Over the past months, I really haven’t given much thought to the vehicle for my beloved show’s third season. Confirmation of its persistence (however brief and unprofitable it will likely prove to be) is all I needed. But now, just a few hours off from its return, I have no easy way to watch it. No one has DirecTV—no one! I briefly considered signing up myself before coming to the conclusion that even my hatred of Time Warner Cable is no match for my fear of the unfamiliar. Waiting for NBC’s winter ’09 broadcast is out of the question, so I now prepare to settle for my dreaded nemesis, TV on the Internet.

“Why the hesitation?” you might ask. Well, for starters, it’s not available in glorious HD, it’s slightly amoral, and the purist in me tends to look down on it like a bastard conceived in the backseat of a cheap, foreign car. Plus, it’s totally complicated! These episodes aren’t going to show up on Hulu, you know. I’m going to have to search for them individually and play them on some application I probably don’t already have. To make matters worse, my 14 gigs of free hard drive and OS X “Panther” can’t even begin to entertain these new fangled torrents. And that doesn’t even solve the timeliness dilemma—there’ll be no protecting my vulnerable eyes and busy feed reader from spoilers!

So, what’s a boy to do, TV? I want to celebrate the fruits of your digital loins, but I don’t know how. Mikey needs his FNL.

So this year marked my first in-person upfront experience, and I have to say, they’re kind of gross. A bunch of sloppy ad folks boozing to the point of public embarrassment and blatant starfucking does not a good time make. It was an education though. My deep love of So You Think You Can Dance (returning in one week!) was slightly challenged by the throng of contestants from seasons two and three that could literally not stop dancing at any point during the night. Brazilian BBQ buffet? Dance! Line at the porta-potty? Dance! Creepy ‘80s cover band? Um… dance!

They have their charms though. And about a month from now I’ll be so thoroughly into their successors, this transgression will be long forgotten. What won’t be forgotten is the fact those two beautiful creatures pictured above and Eliza Dushku all bolted before I got there. Perhaps it’s best that they stay on their respective pedestals, but I sure would have love to see TV actors not on Gossip Girl every once in a while.

Enough of that. Let’s get down to business. This time last year I was an unhappy camper. Veronica Mars was done, I was mostly unimpressed with the pick-ups, and Eliza Dushku’s pilot was passed over by FOX. Things could not be more different in 2008. Friday Night Lights and How I Met Your Mother, the two bubble shows that I desperately needed to see renewed, will both be back with a vengeance. I’m genuinely excited by some of the new offerings. And this year’s Dushku pilot, a little show called Dollhouse by some writer/auteur/genius named Joss Whedon, is a sure bet for midseason. If you can catch the trailer (they keep pulling them), you will see how very drool inducing it is. Full fall schedules for all the networks, if you haven’t already seen them, can be found right here: ABC, CBS, FOX, the CW. (NBC’s is oooooold news.)

There weren’t any surprises this week. News of renewals and pickups, save a few exceptions, all came weeks ago. The only real shock was that after all the hullabaloo over the upfronts being “soooo different” this year, they were more or less the same. No complaints on my part, as I can think of far worse things than tradition. Attention-starved dance competition veterans for one.

So if FNL does return, it’s going to be a part of some crazy cost-sharing deal between NBC and DirectTV. This will be another one of the many “landmark” moves you hear so much about these days because TV has gone crazy. Not that I’m complaining. I don’t care who’s paying for or it or what channel it’s on, as long as it’s actually on. And it’s looking like it will be. Everyone has been saying it, including some of the stars. I’ve even spoken with people at NBC who say it’s a done deal and that they’re just waiting to make the announcement. That announcement could come as soon as this Wednesday when NBC holds its pseudo-upfront. I’ve been deceived by the TV gods many times before, so forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.

On the whole, I’m just really confused by how the Fall 2008 season is taking shape. There are pilots, but there wasn’t really a pilot season. There are upfronts, but there aren’t really upfronts. NBC is renouncing the idea of a TV “season.” And FOX is already letting their place on the ratings throne go straight to their head. Remember the good old days when new shows just magically appeared in September and people treated FOX like it was the UPN? Times sure have changed.

Friday Night Lights

• Best Week Ever’s campaign to save FNL fell apart when Viacom execs noticed that their flagship blog was promoting a show that airs at the same time as its corresponding series… on a different network. Their light bulb icon remains because it does raise awareness. And it is very cute. (Defamer)
• Any possibility that FNL would return for more second season episodes is out the window. Taylor Kitsch is going to Australia to make the X-Men prequel. (BuzzSugar)
• Just over a week ago, news broke that NBC is considering “wrapping up” FNL with a two-hour series-ending special. Not the worst case scenario, but it’s still pretty chince. (Watch With Kirstin)
• The most recent development for Lights is the most exciting. NBC approached The CW, TNT and the owner of E! and G4 about sharing a third season of FNL – should one be produced. Talk of sharing it with NBC-owned nets like Bravo and USA has not come up. At least this means the execs still really are invested in the series – despite any of Ben Silverman’s drunken ramblings about 30 Rock. (Zap2It)

How I Met Your Mother

• The Hollywood Reporter isn’t so grim about Mother‘s future. I failed to mention in my last report that while the show was not included in CBS’s fall picks-ups, sources are optimistic that a renewal is imminent. (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Super sleuth, and champion of TV fans everywhere, Kristin Dos Santos is nervous for Mother. She points out the disturbing truth that CBS has nothing to gain should the Fox-owned series reach a syndication-cinching 100th episode. (Watch With Kristin)
• CBS moved Mother to a new time slot for their April return. It will now air on Mondays at 8:30 in between the more successful The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. Think of it as an amazing sandwich… but instead of bread, they’re using poop. (TV Squad)

The mere thought that this was the last I’ll ever get of Friday Night Lights hurts too much to bear, so I’ll abandon speculation until after the rundown. Friday’s episode, “May the Best Man Win,” wasn’t a remotely fitting end to this season (much less the series). It offered a bittersweet resolution to the Smash dilemma and opened up a cliffhanger-y pregnancy storyline for Jason Street, but the majority of the episode deviated to two uncharacteristically comedic storylines of gentlemen vying for the affections of two of Dillon’s loveliest ladies. It wasn’t as phenomenal as some of the recent weeks’ episodes but definitely another solid offering from the greatest drama on television.

Well, we last left Smash in a situation I prognosticated as a bit more dire. TMU is dunzo, but it appears that other colleges are still quite interested. They may not live up to the expectations Smash had set for himself, but there seems to be a solid sense of community at Whitmore College, and it beats the living hell out of a mortifying dead end in Arena Football or working at that damn ice cream parlor. Call me crazy, but there still seems to be a bit of ambiguity around this matter. Smash may have found the place he really belongs, and he may just be cooling his heels until some later planned rectification of the TMU debacle.

It seems like poor Jason Street has been rolling around in the shadows since the beginning of the season. He had epiphany after epiphany, and despite his efforts to get out of Dillon, is now working as a car salesman for Buddy Garrity. What better way to vault him back out of obscurity than a pregnancy scare? Though it is anything but scary for Street, who thinks that he inseminated the boring waitress by the sheer grace of God. She wanted an abortion but seemed to buckle under the pressure of a handsome cripple. If there really is another baby headed to Dillon, may I suggest casting one without alien eyes?

Elsewhere… Riggins is not taking no for an answer – especially not when his competition is an uber-yuppie born-again who, as we learned last week, is deeply afraid of sex. Matt Czurchy is a great guy, but he kind of breaks the suspension of disbelief on Friday Night Lights. I’ve already seen him on too many shows. It doesn’t much matter though, because Lyla can’t possibly deny Riggins for much longer. The goofy romantic story between Eric, Tami and her high school sweetheart was a bit more gratuitous. It was really just an opportunity for executive producer Peter Berg to finally show off his acting skills. It had also been a least a month since the last really good dude fight.

Back to the matter of the show’s future, here is what we know: With the end of the writer’s strike, likelihood that FNL will be one of the series to resume production is of the slim to none-ish variety. Some are reporting that there is a chance, but I’d take that with a considerable amount of salt. As for a return next season, poorly media-trained NBC entertainment honcho Ben Silverman is not optimistic – he is about 30 Rock, and I can’t say I care a hell of a lot. So what can be done to save FNL? Probably nothing, but as this week’s return of Jericho proves, anything is possible in this changing TV landscape. I generally don’t participate in these efforts, but my faith in FNL is enough to motivate me. Best Week Ever is currently the hub of all things save-our-showy, so I encourage you all to check it out.

The season may be over, but I’ll definitely keep the updates coming as the efforts continue and the fate of Friday Night Lights becomes clearer.

Tyra Collette – The World’s Smallest Violin
Come on. As if that charming albino was ever going to choose a pixie-haired early 90s reject over the hotness that is Tyra. The revelation of her Landry love was long overdue, and the payoff was inevitable.

Julie Taylor – That Stain Will Never Come Out
Sure, her insecurity is legitimate. Her dad has his team, her mom has her team and they both have that bug-eyed baby to fawn over. There isn’t a whole lot of time in the Taylor house to dote on the unathletic, adolescent first born. Julie’s whining and angsty theatrics, though warranted and completely pivotal to her family dynamic, are still damn annoying.

Matt Saracen – Left at the Altar
My attention isn’t the only thing that’s abandoned poor Saracen this season. During a drunken confrontation with Coach Taylor, Matt went through the laundry list of people who’ve left him hanging. His father, his girlfriend, his coach, his other girlfriend, his grandmother’s lucidity… it just goes on and on. I’m wept a little, but mostly out of guilt. I’ve been so preoccupied with other characters this season – I accidentally left him too.

Brian “Smash” Williams – Cancer of the Puppy
If Matt’s bathroom breakdown didn’t dampen your ducts, Smash’s locker room speech and ensuing sob-fest probably did the trick. He lost his scholarship to TMU after he was suspended for the rest of the season, and I think he may have been the only one who was surprised. The real tragedy of the Friday Night Lights book and film was the futility of small town sports heroes. They have a lifetime’s worth of praise poured over them before their 18th birthdays, but then they end up going nowhere. The show has given us a taste of this with some of Dillon’s adults and with Jason Street’s catastrophic misfortune, but none of the current Panthers have ever faced the highly undramatic reality that playing ball after high school just isn’t always in the cards.

Smash’s fate is anything but sealed. Considering the unjust origins of his current situation, I really doubt he won’t find his way to TMU somehow. But when exactly will that happen? This Friday is it, folks… all they flippin’ wrote! After that it’s just the gaping abyss of uncertainty over a third season. 2008’s fairly nonexistent pilot season lends me to believe that FNL will probably see a junior year, but we won’t know for some time.

So last week poor Tim Riggins was finally on the up and up. He was no longer living with an overweight, nudist meth dealer, and he and Coach Taylor had found a symbiotic father/son rapport – something both of them desperately needed. Then, in a moment of true chivalry, Riggins pulled a slimy sophomore off of an intoxicated and lovelorn Julie and snuck her home so that her parents wouldn’t find out what a train wreck she’s become. Too bad Eric walked in right as Riggins was tucking the unconscious tart in and assumed he was taking advantage of her. He kicked him out of the house, and gave him one of his signature scary looks. The shunning continued this week, with the worst part being that Julie knew exactly what happened and was just too ashamed to tell her father. After a particularly tense half-hour, she did. Coach Taylor went to offer Riggins his mea culpas, but only after the sorrow had driven Tim to steal three grand from his drug-dealing former landlord. Bad, bad decisions. There was also the small matter of the game, the rival coach’s awkward breakdown, and Smash’s decision to go to college at conveniently located TMU (you know, should FNL get a third season), but the focus of these 2008 episodes has been on Riggins and Eric.

There’s no doubt that Riggins’ latest screw-up is going to frustrate me in upcoming episodes, but his lost boy complex makes it kind of excusable and a much easier pill to swallow than this season’s other curveballs. No, the only thing that will truly piss me off on Friday Night Lights is if they continue to completely ignore Jason Street. At least have him wheel by in a scene or two!

For the wayward Ghost Whisperer fan whose found their way to my humble blog, FNL is a show based on a movie, based on a book about the real life struggles of a small Texas football town. Clearly this far down in a game of industry telephone, the series is also based on all of no facts. It’s just a miraculously endearing portrait of handful of characters in what could have easily been an obnoxious teen soap or an incredibly boring sports show.

In 2007, FNL had frank portrayals of racism and the grieving process of the recently handicapped and the rarely explored sympathy for the high school golden boy. It may also be the only show in history whose scheduling banishment to Friday nights actually made me occasionally stay in. I’m that invested. I can’t help but feel that Friday Night Lights might not see it through the end of next year, but I’ll continue to write about it in hopes that either god or Ben Silverman ever happen upon it.

Now let’s take a moment to discuss subtlety. In all facets of art, subtlety is something frequently attempted, rarely achieved and sometimes, on the rarest of occasions, perfected. Friday Night Lights accomplished the latter in their first season, and, in doing so, royally screwed itself out of being anything but a disappointment to the majority of viewers in its sophomore year. They could have continued telling the story the way they had and risked boring the audience and stifling creatively, or they could take advantage of the fact that they’re a still just a TV show (yes, please keep that in mind) by changing the formula and taking more risks. They were truly damned either way, and now they’re under the inevitable fire that comes with deviating from the norm.

So what in particular warrants all of this hullabaloo? Increasingly snotty teenagers and a long distance relationship are high on the list, but it’s the bizarre Fried Green Tomatoes-ish accidental manslaughter/cover-up that’s really driving people up the wall. It is possibly the least predictable move they could have made. A means to drive two very different characters together, it doesn’t seem like the most natural choice, but it has served its purpose. The vagueness of the actual circumstances and the infrequency with which they choose to address it have also left it on the backburner. Like a disjointed Venn diagram, it doesn’t have any effect on the other stories or the show as a whole. Only a show with the style and skill of Friday Night Lights could make such a dramatic move and then act is if it were really nothing. Some watchers see this as a betrayal of the subtlety and realism that defined the first season. But real life is generally not as engaging as it was on the show last year. Real life is usually boring.

Reading criticism is fun. It can open a dialogue, help us better understand why we like the things we do or just help us kill time while we’re pretending to work. But when people are overly critical of something we love, it can be depressing and frustrating. Sometimes we’re better off looking the other way. Friday Night Lights is certainly different this season, and maybe it’s not as good as it was this time last year. The fact of the matter is that it would have to go pretty far downhill before it wasn’t still one of the most compelling things on television. And I don’t think that’s anything we need to worry about anytime soon.

It’s quite possibly the greatest thing since sliced bread (and by “sliced bread,” I mean Buffy, Veronica and Battlestar Galactica). After a successful season on and off the field, we pick them up again this evening, eight months later, in their new, more logical (if slightly annoying) Friday night timeslot. With all that time passed, things are not where we left them. Our protagonists are as physically and emotionally scattered as you could imagine. Characters have such complicated and interweaving relationships that you would think the show demanded the attention you normally reserve for French cinema, but it’s almost palate-cleansing in its crisp simplicity. It’s the easiest, most satisfying show to watch, and you can check out my full review of the season premiere over at Metromix.

FNL is not above criticism though. The season opener, while awesome, has an uncharacteristic plot twist towards the end of the episode. To be as vague as possible, it’s a little too I Know What You Did Last Summer. But if Friday Night Lights completely avoided the traps of high school TV melodrama in their first season, who’s to say they can’t embrace them a little in the much-deserved second? As long as they execute them with the quality we’ve grown accustomed to, I see nothing wrong with it.

Friday Night Lights airs Fridays at 9pm on NBC

My unadulterated love of Friday Night Lights is no secret. It’s one of the best shows on television and by far the greatest offering last season. FNL was thankfully renewed for a second season despite low numbers. But with nothing but positive buzz, why aren’t people watching? A lot of adults don’t watch because they think it’s a teen soap. It’s not. A lot of “culturally savvy” folks don’t watch because they think it’s about football. It is, but only to a small extent. If you like football, the general premise of FNL is sure to please. If you aren’t a fan, the sporty milieu is minor enough to not offend.

Today marks the DVD arrival of the first season, and NBC & Universal are pretty much doing everything within their respective powers to bring in new fans. All 22 episodes retail for $29.99, but almost everyone is selling them for $19.99. For less than the price of most complete season sets, you could buy two copies and recruit a friend. If you’re completely new to the show, there’s even a money back guarantee – though I can’t think of anyone needing to take advantage of it. Both of these initiatives are firsts in the world of TV on DVD.

I generally try to avoid shilling of any kind, but every copy of FNL sold is basically a new viewer, and every new viewer is another chance for one of my favorite shows to find a more secure spot on the airwaves. Catch up in time for the October 5^th premiere of the second season.

With just a few days separating us from the networks’ upfronts, next season’s schedules will soon be decided. So now is as good of a time as any to check in on our most beloved shows, whose fates are still so desperately up in the air…

-After finishing its stellar freshman season with an ever-increasing viewership and a champion in NBC pres Kevin Reilly, Friday Night Lights does seem favored to return. And if its status as TV critics’ biggest wet dream isn’t enough to make you think it’s getting renewed, all the reports of ordered scripts and internal pats on the back seem to guarantee another season of Panther football.

-Saying that How I Met Your Mother hit its stride in the second season might be the understatement of the century. More dependably funny than anything on NBC Thursdays, the lack of any word on a renewal is a disappointment, to say the least. Other fans and bloggers don’t seem to be concerned, but CBS is not a network that is known for making shows sweat it out this long. And though the identity of the Mother still remains a secret, enough subplots are being tied with a bow to make me wonder if the season finale could be excused for a series finale.

-It seems silly to talk about Veronica Mars, because reading and writing endless speculation makes me more anxious by the day, but there’s so much promising news this week that the tiniest iota of hope has formed in my cold, shriveled heart. And though Veronica in any form is better than no Veronica at all, I’m increasingly leery of the FBI scenario. The last two episodes have been so flawless, I honestly think keeping Veronica in college is the way to go.

-Though it might seem these are the only three shows I care about, the last two weeks have shown that what we all thought was guarantee, is now an unlikelihood. Negotiations for another season of Scrubs have stalled for some time now, and it seems NBC isn’t keen on forking up the cash for Zach Braff’s requested salary. The show’s seemingly climactic storyline of JD once again swooning for Elliot and the network’s vague marketing of the “final” episodes all insist that the end is nigh.

Time will tell, and there ain’t much of it, so check back next week for coverage and links on all things 07-08 season. Also keep an eye out for continued coverage of American Idol and evaluations of the How I Met Your Mother season (gasp, series?) finale and the likely disappointing sendoff to our beloved Gilmore Girls.

I don’t think I realized how terrible it would really be if Friday Night Lights wasn’t renewed until the credits rolled after last night’s season finale, and I was faced with the crushing possibility that that could be it. If that is all we get of this show, it will be a monumental tragedy. Though this week’s news of ordered scripts is promising, it’s not the green light I need to sleep well at night.

As season finales go, “State” was not without the prerequisite surprises, resolutions and cliffhangers. Among the shockers were Tami’s left-field pregnancy and the pre-State final slip of Coach Taylor’s decision to move to Austin and coach college ball. Along the way Lyla and Tyra reached some sort of understanding, Landry inched closer to the social acceptance he covets and Jason made the quickest emotional and physical rehabilitation of any quadriplegic in history. It may have served the plot better if the Panthers had lost the game, but after a season full of heartache and disappointment, the thought of leaving them as failures (like the movie did) would have been too terrible for this fan. For a show distinguished by its realism, taking the opportunity to be overly idealistic now and again is well-deserved. It’s still TV.

The first season of FNL was full of victories on and off the field, but nothing was as impressive as Connie Briton’s portrayal of Tami Taylor. Despite her strong relationship with her husband and her daughter, Tami was a quintessentially conflicted housewife. She felt a responsibility to living up to her roll as a football town’s coach’s wife, but she was desperate for something to call her own. If asserting her need to accept a job as guidance counselor at Dillon High was difficult for her in the beginning of the season, it must have been a completely different woman who, newly pregnant, told her husband that he had to follow his dreams in Austin but that her place was in Dillon. Though Eric’s mind-set about leaving for TMU is still a little ambiguous, his marriage won’t be in any trouble if he does move – if only for the fact that he knows he could never do better than Tami. And honestly, nor could anyone else.

Friday Night Lights has wavered in the ratings over the course of the season, but the quality has remained on a clearly upward trajectory. Charming and honest in its portrayals of big personalities desperate to rise above mundane small town life, the show’s refusal to go the melodramatic route of so many “teen soaps” makes me fall harder every week. With some of my favorite shows making some annoying missteps this season, I honestly think FNL was the best thing out there this year.

How I Met Your Mother turned out to be so much more than a post-Buffy vehicle for my weekly dose of Alyson Hannigan, it’s the funniest show on network TV. Defying expectations that it would exist solely in the shadow of Friends, HIMYM is more innovative and intelligent in its humor than its similarly themed predecessor ever was. The cast’s organic chemistry is palpable, and it’s nice to watch an ensemble where you know that none of the personalities will ever become bigger than the group.

Oh, Veronica Mars, how is it that we end up in the same place every year? With three seasons worth of chances to make a go of it, no real increase in viewership and some recent creative falters, I’d be lying if I said I was surprised by Veronica’s status as “likely doomed.” But I’m still not ready to say goodbye – especially if the show adopts the suggested flash-forward to Veronica’s career as an FBI agent. Both scary and exciting, a dramatic retool of Veronica Mars might be exactly what the show needs to finally find its footing.

In the end, I have to cast my vote for Veronica. We’ve been together the longest, and I honestly think she’s the only one with a real chance of cancellation. And though I have a great deal of faith in Kristin, I’m skeptical about some of her readers. Last year’s decision to save One Tree Hill was a vomit-inducing punch in the gut. So if any of the aforementioned three don’t find their way to the 2007-08 season because everyone votes for effing What About Brian, you can count on me launching a similarly themed, and severely less effective, Save One Deserving Show campaign next year.

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