Friday Night Lights is back!
Don’t read this if you haven’t watched the season premiere of Friday Night Lights yet.
After a busy week full of premieres I think it is safe to say that ABC’s Brothers and Sisters (which exceded expectations again) and NBC’s Friday Night Lights have had the strongest season premieres from all the shows I’m watching presently. From the opening scene of “Last Days of Summer” until the last scene when the team is being honoured for its last year’s achievements and we can see the Coach (Kyle Chandler) heading back to Austin. I love FNL for its great acting and smart writing. It was like coming home after a long journey and to finally see all the familiar faces again was just such a happy moment. Yes I know that I just watched the whole season a few weeks ago and I know I wasn’t on a long journey and yes - I might be just a little bit addicted. Anyway, how gorgeous did Tamy (Connie Britton) look when she appeared at the pool in the beginning and how hilarious was the scene between Lyla (Minka Kelly) and Tim (Taylor Kitch) on the parking lot? Here just a few lines:
Tim: Enjoy Jesus!
Lyla: Yeah, enjoy your depraved hedonism
Tim: Oh, I will
Lyla: So will I - I mean Jesus, not hedonism
Tim: Of course
Lyla: Jerk!
The two had more chemistry than George and Izzy on yesterday’s Greys Anatomy. Just saying.
Obviously the current living situation is hard on everyone in the Taylor family including Coach Taylor who has taken that job at TMU 8 months ago and probably hasn’t seen a lot of his family during that time. Julie (Aimee Teegarden) is going through a difficult and confusing time in her relationship with Matt Saracen ( Zach Gilford). Everything is so perfect that she’s getting cold feet and starts flirting with a Swedish co-worker who as it turns out - has a girl-friend. During the talk with her dad in the car (excellent scene btw) it not only becomes clear that she is not sure whether she wants to stay with Matt but also that she misses her dad and their conversations a lot. It is perfectly understandable that Tamy is feeling overwhelmed and lonely when the Coach mentions that he has to get back to Austin early and will not be there during baby Grace’s first days at home.
The new Panthers coach seems to be quite unpopular and is causing a good amount of tension in town. There were scenes with Jason Street, Buddy Garrity as well as Tim Riggins in this episode all of them illustrating their disapprovement with him having replaced Coach Taylor. Let’s see how long this will go well and how the new coach’s style will affect the weekly games. Another big plot this week was the return of Tyra’s (Adrianne Palicki) assaulter from last season. Tyra is spending a lot of her time with Landry (Jesse Plemons) which even increases when she spots her assaulter who seems to be stalking her. Landry initially benefits from this situation since Tyra becomes afraid to stay alone . Everything changes suddenly when her attacker gets hold of her again and Landry saves her just in time by beating the guy fatally. When this happened I was whispering to myself “please report it” “please report it” over and over again. Landry was obviously with me on that one but I think Tyra’s panic reigned and they disposed the body into a river. I really don’t like these types of plots very much. It’s going to come out, the body will show up eventually. It wasn’t their fault and they were just defending themselves. Now they’ve made a crime out of it. I hope this will not become a season long storyline with an obvious outcome like many similar before. I must agree with Whitney Pastorek’s observation though that the performances of both Palicki and Plemons during these scenes were excellent and very intense.
Despite the “dumping of bodies in rivers” part this episode was brilliant and people should tune in and watch it. After last year’s mass cancellations we should know better and realise that the only thing we can do to keep a show on the air is to watch it and to make other people watch it.
Bye for now.
(Picture Source: www.tvguide.com)