Friday Night Lights Are Out

I gave Friday Night Lights a chance. I wanted it to be a success, and honestly for the most part it is a lot better than I had expected.

Kyle Chandler does a far better job playing the role of a coach than I thought he would. He is truly a diverse actor. The trial of balancing coaching and family comes through well, and for that I like this show.

The sense of community in this program is excellent. From the annoying unofficial team sponsor and back seat coach in Mr. Garrity to the senile but loving grandmother who loves to see "my boy" playing football in Mrs. Saracen, the characters are diverse and entertaining.

I am particularly fond of Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) and his struggle to be the first-string quarterback on the number one high school football team in Texas. This all happened to the kid that was always considered to be a distant second string, but was thrust into first string position due to an accident involving the star. I want Matt to succeed and I believe that the writers will make it so. However, I will never find out.

I want to watch the fight that Jason Street (Scott Porter) makes has he tries to overcome his paralysis. Jason was the star quarterback that was hit during the first game of the season, and severed his spinal cord so that he will probably never walk again.

I am interested to see the romance between Matt and Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden), the coach's daughter, develop. Julie hates football players because they are stupid jocks who are interested only in popularity, in her mind. However, I will never know if they get to know each other better.

I will not watch my favorite characters develop because I have turned the show off. As I mentioned when I previewed the show, I would turn this off if teen sex was portrayed.

While specific portrayals of teenage sex weren't shown, there have been at least two allusions to teen sex. In the first episode, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) was woken up with a hangover by his then girlfriend, Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki), who appeared to have slept overnight at his house. In this most recent episode this same Tim Riggins found himself making out with Lila Garrity (Minka Kelly) in her bedroom. The scene ended with them reclining on something, and I can only assume it was her bed.

Teen sex has always been a kicker for me. I was too patient with the program. But I am done with it now. Too bad, because it is actually really quite well written and well produced.

Labels: Drama, Friday Night Lights, Television, TV

posted by Anonymous @ Wednesday, October 25, 2006