“Friday Night Lights” — Last Days of Summer
I’m suppose to be on a bus to D.C. in about five hours and thanks to the literal dozens of hours of television I’ve watched this week am about to pass out any minute. That being said, I feel like it’s my civic obligation to write something, anything about the often-beautiful and occasionally troubling season premiere to Friday Night Lights. Bear with me if this doesn’t end up making any sense, and feel free to hit the comments for those moments I might have skipped in my current haze of cathode ray pixels, pizza crusts and dry eyes. More after the jump…
For 49 of the episode’s 60 minutes, Friday Night Lights was once again proving why it is the greatest program currently airing on network TV (hell, even factoring in the problematic last act — that I’ll get to in a moment — it’s still pretty damn good). The opening scene at the city pool was an awesome way to jump back into a series. Nearly every major character was there, almost all for different reasons. The soundtrack was perfect, and the looks exchanged between Julie, Saracen, and The Swede were moments of gut-turning beauty. There’s something about the look on Matt’s face where we can see that he is seeing the inevitable future — and can’t do anything about it. Of course this will be off-set a few minutes later where Matt runs into a recently returned Coach Taylor at the supermarket who tells him, evasively, “Don’t just stand there and watch it happen.” God, I love they way Kyle Chandler delivered that line. On the page it says everything, but the way he read it it seemed laced with code.
Back on the home front, the Taylor baby has entered the world and Coach Eric is commuting between Dillion and… Austin? He flies back as his wife is in labor, scored with “Muzzle of Bees” by Wilco. Julie is getting a little bored with Matt and thinks she might have found a new Mr. Awesome in The Swede, who I suspect isn’t so much Swedish as named “Swede” (which took me a while to figure out until I remembered they called Matt “The Saracen”). A lot of the turmoil, whatever its form, seems directly related to Eric not being around. In the episode’s most powerful moment (yes, this moment) Connie Britton delivers yet another phenomenal performance as she sits on the couch and listens to Eric say he has to go back to work early. Her face is amazing. Anyone can cry on screen, but it takes someone really special to be able to actually emote. I’ve watched that scene three times and it still chokes me up.
Now then… Landry and Tyra. Here’s where the problems begin. For much of the episode it was classic Landry as he slowly got closer and closer to Tyra culminating in a hysterical phone call to Saracen from Tyra’s bathroom asking how he should approach putting his arm around her, followed by a scene on the couch where he tries, seemingly successful, before she breaks the moment and suggests the two go get some food. If there were ever a moment to remind you what it was like to be young and anxious that was it.
But then the attacker comes back. And Landry beats him to death with a pipe. And the two, panicked, dump the body in a river. And we, the audience, completely in love with this show because it isn’t one to go for easy, obvious (and big) dramatic climaxes, stare at our televisions, mouths agape, certain that our favorite program has been completely ruined.
This isn’t suppose to happen. These characters don’t kill people, and even if they did, they’re smart enough to call the cops. Again, I’ve seen this episode about three times (it was released on Yahoo a couple weeks back) and I’m more OK with the scene now than I was then (though the scene is also significantly different now as the original version had Landry killing the guy by grabbing an empty beer bottle and smashing it on his head, compared to this time where it was a lead pipe and he repeatedly beats the man with it). That being said, I’m still not thrilled. How can a show build around moments of intimacy and small town life now have a murder and a dumped body looming over its head — especially if the head belongs to Landry, the series funniest character?
Alan Sepinwall does a pretty great job of explaining the direness of this development (complete with an interview from one of the series’ creators), though I would also add that I’m not quite as panicked as he.
Artistically, and looking at it in terms of one single episode, not a running serial, some of the decisions were kind of marvelous. The choice of using the Wilco song at both the beginning of the episode (with the birth of the new Taylor baby) and at the end of the episode (with Landry having killed a man and coach Taylor on a flight away from his family) was beautiful in its life/death parity.
As far as ruining the series, I’m optimistic. Look, Friday Night Lights isn’t a show with legs. Sure it made it to a second season, but who knows if it’ll make it to a third. Either way, this isn’t a show we’re going to be watching in the fall of 2010. Because of that, it might not be too dire to completely rock the boat and change the character dynamic each year. How many times can (or should) the same note be played, even if that note is pitch perfect?
Thoughts?
October 8th, 2007 at 11:33 am
What do you think about it in terms of the appeal to new viewers? I was thinking about it today and I think there was enough explanation and vaguery that someone could’ve walked into the show cold and still understood what was happening.
While the episode left me with my mouth ajar, I’m not jumping to condemn it quite yet. I’m very curious to see how they follow this. And actually to that ending’s defense…I don’t think it’s THAT out of sync with the rest of the show. You talk about it spoiling the intimacy of small town life, but let’s think about the OVERLY dramatic stuff that’s already happened. Tyra getting rape-attacked is pretty brutal to start, and watching that happen is often more troubling to watch than a thump on the head with a pipe.
I know it feels a lot more real because it was funny man Landry behind the murder, but I totally believe it’s in his character - but only in defending Tyra. Also, I think they did a reasonable job of establishing that Landry often doesn’t know what to do in tough situations, re: reporting Tyra’s attack and the phone call from the bathroom.
I dunno. Iit certainly changes the dynamic of the show, but I’m not giving up on it.
October 8th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I definitely agree with the not giving up sentiment and would also concede that it made for a completely accessible jump-in point for new viewers, but still there’s something uneasy about it all — about the notion that they will “go there.” Still, the show has always been soapy, but its brilliance was how it never seemed to push those moments too far over the top. I suppose it could have been worse. They could have chopped up the body and put the head in a bowling ball bag.
I’m certainly ready for the next episode.
October 9th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Here’s something odd…in the promos Landry knocked the guy out with a beer bottle thus not killing him (one would think). So this suggests multiple endings where even the show creators don’t know where they are heading. THAT, to me, is the most troubling sign.
October 9th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
And I just realized you already made this point in the post. Oh well. Anyway, I just hope they know what the hell they are doing.