Archive for the ‘friday night lights’ Category

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Friday Night Lights: Buy It… Buy It Now.

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

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 5th premiere of the second season.

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Almost Upfronts: Waiting’s a Bitch

Wednesday, May 9th, 2007

waiting!

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.

Posted in cbs, friday night lights, how i met your mother, nbc, scrubs, the cw, upfronts, veronica mars | No Comments »

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

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.

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Save One Show… or Three

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

Save One ShowEach year Kristin Veitch, who effusively writes about TV over at E! Online, tallies up the 15-or-so shows that are flirting with (or begging for) cancellation. Her readership of rabid super-fans is given the opportunity to vote for the ONE they are most interested in seeing return next season, and then Kristin spends the next month exhausting all of her industry connections to ensure that the chosen program is spared the guillotine. She is almost always successful, with only one show not being renewed in the last six years. So while I’d like to save all of my shows, here are the three I feel to be most deserving of her fervent campaigning:

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.

save MY shows!

Posted in friday night lights, how i met your mother, veronica mars | No Comments »

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