Friday Night Lights -- "In the Skin of a Lion" -- 11/11/09

[DJariya]

Synopsis:

Spoiler:

Financial matters come between Eric and Tami; the conflict between Vince and Luke affects the team; Riggins pitches in to help Eric condition the players; and Julie resists going to church.

Looking forward to this episode. I hate to see any conflict brewing between Eric and Tami, but you could see some tension from last week's episode.

[DJariya]

I saw someone asked this in a different thread, but the show won't premiere on NBC until 2010. Most likely Summer. NBC said the ratings aren't good enough for air during the regular season.

[Septemberbaby]

Can someone please tell me where Luke went to school last year?
How come he's never met Tim Riggins?
Is he supposed to be a freshman?



I'm not loving the amount of time they're investing in the Matt/Richard relationship. We get it: He's a crazy drunk gifted artist. We only have 13 episodes ... Let's move on already.

[DJariya]

Regarding Matt:

Spoiler:

He will be farewell on episode 7

[Red Dog]

at the field goal 'attempt.'

I'm not loving the amount of time they're investing in the Matt/Richard relationship.

I agree.

[uteotw]

Amazing how far Coach has fallen, from State champ local town hero to outcast with a horrible team in a program that may be cut (though we know it won't). Lying to his wife to buy uniforms, supposed to be happy for actually finishing a game and getting a single touchdown (though his expression clearly showed he wasn't).

LOVED the Buddy speech: Glad he told 'em all off and it'll be interesting to see where they go with that.

Agree 100% on the Matt stuff. Too much already...

[Septemberbaby]

I'm not the only one confused about where Luke came from.

Sepinwall's Review

[writer106]

Originally Posted by Septemberbaby

Can someone please tell me where Luke went to school last year?
How come he's never met Tim Riggins?
Is he supposed to be a freshman?



I'm not loving the amount of time they're investing in the Matt/Richard relationship. We get it: He's a crazy drunk gifted artist. We only have 13 episodes ... Let's move on already.

I have wondered about Luke's age too. I think he supposed to be a freshman.
I also really don't care for the Matt/Richard relationship.

[writer106]

Originally Posted by uteotw

Amazing how far Coach has fallen, from State champ local town hero to outcast with a horrible team in a program that may be cut (though we know it won't). Lying to his wife to buy uniforms, supposed to be happy for actually finishing a game and getting a single touchdown (though his expression clearly showed he wasn't).

LOVED the Buddy speech: Glad he told 'em all off and it'll be interesting to see where they go with that.

Agree 100% on the Matt stuff. Too much already...

I loved Buddy's speech too. I think Buddy will probably hang out more with Taylor and the Lions and he will try to get more support for the team and probably get the parents at East Dillon to get more into supporting the football program. But I also see Joe getting revenge on Buddy at some point.

[slop101]

I'm not liking the way that they're forcing the underdog angle for East Dillon. Way too contrived and obvious. This show's better than that.

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by slop101

I'm not liking the way that they're forcing the underdog angle for East Dillon. Way too contrived and obvious. This show's better than that.

I agree.

The whole split town thing is way too contrived. It basically split along income and race lines, which seems awfully convenient. They make East Dillon look like a black school in the South from the early 50s while you have the equivalent of West Beverly High right next door.

IMO, it would have been much better (and believable) with a split where there wasn't so much disparity and townpeople (particularly long time town residents w/o children in the program - like Buddy) truly conflicted over which team to follow.

[boredsilly]

I actually like the Bad News Bears aspect of this season. It sure is contrived, but I think it's fun how I'm now totally rooting against the Panthers. It had to be tough for the writers to not have the Panthers go to State every year, so now the "big" game will probably just be the East v West game.

I really hope they're setting up Madison to play a little sister role to Tim, instead of a romantic one. She's adorable, and damn well might be in her mid 20s, but she looks like a baby next to the Taylor. I'm trying to find out how old the actress who plays Madison is, but her IMDB page is lacking, but she plays her like a 14 year old.

[dan30oly]

I believe someone said in another FNL thread that she just graduated last year - so 18, or 19.

[MrX]

I'd like to know what the Taylor's are spending their money on so that they can't cover a $3,000 check.

[mytzplyx]

Probably not in checking. They probably have money in a savings account.

[DJariya]

You know I don't have any problems with the new story about East Dillon, except mayne the racial color lines aspect. Other than that, I prefer not to look at this situation as a "Underdog" angle, but more as a rebuilding situation....but actually from nothing. I may be naive, but IMO I don't think there is anything contrived or too convenient about it. At least the plots are focused on football and what Eric needs to do to help this program succeed. You could understand the stress and pressure that Eric is going through. He's trying to build a team from nothing with no money going into it and with his job at serious risk.

I do think they are spending a little too much time with Matt and the psycho artist. The writers did a much better job with how they handled Street and Smash's exits. Now it appears that Dickhead artist is making Julie feel guilty about Matt not taking that scholarship in Chicago.

Loved Buddy's speech. You could already sense that he was losing his mind.

[JuryDuty]

Originally Posted by MrX

I'd like to know what the Taylor's are spending their money on so that they can't cover a $3,000 check.

I took it as though she was saying they didn't have the money set aside in checking right then. Given their salaries, especially Coach's deteriorating salary, I'd suspect them to be living modestly and have a couple thousand in their checking at any given time. A surprise $3k check would throw off their finances. And remember, in the end, she wasn't upset--she made it work--she just didn't like the surprise of not knowing for their finances.

[SexualPudding]

Originally Posted by boredsilly

I actually like the Bad News Bears aspect of this season. It sure is contrived, but I think it's fun how I'm now totally rooting against the Panthers. It had to be tough for the writers to not have the Panthers go to State every year, so now the "big" game will probably just be the East v West game.

I really hope they're setting up Madison to play a little sister role to Tim, instead of a romantic one. She's adorable, and damn well might be in her mid 20s, but she looks like a baby next to the Taylor. I'm trying to find out how old the actress who plays Madison is, but her IMDB page is lacking, but she plays her like a 14 year old.

I believe Madison is the name of the actress. Her character's name is Becky.

[SexualPudding]

Originally Posted by DJariya

You know I don't have any problems with the new story about East Dillon, except mayne the racial color lines aspect. Other than that, I prefer not to look at this situation as a "Underdog" angle, but more as a rebuilding situation....but actually from nothing. I may be naive, but IMO I don't think there is anything contrived or too convenient about it. At least the plots are focused on football and what Eric needs to do to help this program succeed. You could understand the stress and pressure that Eric is going through. He's trying to build a team from nothing with no money going into it and with his job at serious risk.

I do think they are spending a little too much time with Matt and the psycho artist. The writers did a much better job with how they handled Street and Smash's exits. Now it appears that Dickhead artist is making Julie feel guilty about Matt not taking that scholarship in Chicago.

Loved Buddy's speech. You could already sense that he was losing his mind.

I think the writing of the show on the whole is often a bit too contrived and convenient. It is usually pretty easy to overlook since there are so many truly great moments and scenes wrapped around all of it, but at times it really sticks out to me. The East Dillon=good, original Dillon=evil thing is just coming across as way too forced. We don't need to be hit over the head with it quite so hard for them to drive the point home. Look at the opening montage from this week's episode. It could have been taken straight out of the movie Dangerous Minds. They are making East Dillon come across as way too "ghetto" for my tastes.

Even the stuff with Matt seems too "paint by numbers." They are quickly starting to sever everything that ties him to Dillon so that he will have no real reason to stay anymore. The artist has begun driving a wedge between Matt and Julie, and I can sense something is probably going to happen with poor ol' Grandma soon to give him one less reason to hang around. Sure, things like that have to happen if he is being written out of the show, but it all comes across as being lazy and too rudimentary from a storytelling standpoint. The show has been so good most of the time that I guess I just have come to expect a bit more.

[boredsilly]

Matt doesn't feel like he belongs on the show anymore. He really should be in Chicago. His inclusion in this season felt like a last minute thing to me. I mean he had his Mom willing to help and his Grandma in a home, and yet here he is. I get he doesn't want to leave her behind, but still.

I'm not even really that crazy about Tim still being on the show. He's a good vessel to follow the "life after football" storyline, but that really hasn't taken off yet. I'm surprised Coach didn't try to make him go back to school, or even really bring it up.

[DJariya]

Bump

This is the episode airing tonight on NBC.

I bumped the thread for episode 2 last week, but I guess the NBC viewers here didn't watch or forgot about it. It's too bad that these episodes already aired months ago and some of the people here already saw them via Directv or other means.

[redrum]

i watched it, enjoyed it

will watch this one prolly on hulu

[DJariya]

Preview for Y'All on NBC (as Tami would say)

[DJariya]

http://tvshowsondvd.com/n/13787

The DVD for Season 4 is coming out August 17th. I know most of you are BR nuts, but there is no mention of a BR release. The MSRP is once again very nice...$29.98. It's probably going to be $19.99 to $24.99 on release week. Will definitely be picking this up as I have all the seasons thus far.

[Bluelitespecial]

I would love a bluray release for FNL, but it doesn't bother me since all the seasons have just been released on dvd. I hope there will at least be a few extras for S4.