Friday Night Lights Reminder 10/30

For those discussing the unusual placement of Monday at 9 p.m. (Central) considering this: NBC recently announced it will put only reality TV or game shows on in the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. (Central again) time slots.
Some at the ABC affiliate I work at seem to think this means the death of FNL.

 

Good thought there, Pope. It seemed misplaced, but I can see how the development of that character is a good contrast to the fullback/Saracen/Smash, etc.

I'd still bang the coach's wife and daughter over Lyla or the tramp.

 

Anyone else have a problem with the crass stereotyping going on in the show? Last night was the first one I watched, but the juxtaposition of Voodoo (a name in itself that is a bad stereotype) and Saracen really stuck out to me.

It was a standard take on the black athlete who has all the tools, but a bad attitude, while the polite little white boy doesn't have all the skills, but he has the heart and character to overcome. Blacks = naturally gifted, but don't have head on straight to succeed. Whites = not physically gifted, but smart and hard working enough to succeed.

That really bugged me, especially since they could have just as easily reversed those roles, it would have been just as believable and wouldn't have relied on feeding a racial stereotype.

Also, from what I saw, the show doesn't appear to go into the class and race struggles that are depicted in the book (the most interesting part of the book to me). It seems more like 90210 high school stuff -- "You're sleeping with your paralyzed best friend's girlfriend!" -- than an intelligent look into the sociology and pressures of high school football in Texas. I really thought TV would be a better place to explore the themes of the book than a film was because you have so much time to develop it, but I wasn't terribly impressed last night.

Though Lyla, the blonde and the coach's wife (Connie Britton, who has gotten better looking every year) are all smoking hot.

 

Lyla is my personal fav....yowza

 

Another complaint about the football scenes. Is there a rule in Texas HS football I don't know about? I've noticed in the pilot and last night's episode the announcers talking about the clock starting once the chains are set on plays that went out of bounds. What gives?

 

If they kick a field goal on 3rd down and miss, they get to do it again.[/scream'n a. smith]

 

I'm sort of embarassed how much I like this show. But it has its flaws, for sure. It's funny how many of us get worked up over the techical aspects they get wrong. Now I know how doctors feel when the watch ER or Grey's Anatomy or cops and lawyers feel when the watch Law and Order. It's sort of like screaming at the television in frustration because Dr. Shepard detects an aneurism at 5 p.m., books an OR, performs the operation and still has time to make it home to bang Meredith by 8 p.m. Or course it doesn't happen that way. Of course they don't catch the crooks and try them in the same week. That's why it's television.

A quick break down.

Likes:

--That kids actually talk like kids. I like it that Matt trips over his words, and that there is a lot of awkward silence in conversations, especially when guys are talking to girls. Personally, I'm all Dawson's Creek-ed out. It's kind of refreshing to see a high school show where kids don't throw words like "zeigeist" into general conversation and reference Yakuza films. I don't know that it's the best strategy to lure young viewers, because frankly most kids want to feel smarter than they really are, and I still contend that the biggest reason Freaks and Geeks could never have made it is because it was too close to reality and it freaked people out. (Sarazen did name-check Jackson Pollack last episode, but it WAS to impress a girl and at least he didn't try to reference exitentialism or something in his explanation.)

--The Coach. I think he's doing a pretty good job. The interaction with the wife is cool. The script really keeps trying to hit us over the head with the point of how much pressure he's under, but I think he is doing a nice job of keeping it from becoming too much of a cliche'.

--Holy shit, Laila is hot.

--The shaky camera and the music. Especially the music. Whomever the music editor on this show is, they're doing a heck of a job. I like the hand held cameras because it's different. I really like the landscapes and the muted colors too. The show is filmed well.

--The brief shot of the blond high school reporter on the sidelines during the last episode, frantically taking down notes. I appreciate the nice little reference, since probably 98 percent of the audience probably zipped right past it. Hopefully when the DVDs come out, there will be a deleted scene where she frantically tries to find a phone line, but can't, and then some alcoholic janitor is finally willing to open up the teacher's lounge so she can use the phone in there, but it doesn't work because the phones have some complex computer dialing mechanism, so she yanks out the fax line, reboots her labtop after it crashes (because obviously it's running Windows 95) and gets her story in two minutes before deadline.

--The fact that the one time we got to see Smash's mom, she wasn't some foxy, single mom who looks like she may have been a former model, but instead a big 'ol beautiful black woman.

Dislikes:

--As bigpern expertly pointed out, too many cliches and stereotypes. I want to believe that Vodoo will be a more human character two episodes from now, but if I were black and I watched that episode, I would have been pissed. Also, just once in television, I'd like to see a black kid given the role of the plucky underdog who uses brains and heart to overcome a lack of athleticism.

--I don't mind the whole Tyra character, or the storyline where she is willing to fuck anyone to get out of Dillon, but do 20-something dudes who work for Los Angeles oil companies really bang high school chicks who work at Applebees like it's no big deal? How about a line, just one line, like "you're in high school, and I'm not sure what to think about that."

--As it has been pointed out, helicopter tackles seem to happen on virtually every play in Texas high school football. And frankly, the only people who get excited about seeing helicopter hits are people who have never watched football before, which I imagine is less than 20 percent of your audience.

--The offensive coordinator being the bad guy. Too easy. Are you really telling me Coach Taylor isn't friends with a single guy on his staff? That there are no adult males he can confide in, and help him make the decision about the quarterback?

--Is high school football, even in Texas, really the subject for serious talk radio debate? I honestly don't know. But it's a little over the top to be calling for the coach's head when he loses on the last play of the game, the game after his star quarterback was paralyzed.

 

Double Down I agree with pretty much everything in your post, especially on Layla. I noticed the thing with the reporter too and thought to myself I know where she'd stand on that thread about covering preps football. I think the way the kids talk, Saracen in particular is a great point, very realistic. Of course he's countered with Smash who seems to only talk in rap or shouting at someone (another poorly done stereotype). I see what you're saying about how dr's get pissed at inaccuracies in hospital dramas and how we pick up on these because it's football, but wouldn't you think a writer or two would have a fairly decent knowledge about football. It's not like you'd need to go to med school to understand the clock stops when you run out of bounds.

I also agreed on the businessman/high school girl storyline. He's got a job for an oil company and has a committed girlfriend and he bangs some high school skank waitress, and yet the whole time he seemed like he was genuinely interested in her, and then he leaves. Let me just say I have no idea what was up with that storyline and what it was trying to accomplish. Like a lot in this show it just seemed too rushed.

All of that said and I've still liked some episodes and am hoping it gets a little better.

 

I'm trying to get into this show, because I think there's a lot about it that's good, including some of the game action [agree that there are too many helicopter hits--but I like the stuff from the press-box camera], Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, who are really good actors [and Britton is hot besides] and as Double Down said, the fact that the kids talk like teenagers.

That said, there's a lot that needs to be cleaned up, as a football coach would say.

*I also didn't get the oil guy/h.s. skank hookup. OK, so maybe they're trying to say that not everybody in town cares about football. But that's not what this show is about. It's about the fact that almost everyone is obsessed with the Dillon Panthers. On Desperate Housewives, they don't just switch the storyline to two non-desperate housewives across town, y'know?

*The timing thing at the end of the game bothered me, and evidently it's an ongoing problem with the show.

*How about the fact that they said the game would end in a tie if Dillon didn't go for 2 and made the PAT? Uh, overtime, anyone?

*Agreed about Voodoo being the worst racial stereotype. I don't think Smash is so bad, because at least he's a team guy. OK, so he's full of himself, but at the end of the day, he's about the team. And also, wouldn't Voodoo be smart enough to realize he HAS to play ball with this coach if he wants that full ride to LSU?

*Speaking of which, as soon as Taylor pulled Saracen into the office I knew what was going to happen. Voodoo starts, gets taken out for insubordination, Saracen rallies team to win. Ho-hum.

*And this is a minor quibble, because I certainly don't mind seeing Britton's cleavage, but is that how female h.s. guidance counselors in Texas dress? Damn.

 

If my count is correct they've played 3 games, although I think I may have missed an episode. I think it's gone like this: the first game which they won after the QB got hurt on a ridiculous play to end the game, then the second game with Saracen starting that they lost, and then the third game they won with a ridiculous play to end it. Am I up to speed?

And why can't they ever drive down the field and score the winning touchdown on an 8-yard pass with 22 seconds remaining. It'd still be dramatic enough, but not as ridiculous as winning two out of 3 games on the last play from over 20 yards out.

 

Ridiculous is an apt word.