Y'All, I Sure Miss Coach Taylor

I want to tell you something. I just need to say that I sure do miss Coach Eric Taylor.

(Found this via the AV Club.)

'Friday Night Lights'' Season Finale -- Sweet and Neat

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the Friday Night Lights season finale.*

Considering that this was one of the strongest seasons that this underrated show has had – kicking some serious butt on the Vince Howard storyline with his tale of a teen trying to overcome poverty, drugs and gang violence, and daring to go “there” with a story about teenage pregnancy – I admit that I was somewhat disappointed that the season finale wrapped up some of the stories a bit too neatly for my taste.

Having the underdog East Dillon Lions beat the playoff-bound West Dillon Panthers . . . I’m sorry, as much as I love seeing Joe and J.D. McCoy’s smug noses rubbed in defeat -- especially after the lousy punks vandalized the East Dillon Lions’ field -- that victory wasn’t realistic, though I was happy to see Landry make that field goal. Given that the bulk of this season been marinated in difficult, messy reality, this Lions victory seemed improbable.

As for Tami Taylor, I was cheering when I saw Principal Tami walk out of the school board’s meeting without reading that bogus apology that the board had written for her, leaving those who wanted to scapegoat her for a young woman’s decision to terminate her pregnancy, all in a tizzy. “Listen, y’all . . . I’ve always put the welfare of the students ahead of everything else, every action that I made was with that intent and it always will be,” Tami said before she left the meeting, calls for her firing heard in the background.

But to have Tami leave her West Dillon principal’s post, after being told she was being placed on “administrative leave,” to take a step down and run the guidance program at East Dillon (she was a guidance counselor before she became principal), seemed, what's the word . . . off. (Plus it makes the folks who run West Dillon High, as well as the school board, seem pretty stupid, dumping two successful members of the Taylor family from the West Dillon faculty in two consecutive years.)

The rosy ending to Tami’s multi-episode arc – with the warm, homey final scene, the folksy music, Tami’s smile, Eric putting up Christmas lights while the girls played with decorations on the front lawn – made me think that the writers simply had a hankering to leave viewers with visions of a happy and contented Taylor family, with Eric’s team having beaten West Dillon and Tami keeping her dignity and having a job that she’s good at.

The story wasn’t so rosy for the Riggins brothers. “You are my brother and you are all I have,” Tim said. “You have a family now. You are a father. And you need to be one.” Watching Tim Riggins take the fall for Billy the moron was so upsetting. Billy should have known better. Tim already has a ton of obstacles in front of him if he wants to succeed in life, but now having to serve time for chopping up stolen cars, that’s certainly not going to help his cause any. Now this was a story that ended on a realistic note, as was the scene with Jess dumping Landry and Matt and Julie finally breaking it off.

Overall, the “Thanksgiving” episode was a moving the-good-guys-can-still-sometimes-win conclusion capping an outstanding season. I absolutely cannot wait for the fifth and final season to begin.

Image credit: NBC.

'Friday Night Lights:' Things Get Worse for Tami Taylor

*Warning spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Friday Night Lights.*

Although she did nothing wrong, Friday Night Lights’ Tami Taylor was summoned to appear before a closed-door school board meeting in the recent episode -- “Injury List” -- to answer Luke Cafferty’s mother Margaret’s allegations that Tami urged 15-year-old Becky Sproles to get an abortion. (Even though it was Becky's mother who insisted upon it.)

When the school board voted against taking any action against the West Dillon High School principal -- who’d previously been a guidance counselor and who made no recommendations to Becky – it seemed as though the 15-year-old’s abortion storyline would be done, wrapped up.

Only it wasn’t.

The baby daddy's mother, Margaret Cafferty – who’s unfortunately being portrayed as a one-dimensional, spiteful, angry character – went to the news media about it and, in the closing minutes of FNL, Tami received a call from a local newspaper reporter who asked her to comment on allegations that she advised a pregnant teen to have an abortion. (She provided no comment.)

Tami, as she’s been a great deal of the season, was trying to deal with this development on her own because her husband Eric was off drinking with Buddy Garrity (anyone notice that Eric’s drinking has increased this season) and said he didn’t want to go home yet. Eric's not been there for Tami a lot this season, preoccupied as he is with his new coaching gig.

Seeing Tami sitting alone, in the dark, on the front stoop of her home, frightened about what was going to happen to her for doing nothing more than listening to a girl in trouble and telling her about her options – she even mentioned a teen health clinic and adoption first before Becky asked what she could do if she didn’t want her baby – was filled with melancholy.

My pop culture column over on Mommy Tracked this week examined how the mothers involved in this storyline – Tami, Becky’s mother Cheryl and Margaret Cafferty – are depicted as they struggle to do what they think is right for the teens.

What do you think about the way FNL has handled this issue?

Image credit: NBC.

Notes on Pop Culture: 'Rescue Me's' Dysfunctional Premiere, FNL's Toilet Bowl & the Army Wives Turned into Working Moms

Rescue Me's Dysfunctional Premiere

The headline for my review of the season six opener of Rescue Me over on CliqueClack TV is: “Rescue Me’s premiere elevated family dysfunction to new heights.” That about sums it up.

As I watched the episode unfold, I absolutely could not believe the antics of the Gavin family. From Uncle Teddy showing up at the bar where he’d shot his nephew four weeks prior as though it was no big deal, Eddy exploiting Tommy’s shooting as a great business/PR move (asking Tommy to lie down in between the chalk outline of his body from where he’d been bleeding on the bar room floor), Janet intentionally poking Tommy in the spot of his gunshot wound, the wild ride Mickey gave Tommy from the hospital, to the boozing Colleen Gavin, I came to the conclusion that there’s something wrong with the Gavin gene pool.

FNL’s Toilet Bowl



Loved the threads touched upon in the most recent episode of Friday Night Lights, "Toilet Bowl:" Julie feared disappointing her mother and failing to live up to her expectations when it came to college. (Julie was less than enthused about her visit to Boston with Tami, who acted as though she'd been added to the Boston College public relations payroll.)

Landry and Jess moved forward with their adorable, awkward budding romance, although it seems as though Vince is still carrying around a piece of Jess’ heart in his back pocket. Luke started turning into a Nurse Jackie/Dr. House drug addict, going through pain medication at such a rapid clip that he had to resort to getting the name of a less than honest doctor in order to score another prescription because the pain in his hip from that ranch accident is still intense.

The two biggest stories of the week: Tim Riggins found his own field of dreams and, after realizing he’s in no position, financially to buy it, figured it'd be worth it to join Billy in an ill-advised, illegal after hours chop shop operation at Riggins Rigs in order to raise the cash to become a property owner. Bad. Move.

And finally, the lowly East Dillon Lions netted their first victory. Huzzah for the Lions.

Have I said lately that I’m particularly enjoying this fourth season of FNL? Seriously.

Army Wives Turned into Working Moms

My pop culture and politics column over on Mommy Tracked this week traced the evolution of the wives on Lifetime’s Army Wives from season one, when only Joan and Roxy had jobs outside the home, to the current season, where all of them are employed, with the exception of Claudia Joy who’s going back to school to complete the law degree she abandoned when she married Michael.

I think Claudia Joy’s transformation from being the helpful, party-throwing, consummate volunteer wife to working alongside her law professor on a case against Fort Marshall has been the most dramatic, followed by EMT Denise and “rookie” cop Pamela Moran, who’s freshly divorced and once again pursuing her career.

Friday Night Lights: In the Bag

I’ve never been a huge fan of Friday Night Lights’ Julie Taylor. I usually find her kind of annoying and whiny. Nonetheless, I felt badly for her in the past episode, “In the Bag,” in the aftermath of her boyfriend of three years, Matt, taking off without a word, except to his family. Never told Julie he was leaving or even said, "Goodbye." Julie was left flailing and floundering and wound up signing up for all manner of school club in an attempt to take her mind off of the fact that she’d been dumped. But it was no use, especially when her heartbreak went painfully on public display where the only solace she found was in her mother's arms.

Loved watching Tinker help Luke and the Cafferty family build the fence to keep the cows safe from thieves so Luke wouldn’t have to stay up until the wee hours of the night working on the fence because his dad couldn’t afford to pay anyone else to help out. (It seems like Luke's parents are among the rare football parents who aren't all insanely crazy about high school football, the anti-McCoys if you will. Joe McCoy was the one who fought Luke's transfer to East Dillon, after all, not Luke's parents.) But the twist at the end, when Luke’s hips got crushed in between the metal fence door by the cows, that just can’t be good. Man has that kid had a bad year.

And while I really didn’t like Vince Howard’s character at first because all we got to see of him was his swagger and arrogance, I’ve been warming up to him as of late. In what should’ve been a proud moment, when he was named QB post, he was instead humiliated in the Lions locker room as the police searched his locker for a gun, causing his teammates and his coach to look upon him with suspicion. Ultimately, he did have a gun and, as a show of faith, he handed it over to Coach Taylor to prove that he’s really trying to do the right thing and seize his new opportunities Eric’s offered him. Eric now believes in Vince and Vince in Eric.

As for Tami Taylor and the goofy, drunk Glen kissing her . . . wait ‘til Coach Eric finds out about this. Wonder if he'll be as cool and collected as he was when Vince brought a gun to the Taylor house? Throw in the cute Jess-Landry flirtation and this season has been getting better and more emotionally revealing with each episode.

Are you finding yourself liking this season as much as I am?

Notes on Pop Culture: FNL's Julie Takes Off, Those Maddening World Cup Vuvuzelas & 'thirtysomething' Season 3 Makes Great Viewing

FNL's Julie Takes Off


Tami Taylor was brought to tears in the latest Friday Night Lights episode, “Stay,” but not because of the nasty campaign to make her life as the principal of West Dillon High School miserable – a campaign spearheaded by the dark-hearted Joe McCoy. She shed tears because her daughter Julie took off overnight (against her parents’ explicit wishes) to see a multi-day music festival with the still grieving, still lost Matt, who had started overtly questioning why he had passed up his chance to attend a presitgious school in Chicago to stay in Dillon. By the episode’s end, Matt, apparently decided that staying was a mistake and he was smiling as he was driving away, leaving his Panther past behind him.

While Tami would’ve normally lit into Julie for blatantly disrespecting her authority and blowing off her repeated phone calls – no scenes of Tami texting Julie though, isn’t that what them there teens do now, text all the time? – when Julie burst into tears upon entering the Taylor house, saying she thought Matt was leaving for good, Tami’s heart just melted, despite Tami’s earlier vow to “beat her ass” for taking off.

Loved the series of scenes with the East Dillon Lions coaches talking to the media – including Coach Stan’s ridiculous “guarantee” of a Lions victory -- and Eric Taylor angrily walking out of a TV interview when the reporter asked him about his “history” of quitting. Hey, at least the Lions only lost to a powerhouse team in a televised game by seven. Not too shabby. If they’d won, it would’ve seemed a bit too unbelievable, too fairy tale-ish.

The story with Tim Riggins and Lyla, well, I already knew that Minka Kelly wasn’t going to be full-time this season, so the fact that she didn’t stay in Dillon like Matt had, at least initially, didn’t come as a big surprise. What I did find surprisingly, though, how heartbroken Tim looked when he told Lyla that all he wanted was her, and for Riggins’ Rigs to succeed with her as their business manager. Cue Lyla’s exit.

Shut the World Cup Vuvuzelas Up, Pretty Please

I watched the US-UK World Cup game on TV Saturday and became insanely irritated by those god awful horns, called vuvuzelas. Broadcasters are complaining that the sound of the noise-makers is drowning out the commentators, and players are peeved, saying that the incessant honking noise is distracting. The hatred many have expressed for those horns has World Cup organizers contemplating banning them. I absolutely cannot imagine what it must be like to try and watch the games in person and have to listen to that sound for 90 minutes straight. Maybe, for future game viewing, I should just watch games with the sound off.

Speaking of the World Cup, The Guardian has a very funny clip, reenacting the “big” moments in the US-UK game . . . in Legos, complete with the sounds of the vuvuzelas in the background.

thirtysomething Season 3 DVD was Great Viewing

The third season of thirtysomething – which aired between 1989/90 – was released in DVD format recently and, after plowing through the episodes during the season widely remembered as the one “when Nancy got cancer,” I discovered that this season was even more emotionally raw and relatable than its previous two, critically acclaimed seasons. Other than the Nancy cancer story, Gary and Susannah had a baby and Hope was pregnant with baby number two as she and Michael started to drift apart. Hope even kissed a bearded guy who worked at a D.C.-based an environmental organization who worked on a failed campaign with Hope to try to shut down an incinerator project in her neighborhood. It’s also the season where the Machiavellian Miles Drentell dramatically locked horns with Michael and Eliot. My review of the season three DVD set is here.

I cannot wait until the fourth and final season is released as I never saw it when it originally aired as I was busy finishing my senior year of college. The ShoutFactory hasn’t yet announced its release date but it has been releasing the first three seasons about six months apart from one another.

Did you have a favorite episode of thirtysomething?

Notes on Pop Culture: FNL's Matt Saracen's Heartbreak, Harry Potter 'Deathly Hallows' Trailer, Summer TV

FNL's Matt Saracen's Heartbreak


How good was the actor, Zach Gilford, who plays Matt Saracen on Friday Night Lights in the recent episode, “The Son?” He underplayed his role as the grieving son very nicely and to great effect.

For practically the entire series, Matt has been the character who’s had to act more mature than his age, like the responsible authority figure in his house when he was just an immature high school kid. He took care of his ailing grandmother and, only recently allowed his previously estranged mother to help them out. At the end of last season Matt was planning to go to Chicago to pursue his promising art career. He prepared by getting his grandmother all set up in a home that would keep her safe.

Then he was beset by horrendous guilt. Guilt about leaving his girlfriend Julie behind. Guilt about leaving his grandmother in a group home. He, once again, put himself and his desires on the backburner, took a job delivering Panther pizza and enrolled in community college classes where his art teacher didn't think his work was all that special.

Now, in this recent episode, his largely absent Army father was killed in Iraq. The normally even-keeled Matt felt utterly lost and unhinged, particularly by his mixed feelings about a dad who he believed was so afraid of responsibility and child-rearing that he kept re-enlisting and going to Iraq to avoid being with his son.

That scene with Tami and Matt at a strip mall funeral home, so upsetting. If that scene, where Tami dressed down the funeral director after Matt left -- chastizing the man for how much he was trying to charge Matt for the funeral services -- doesn’t demonstrate that the Taylors are the central, beating hearts of this show, nothing does. (Why, by the way, was Tami there and not Matt’s mom? Is it because he’s closer to Tami? That doesn't say much about Matt's mother.)

Will this event become a major catalyst for the drifting Matt? We'll see.

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Trailer



I live in a house full of Harry Potter fans. My 11-year-old twins have read the Potter series over and over again and have seen all the movies. My husband – who’s not a big reader – was coerced by the twins into reading the entire series last summer.

Currently my husband and I are reading the series aloud to our 8-year-old son – we’re in the middle of the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire. So whenever there’s anything new on the Harry Potter front, there’s tremendous excitement.

While my kids have been asking when we’re going to go down to Florida to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, I think I'm going to try to distract them with this new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Summer TV



Who says there’s nothing decent on TV in the summer? You’ve got FNL still airing new episodes, Mad Men coming up next month, Weeds and couple of new shows including ones starring Betty White and Laura Linney on tap.

My Pop Culture column this week is all about summer TV and I highlighted what’s in store for shows like Mad Men, Rescue Me, Hot in Cleveland, The Big C, Weeds and HawthoRNe.

When it comes to Weeds, what’s your take on the teaser Showtime put out? Do you really think that, after Nancy’s son killed Esteban’s evil, criminal political “consultant” with a croquet mallet in the season finale last year, that Nancy’s really going to be able to “bury” her connections to Esteban, especially given that she had his baby, oh, and she married him last season?

'Friday Night Lights:' Coach Taylor Lies to His Wife

One of the things I really admire about Coach Eric Taylor’s character on Friday Night Lights is the fact that he’s been a really good, down-to-earth husband. Certainly he's not been perfect, and Tami Taylor’s certainly not a perfect wife, but Eric’s been a supportive husband and father throughout the series, a role model of sorts, albeit one who doesn't like to talk much.

However the latest episode, “In the Skin of a Lion” hints at larger problems that may challenge the Taylors’ marriage this season with Eric coaching the East Dillon High School football team, and Tami serving as principal at the West Dillon High School, both of whom have targets on their backs, Tami more so than Eric at this point.

In a recent episode, Tami was put smack-dab in the middle of local politics when she learned that Eric kind-of-knew-but-didn’t-really-want-any-details about a mailbox the West Dillon Panthers had been using for years as a sham address for players who lived in other school districts but who’d claim they lived in West Dillon territory in order to play Panther football. The address was for a mailbox in front of an empty lot in West Dillon. The Panters had been using it for a star player, Luke Cafferty who lived in East Dillon territory.

At first, Tami asked Eric whether he knew about this when he was the West Dillon coach, as she was the one who had to pull Luke Cafferty off the Panthers because one of Eric's friends -- the one who erected the mailbox in the first place -- told Eric that Luke was supposed to be on his football team. When confronted by his wife, Eric argued and tried to turn it around on Tami as though she were the one making trouble. Although she sagely and gaemly played politics with the West Dillion football boosters, who threatened to tarnish Eric's previous state championship, the entire situation left her feeling vulnerable, particularly when she was booed by the student body.

During the latest episode, it was Eric who found himself in a jam. Sure, that big fire he lit in the center of the football field and into which Eric had encouraged his players to pitch their jerseys proved inspirational to fledgling team, symbolic of their fresh start. But there was one small catch. It left them without uniforms. And without more financial support from the cash-strapped high school – which barely has enough cash for academics – Eric had to turn to other means.

He staged that fundraiser where he had the players push a car through town and collect money from residents. While I thought it was sweet that Eric gave Tim Riggins some cash to spread around to the crowd to give to the players so they’d feel supported by their community, I wondered if Tami knew about it.

Then the bill for the new jerseys came due. And Eric had to write a hefty check, a personal check, from his and Tami’s account in oreder to get the gear in time for their game. When Tami asked Eric about it, he lied and said the check was for $45 for dry cleaning. Near the end of the episode, he came home after one too many beers and told Tami the truth, that he’d written a $3,000 check and hoped to raise the money and replace it. "We don’t have $3,000 in our checking account!” Tami shouted.

I expect that this dust-up – combined with a Panther football booster boasting that Joe McCoy will “figure out a way to get that bitch out of there” (meaning Tami as principal) – won’t be the last big tests for the Taylor marriage this season.