Friday Night Lights Recap

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

Missed last week's recap due to not being up to sitting at the PC while at home. But I did really enjoy that episode, and Riggins' attempts to befriend/mentor J.D. So this week we see poor Landry get smacked down again (albeit in a friendly way). J.D.'s father display his way too controlling attitude, and Coach Taylor try to cope with that. Another example of the Taylor's great relationship and how that shows. And Buddy gets treated to the negative side of a hostile divorce. And last we see how Street will leave the show, and the effect he has had on everyone.

One of the article's I read about this weeks episode brought up the most outstanding example of over the top Football Dad when it quoted a piece from the SI article on Todd Marinovich. And I think the story of Marinovich is one every parent should be aware of. Because it was truly amazing how an obsessed father attempted to create Robo-QB, and in the end that kid went off the rails. Now is J.D. another Marinovich? That's unclear at this point. What is clear is that Coach Taylor is getting to the end of his fuse with Daddy McCoy.

The way the Taylor's double team the parents of the kid who lied about playing football is amazing. The way Tammi, totally unexpectedly, steps up to defend football and her husband as potentially great positives in the kids life is amazing. And Coach displays his gratitude with a typically understated but appreciated gesture of opening her car door for her.

Poor Landry, he just can't win for losing. Here he thinks he has a shiny new girlfriend, and he tells Tyra he is ready to move on as 'just friends' and he gets slammed. By the unlikely response of the girl telling him she is a lesbian (highly unlikely for a 14 year old in a small Texas town to know, much less admit that). So Landry has to get a pep talk from Tammi, explaining that High School should not be the high point of his life, and that it won't be in his case. Which seems to do the trick.

Which leads us to Buddy Garrity, for whom High School probably was the high point of his life. As he tries to cope with his visiting kids being bratty little teenagers who have had a little too much time to listen to their Mom's side of the story and the Step Dad's explanation of how the world works. Buddy tries real hard to try to keep his cool, but eventually loses his cool. And then it is up to his eldest to take the little siblings to task for their behavior. Showing how much Lyla has grown up in 3 years.

And that is demonstrated in the final scenes as we see the clever way that Jason Street is leaving the show. This season we are finally seeing the reason Street was QB1 all those years. And we see how he is destined for great things in leaving Dillon for New York. Although it is sad to see him leave we see how he has impacted so many lives for the better.

I am excited to watch this show every week, and never want the episode to end. I hope it comes back as a regular show next year and that we don't have another short season that we have to wait for January. Although I am still wondering how they will move on without the core of Street, Smash, Riggins, Saracen, Lyla and Tyra. It should be interesting.