Friday, February 27, 2009

Why I'm Loving 'Friday Night Lights'


Why am I loving Friday Night Lights this season? Two words: The Taylors.

The third season of Friday Night Lights has made for good viewing these days, mostly due Tami and Eric Taylor, who struggle on a daily basis to deal with the drama that is Dillon High School.

Connie Britton's Tami is the new high school principal this season and quickly learned -- when she took on the football fans' predilection for shoveling money toward the football program instead of academics (the football boosters raised thousands of dollars for an unnecessary Jumbotron for the football stadium which Tami tried to reallocate to academics to avert teacher layoffs) -- that she'll have to chose her battles more carefully.

Kyle Chandler's Eric has had an intellectual and emotional decision to make this season as he was torn between whether he should promote a stand-out freshman quarterback with a rich, pushy father at the expense of the senior quarterback who lives with his grandmother who's slowly succumbing to Alzheimer's, or dementia or something of that nature. (I think Coach Taylor made the wrong choice in elevating J.D. McCoy by the way -- J.D.'s going to snap -- and will pay the price when his father tries to hijack the football program.)

The changing power dynamic of the Taylor marriage, now that Tami is Eric's boss, has been intriguing, a game-changer.

Most touching storyline thus far in season three: Watching Jason Street delude himself into thinking that he can renovate and flip Buddy Garrity's house in order to earn enough money to support his girlfriend and son.

UPDATE: Guess I was wrong about the Jason Street is deluded crack. This past Friday's episode had Jason succeed at flipping the Garrity house and making some cash. I adored the twist of having him run into a former teammate and his almost-agent, and how it got him to thinking about becoming a sports agent himself. If he steals his former teammate as his first client, Jason's story could have a happy ending.

Why are you loving Friday Night Lights this season?

Image credit: Bill Records/NBC via TV Guide.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to be nit-picky but since Friday Night Lights is my favorite show...I had to point out Jason Street has a son, not a daughter. :)

Anonymous said...

Good catch! Thanks.