'Friday Night Lights:' The Last Season Thus Far

This final season of Friday Night Lights has not disappointed.

It’s had a little bit of everything in its first six episodes.

Family drama: College freshman Julie Taylor had an affair with a married teaching assistant then fled home after the guy’s wife confronted her and called her a slut. Becky Sproles fled to Billy and Mindy Riggins’ house after her father’s wife is nasty to her. Vince Howard’s formerly bad dude dad was released from prison and, though Vince originally didn’t want him around for fear he’d get his mother hooked on drugs again, Vince started to warm up to him.

Football drama: The East Dillon Lions football team is doing well this year thanks to Coach Eric Taylor, and some inspiration from Billy Riggins, leading Eric to be put on the cover of a national football magazine under the title “Coach Kingmaker.” Luke Cafferty is starting to worry that he won’t be able to play college football or might not even go to college, while Vince is being courted by some big name colleges. Buddy Garrity Jr. straightened himself out – after drinking, doing drugs, lying, stealing – after his dad persuaded him to join the East Dillon football team.

Teen romance drama: Jess Meriweather and Vince make for a cute couple and their relationship is tested when Jess joins the football staff. Luke keeps flirting with Becky, clearly interested.

Career intrigue: Tami Taylor, fresh from the abortion controversy that led to her leaving her post as Dillon High School principal, has had difficulties fitting in at East Dillon as she tried to breathe new life into the guidance department and reach out to troubled students. Mindy, having lost her baby weight, returned to working at the Landing Strip but was given cruddy hours.

Random teen stupidness: A high school girl got drunk and boys at the party were flopping her around in front of a video camera; a video of it was posted on YouTube. Members of the East Dillon Lions football team branded themselves as an idiotic team building move.

I can promise you, even more meaty, moving drama is ahead in the final seven episodes as I've already seen them. I’m gonna miss this show mightily, the Taylors especially.

Notes on Pop Culture: 'The Killing's' a Conundrum, 'Grey's' Adoption & 'FNL's' Julie Messes Around

Image credit: AMC.

The Killing’s a Conundrum

I’m still watching each new installment of AMC’s pitch dark drama The Killing with a question mark floating above my head as if it were in a cartoon bubble in a comic strip. Every time I think I have an idea of who was involved in the teenage girl’s murder – which is the central question of the show – that notion is quickly dispatched. It’s gotten to the point that I’ve resolved myself to the fact that I won’t be able to identify the killer until it’s blatantly obvious, like when the person’s in handcuffs and says, “I did it.”

But that’s okay with me. I'm liking the mystery. Unlike with some of the unbelievable hokey twists and turns a show like 24 took, when there were intentional dead ends intended to put viewers on the wrong trail, The Killing is going about unfolding this tale in a pretty smart fashion. And the mother of the teenage murder victim, played by Michelle Forbes . . . if she doesn’t win an armload of statues for best supporting actress it’ll be a shame. She’s been terrific.

I reviewed the most recent episode of the show over on CliqueClack TV.

Image credit: ABC.

Grey’s Adoption?

So will it be as easy as the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy led us to believe, that Meredith and Derek will be able to adopt that adorable little girl just like that? After so much heartache, the miscarriage and the failed infertility treatments the baby will just be theirs? (I devoted a recent column to how many primetime shows, including Grey's, have been featuring infertility and adoption storylines.)

There are two more episodes left in this season of Grey’s and while the last episode (reviewed here) made things appear to be looking up for the show’s central couple -- they got legally married and hope to adopt baby Zola -- I’m assuming that before the season ends the boom will be lowered once more, most likely in the form of the Alzheimer’s clinical trial being invalidated because of Meredith’s actions and Alex’s big mouth. But I really hope I’m wrong about that. It’s been too good of a season to just allow the uncharacteristic, preachy behavior of Alex to undo the study in the waning moments of the season.

Do you think Zola's adoption will go through smoothly? Will Meredith get caught for helping Adele?



Friday Night Lights’ Julie Messes Around

Pity Friday Night Lights’  Tami and Eric Taylor. They’ve poured so much into their first child Julie, tried to do the best they could to put her on the right track. And now Julie’s off at college messing around with a married teaching assistant in her very first semester. Not a very auspicious start to her college career.

Then there’s Buddy Garrity’s kid, Buddy Jr. who broke into his father’s bar, got drunk and passed out, stole his father’s credit card and took off in his father’s truck . . . after his mother had sent the teen to live with his father because he’d become uncontrollable and been taking drugs as well as drinking.

Given those two parental situations, I’d rather be the Taylors.

Image credits: Carole Segal/AMC, Richard Cartwright/ABC.

Attention Readers: Watch 'Friday Night Lights'!

I came late to my Friday Night Lights fangirl-dom. Wait, let me clarify. I’ve liked the original, nonfiction Buzz Bissinger book since the early 1990s and enjoyed the film, starring Billy Bob Thornton. But as for the NBC TV version of this tale of Texas high school football, I was tardy in getting to that game.

However once I started watching the TV drama, I was smitten.

In my new pop culture column, I explain to folks who aren’t football fans that Friday Night Lights is more like another NBC show, Parenthood, only it focuses on a different demographic group, it’s in Texas (not in California) and it has some football.

This season especially, the focus is intensely on adults doing their darnedest to raise/advise/assist hormonal teens who aren’t quite grown-ups yet, while at the same time, those adults are having to face the realities of the limitations of their influence and power over these oftentimes troubled teens.

NBC is streaming the season’s first few episodes online so it’s not too late to jump on board for one last Friday Night Lights ride.

(FYI – You’ll notice that my column is now appearing on the web site Modern Mom. Modern Mom bought Mommy Tracked and brought me over from the site.)