with a son who has a rocket arm, he gets stuck with the short straw when the school does some redistricting. All the good players just happened to stay at West Dillon with Joe McCoy and it seems the only former Panther relocated to East Dillon with Coach was perennial benchwarmer last season, Landry Clarke. And for some reason, even his staff stayed in West Dillon (how dare you Mac McGill after Coach stood by you after racism claims and health problems) except one who I don’t even recognize. So after three years of a town that cared about football above all else including a new scoreboard when the classrooms were in desperate need of new books, this season will be through the eyes of the football team time forgot with even worse school conditions and I cannot wait to see how the season unfolds as I burn my Panthers blues in favor of Lions reds.
Friday Night Lights airs Fridays at 8:00 on NBC. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Friday Night Lights on iTunes.
nice post..thanks
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