I will not accept the fact that Friday Night Lights is wavering in its realism until one of the many scenes at the Dillon Applebee’s is punctuated with a sassy comment from a Red Delicious voiced by Wanda Sykes. That said, last week’s tornado and this week’s thievery coming so hot on the heels of the insta-resolution murder plot is not doing much for my faith in the story supervisors. What makes that crying shame a little less teary is that the bread and butter of Friday Night Lights is not suffering for the more sensational storylines. The interactions between characters and the gradual developments in their relationships are strong as ever – just set against some commercial-friendly clips of firearms and CGI funnel clouds.
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!