Zach Gilford-related stories
Posted Oct 28th 2009 12:02PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: OpEd, Friday Night Lights, Early Looks, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
Entering into its fourth season (and second since the NBC/DirecTV deal),
Friday Night Lights is a show in transition on numerous levels. The high school football drama returns tonight to DirecTV's 101 Network at 9 p.m. ET (NBC won't air this season until next summer) and for fans of the show, it's an episode they've long been waiting for.
Ever since the season three finale, as Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his wife Tami (Connie Britton) stepped on to the East Dillon Lions decrepit football field, Eric's new home, the tension has been at an all time high in Dillon, Texas. How can Coach Taylor, a man whom many consider to be a high school football wunderkind, start from scratch with a team that doesn't even exist yet?
Continue reading Friday Night Lights, season four -- An early look
Posted Jan 24th 2009 3:30AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
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S03E02) That episode title gets right to the heart of one of the main stories this week. Although, perhaps it should have been followed by a question mark. The backlash from Tami's decision to nix the jumbotron, which we all knew was coming, started this week, and things don't look so good for our favorite principal. Meanwhile, Brian continued to search for Smash, Tyra went back to basics for her campaign, Tim and Lyla continued the vicious cycle, and we got a little peek into Matt Saracen's past. It all made for a very good hour of television.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Tami Knows Best
Posted Jul 9th 2008 10:40AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Friday Night Lights, Casting, Reality-Free
It's a question that popped up even before our pals in Dillon had their premiere. What are they going to do when these kids start graduating? Well, we have an answer now, and I'm not sure it's going to be embraced by everyone. EW's Michael Ausiello reports that Gaius Charles (Smash) and Scott Porter (Street) have been moved to recurring status.
Producer Jason Katims released a statement that says both characters will get four episode arcs to move them into the next chapter of their lives. Presumably, those would be chapters that won't be captured by the handheld Friday Night Lights cams. The cynic in me can't help thinking that this has as much to do with the shaky nature of the FNL renewal as it does with being able to work these characters into the show. After all, the idea of budget cuts after the strange Direct TV deal isn't an outlandish one. That being said, the explanation is reasonable. They were going to have to address the graduation dilemma eventually.
Continue reading Changes coming to Friday Night Lights
Posted Feb 9th 2008 1:20PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
(S02E15) Yeah. So, we can't really talk about this episode without getting into the possibility that this was the series finale of Friday Night Lights. No matter what comes of the big meetings this weekend regarding the writer's strike, there are no guarantees that the show will even get to finish season two, let alone come back for a third go. Recent comments from the network certainly don't paint an optimistic picture. And all of that is important, because where this episode ends up in the time line of the show will ultimately determine how successful it was. As episode 15 of a 22 episode second season, it was solid. As the series finale, not so much.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: May The Best Man Win
Posted Jan 19th 2008 1:34PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S02E12) It's an interesting title for what was ultimately a strange episode. The show on the whole continues to improve after what was a weak start to the season, but it's not without some bumps in the road. We could ask that question of so many of the characters after what we saw in this episode. Lyla, Riggins, Smash, Buddy, Santiago, Mrs. Williams. Just as easily though, it could be turned on the powers that be over at
FNL.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Who Do You Think You Are?
Posted Jan 5th 2008 10:22AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S02E10) And we're back. After a month off for viewers to celebrate the holidays, and for the networks to try and figure out how to fill up the schedule as the strike stretches on, our old pals in Dillon have returned. And things picked up right where they left off. Riggins is still wandering from home to home. Buddy is still in denial. None of us are sure just why Shelley is still living with the Taylor's. And Landry has gone from being riddled with the guilt of committing murder to being emotionally pummeled by the fact that he's fallen for a passive aggressive nutjob. It's a lot to get to, but we'll give it a shot, after the jump.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: There Goes The Neighborhood
Posted Dec 8th 2007 8:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S02E09) "Can I tell you what gets me going? Pee." -
IsabellaA combination of the coming holidays and the writers strike means that "The Confession" is the last we will see of our pals in Dillon until after the new year. Like so many other shows, the break is a disappointment, but this was the right episode to head into a break with. As the episode title implies, this week brought us the big conclusion to the controversial murder mystery that began with the pilot. That is as good a point as any to stop and reset a few things.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: The Confession
Posted Dec 1st 2007 9:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
(S05E08) I know a few people, and I've read comments from a number of others here at TV Squad, who refuse to watch the promos for shows that the networks put out. It usually boils down to them being either full of spoilers or completely misleading. If you are one of those people, this episode was for you, because not only did those of us that saw the promo have the ending spoiled, but we were also completely misled as to what the episode would be about, and I'm really not sure why the network did it. More on that, and the rest of the happenings this week in Dillon, after the jump.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Seeing Other People
Posted Nov 17th 2007 10:06AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S02E07) For episode seven, "Pantherama!" brings us what I would call an odd and uneven mix of stories. With a host of new and recurring characters (Santiago, Lauren, Noelle, Noah, Jackie, Billy, Mindy) in play, something had to give. That left our old pal Street on the sidelines for this game. While he got a breather though, the Smash finally got a story of his own.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Pantherama!
Posted Nov 10th 2007 9:02AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S02E06)
And you may ask yourself - Well... How did I get here?It's a great title for this episode as we find a lot of our pals in Dillon questioning, being questioned about, or owning up to the situation they are currently in. That doesn't make for huge plot points that you can point to and say, "Look at that!" But it does bring up some interesting questions, and pave the way for stories in the future. With so many of the characters getting time this week, all of these changes actually overshadowed the one big, holy smokes, moment of the episode. That little thing you see in the screen cap.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: How Did I Get Here
Posted Nov 3rd 2007 7:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S05E05) "Lance!"
Week five of season two brings us another packed episode. Eric is getting settled back into his role as the Panther's coach, and being with his family. Big changes are in the air for Landry on, and off, the football field. A more assertive Matt is coming to some realizations about Julie. And we find out the result of the great Mexican shark blood surgery road trip. It's a lot to get to.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Let's Get It On
Posted Oct 27th 2007 9:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S03E04) "The Eagle has landed. It's a done deal." - Buddy Garrity
Another Friday night spent with NBC, and this one came across as a little bit strange. Not bad strange, or good heavens, what now strange. Just that the story here caught me a little off guard. It's a little early in the season for what you might call a pivotal episode. Usually at this point things are being put in motion, or big picture stories are getting a break for a stand-alone episode. Such is not the case in Dillon, as three big stories had big moments this week. To balance it out, we also had more from the shark blood road trip, and the quickly getting away from us Lyla crusade. All that, and some other junk, after the jump.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Backfire
Posted Oct 13th 2007 8:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S02E02) As I was watching the show tonight, thoughts on this post were running through my head. Initially I planned on doing like last week and pushing the Landry/Tyra stuff to the end of the post, after we go through the parts of the episode that actually make some sense. But then I typed out that episode title, "Bad Ideas", and I just can't get over how well that fits.
They may have intended that title as a reference to what is going on with many of the characters. Things like Tami's admission that her insistence that she and Julie stay in Dillon was a bad idea, how Buddy's own actions have created his situation, the experimental Mexican surgery proposed to Street, or even Antwone's trip to the Justin Timberlake concert. To me though,
THE bad idea is nothing that any of the characters are doing. It is this Landry and Tyra story that the writers and producers have cooked up. So we'll get started there, after the jump.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Bad Ideas
Posted Oct 5th 2007 10:31PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews
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S02E01) And we're back for another season with the Dillon Panthers. You have to think that there is some pressure on the folks behind the show as they kick off this new year. The renewal was great and all, but I suspect it came with some helpful suggestions as to the kind of numbers the network is looking for on Friday nights. It should be interesting to see how the show performs on the new night.
Over the summer we lost eight months of Texas time, but that really doesn't matter. For the most part, we pick up all of our ongoing stories where we left off last spring. Anything we really need to know is handed off to us as we are reunited with these characters again. Since the show kicked off with Matt and Landry at the pool, let's start there.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Last Days Of Summer (season premiere)
Posted Oct 2nd 2007 10:01AM by Brett Love
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Friday Night Lights, Early Looks, Episode Reviews
Last week was certainly the biggie for the kickoff to the new season, but this week isn't too shabby either. In fact, this week brings us the premiere of my most eagerly anticipated returning show,
Friday Night Lights. Honestly, there is a part of me that is still a little surprised that we are going to get to see season two. The first season was a bit of a bumpy ride in the ratings department, but NBC stepped up to the plate and I'm holding out hope that it pays off for them.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights season two -- An early look - VIDEO
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