Letters to the Editor
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Go Orange! Go Big Blue!
Regarding FNL, I agree that there was something a bit off about the final game and that the show's creators probably only let the Panthers win because NBC might not pick up the show for next season. Furthermore, that final play, the hook-and-ladder (aka, the hook-and-lateral) was obviously "ripped from the headlines" as that was the play that sent this year's Fiesta Bowl into overtime.
Nonetheless, being a huge Broncos fan and having nearly had a heart attack while attending that most awesome of games in college football history, I had to love it anyways.
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FNL: not quite the 2 pt. conversion
I agree about FNL--both what you've written in the past, Heather, and your take on the finale. They got down 26 points in less than the time it took me to make popcorn, then came back to win just as quickly. It was choppy, predictable, and left some potentially great storylines on the bench. My sense was that they wanted to make one last stab at proving this show is *not just about football* --so they truly avoided dwelling on what could have been a terrific conclusion (and certainly more creative: how about losing for a cliff-hanger?). Overall, though, one rushed game does not counter weeks of evidence that this is compelling television with some great writing and acting. Storylines are almost all developed at a good pace, and characters are as complex as one-hour television allows: people are blemished and conflicted and fallible and earnest. A bonus is the way that the young actors here embody the akwardness of that age phenomenally well. I hope this is back next season.
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New Convert
Heather, I just wanted to let you know that although I couldn't tune in for the FNL finale because I'm international, I for one gave the show a chance purely on the weight of your demands and am a complete convert. I've been giving it a wide berth for so long because of American football-related scepticisim (like so many Yank achievements, you set the bar low and cheer wildly when you leap over it, faces intensely scrunched and legs pumping wildly), on watching the pilot all that washed away instantly. Which is a wonderful surprise, coming in at the end of the season and knowing you've got a big, beautiful 20-odd episodes in front of you.
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Defense! Defense!
I love FNL. But one of the shortcomings this year was that we didn't get to know a single player on the team's defense by name. So the writers didn't have the option of showing someone we knew and cared about on the defense pick up the team, say right before halftime. I was kinda hoping that the Panthers would lose in a cliffhanger, but wasn't surprised that didn't happen.
I did like the way they left it up in the air what Coach and family are going to do next year, this way if the show does get picked up they still have the option of bringing him back to Dillon.
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A column's a thing the Hav hacks...
...'cause she has no soul. And that's about all the plagiarism of Disney songs that should be done. (At least I kept to the meter of the song.)
The one item that came to the top of this bunch of random updates was Friday Night Lights, which will undoubtedly join Freaks and Geeks and My So Called Life as shows some people adore, even though they're about awful, dim, irritating people. Those earlier shows romanticized the losers of high school life, who were practically begging for someone to kill them. By comparison, Lights was about brutal, stupid high school thugs that Texans idolize. Calling Lights a "compelling drama" is like putting lipstick on a pig, to use one of President Bush's favorite descriptions of his mother.
That's why no one watched and why the series won't be renewed, unless NBC needs to have a cheap backup hour series to sling in the schedule when one of their new recruits for the fall dies in action. Renewing a loser is cheaper than trying to create a whole new show destined to be killed, like a recruit given ten days of training, then shipped to Iraq.(That's the reason the inferior Sledge Hammer! was renewed for a second season, and run against competition ABC had no chance to beat.)
It was obvious that Havrilesky didn't have any big thing to write about, but didn't have the integrity to say "Here's some random notes about various shows, just to keep you informed." Trying to link these unrelated bits with a catch-phrase, one of her favorite gambits, just didn't work. If a column is just floor sweepings, and honestly sometimes such a column is necessary, writers should just be open about it. After all, the universe doesn't always fall into logical patterns, and quite often it can't even be forced into patterns no matter how hard you try.
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FNL
I notice that nobody cares anything about any program mentioned except FNL and I am no exception. With all it's faults, a bit soap operaisn, some dead story lines, more problems for coach in one year than anyone could expect in a lifetime...it still has the best characters and the best performances on braodcast TV this year. If Kyle Chandler and Connie Britten don't get Emmys, nobody should and if there are any awards for camera work and edititng they surely will go to FNL. And some storylines were not only incredibly well done, but practically ground=breaking in their subject matter, Matt and his grandmother, Tyra and her negative pressures....
I want it back next year.
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High school football is chaos, even in almighty Texas
I completely agree with the letter-writer who complained about not getting to know anyone on the defense. That screws up the ability to depict a game. The Panther defense won that game by shutting down the other team in the second half. One more score, even a field goal, and the game would have been out of reach.
I don't agree with HH about the game. I've been to my share of top-tier Arkansas high school football games, both as a student and as an adult. There are numerous mistakes, and wild, seemingly inexplicable swings in momentum and scoring. It's not like college or pro ball -- only a few of the players will go on to the college level, and having a future pro on your team is like hitting the lottery -- it just doesn't happen.
The championship game followed the original movie except in terms of the result of the final play. The idea was that it was so unusual for Matt to make a suggestion about the call that it got Coach Taylor's attention. I tend to agree that the editing didn't really bring that aspect of it out, though.