HOME |
DINING |
MOVIES |
LIVE SHOWS |
ARTS |
UPCOMING EVENTS
ARCHIVES |
ABOUT |
ADVERTISE |
CONTACT |
DISTRIBUTION
entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
<< Adult Swim (TV review)
|
Main
|
Video Games
>>
|
|
|
by rick grant
rickgrant01@comcast.net
After four episodes, FNL was on the brink of being cancelled. Despite well written scripts and top notch acting by a stellar cast, the series was struggling in the ratings. With Peter Berg and Brian Grazer as two of the five executive producers, the series got a reprieve when the network brass decided to order nine more episodes. The strategy is to give it more time to catch on, which rarely happens in today’s cut-throat broadcasting milieu.
|
|
Normally, if a series is not making decent numbers after four episodes, the ax falls. Now into it’s sixth episode, FNL is a quality product, and like the film, features the drama of a small town football team that is headed by a dedicated team guru, Coach Tyler (Kyle Chandler). He is working hard to develop a winning football team, while simultaneously teaching important life lessons to the boys. Connie Britton plays Coach Tyler’s wife, Tami Taylor, and Aimee Teegarden portrays the Tyler’s restless teenage daughter, Julie.
Not surprisingly, viewers wonder why the series wasn’t on the Friday night schedule. It seemed like a no-brainer. However, the scheduling wizards at NBC decided it would do better on the Tuesday night lineup. However, the series is up against NCIS on CBS, which is an established hit. One wonders what these nitwits were thinking. Nonetheless, this scheduling dilemma was made for one’s trusty DVR, which can record FNL while one watches NCIS or vice versa.
“I was confused about what was right for the team and what was right!” Zach Gifford’s character Matt Saracen says to Coach Tyler in regard to what he knew about a fight that left a student seriously injured. This righteous logic that Coach Tyler teaches the boys draws the viewer into the story. Coach Tyler’s life lessons show how important the football program is for these adolescent boys who need guidance and direction. In this respect, football is a metaphor for life’s slings and arrows, and ultimately, doing the right thing. More importantly, the extreme physical exertion of playing football acts as a safety valve for the testosterone addled boys to blow off steam. Otherwise, the boys would be beating the bejesus out of each other at the drop of a hat.
The serialized story line is character driven and exists on two fronts. First, Coach Tyler, his wife and daughter are featured as prominent characters in the story development. And second, the team members and their girlfriends’ endless dramas make meaty issues for the cumulative story arc. Scotty Porter plays the first-string quarterback, Jason Street. Gaius Charles portrays the feared running back Brian “Smash” Williams. Taylor Kitsch plays running back Tim Riggins. Zach Milford is the third string quarterback Matt Saracen. And, Minka Kelly plays Lyla Garrity, a Panther cheerleader and Jason Street’s girlfriend.
It’s important for viewers to realize the show is not about football per se, but the drama is set against the backdrop of the football team’s big game on Friday nights. When star player Street is injured and third-string quarterback Matt Saracen is called in off the bench, no one can predict that this team will be a contender for the championships. Behind the scenes, the scripts delve into the lives of the Tylers and the players. There are continuing conflicts, jealousies, back-stabbing girlfriends and all the tense drama one would expect from high school kids and their elders.
In the last episode, (6) there is fight and it is revealed that Tim Riggins is sleeping with his paralyzed best friend’s girlfriend. The aftermath of the fight ends up getting one of the star players kicked off the team because he lied about what happened to save his own skin. Of course, the actors are older than their characters, but it’s not distracting. Today’s high school kids are huge compared to earlier times.
Although kids mature physically earlier each decade, their emotional maturity takes much longer–in males, longer than females. That’s the point of this drama. Coach Tyler tries to instill a code of conduct in his football players that crosses over into their personal lives. All older teenagers feel grown-up and think they know it all, but they lack life experience. They haven’t yet learned what is right in the context of real life, as opposed to the narrow interval of their high school subculture.
|
|
