Friday Night Lights: “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”
27 March 2009
by R.A. Porter
In Mo Ryan’s recap/preview of FNL’s third season she pointed out how much this season has replayed the greatest hits of season one.1 That’s certainly true, but is to be expected to a certain extent in a show about teenagers. After all, while it feels horribly unique and unprecedented when you’re living through it, age and perspective show us that the teenage experience is common across the generations.
Fathers and sons fight. Daughters grow into women. Our parents and grandparents grow smaller and feebler before our eyes.
But while I’m all for some repetition of themes and motifs, tonight actually irritated me. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar to you:
- QB1 has a public fight with his father, talks with Coach in the Taylor backyard about it.
- The boosters do something morally questionable and Coach goes along quietly.
- Matt has to deal with Grandma’s deteriorating mental health.
- A game is won in the final seconds.
- Lyla whines.2
- Tyra’s mom tells her she’s going to achieve all her dreams – college, a great life, everything.
I tricked you there, didn’t I? I mean, all the rest, sure, we’ve seen those before. But since when has Tyra’s mother ever thought Tyra should even *want* to do more? WTF?
This was a servicable episode, but it wasn’t particularly organic. The writers clearly have plans for the characters and moved them around the board tonight to get them positioned for the endgame. A show that shines when things are still was bogged down with bookkeeping and plot manipulation and I was sad to see it.
Only Matt’s story was emotionally gripping for me tonight and that’s just because Zach Gilford and Louanne Stephens grabbed their scenes and wouldn’t let go. I’ll miss the easy chemistry Matt and his Grandma have, both in lighthearted material and in the scenes that rip my heart out like tonight’s slippers breakdown. I have always felt like a voyeur into a real home whenever we get a scene in the Saracen house. That’s not true – for me, anyway – anywhere else in Dillon. Not even the Taylor’s bedroom.
On other fronts…
- Tyra improved her SAT scores only a fraction, but still no one thinks to suggest a year at a junior college would open a lot of doors for her.
- Mindy throws down one hell of a tea party. Kudos to Landry for his cuke-slicing.
- Joe McCoy really is a cardboard cutout of a villain. D.W. Moffett and Jeremy Sumpter have been criminally underutilized this season.
- I keep waiting for Riggins to do something stupid, but apparently that’s all behind him now.
- I keep waiting for Lyla to do something stupid, then I remember she sleeps in Riggins’ bed, so I can stop waiting.
- No mention of Wade taking over the team last week. That either means it’s been permanently dropped…or he’s being setup to be Eric’s primary rival for a potential season four when Dillon is partitioned.
As you no doubt have guessed, I liked this episode a lot less than the average for the season. It was obviously much better than any of the dross from last year, but the needs of plot got in the way of the character moments I care about. I hope the writers have put everyone where they need them for the final two episodes so we can get back to the meat of FNL. Let every storyline be as real as Matt’s.
What did everyone else think? Am I just being too negative tonight?
- And fortunately did NOT put any dead bodies in the trunks of cars. [↩]
- I’m kidding, of course. She does that EVERY episode. [↩]
posted by R.A. Porter in → Reviews
December 17th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Wow. I was way on the other end of the spectrum tonight. Loved loved this one. I know a lot of it was the same as stuff in the past, but I really felt like it gave “Hello, Goodbye” a run for best episode of the season. Maybe I’m getting sentimental because the end is near (and I mean for the series, not just the season — I’m a realist, no special knowledge!).
You’re right that a lot of the beats were familiar, but they were the good ones.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Wow. I was way on the other end of the spectrum tonight. Loved loved this one. I know a lot of it was the same as stuff in the past, but I really felt like it gave “Hello, Goodbye” a run for best episode of the season. Maybe I’m getting sentimental because the end is near (and I mean for the series, not just the season — I’m a realist, no special knowledge!).
You’re right that a lot of the beats were familiar, but they were the good ones.
Oh, and expanded thoughts (where I blabbered on about how much I loved it, ha) can be found here.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Chris, I hope you don't mind that I collapsed both your comments into one. For some reason IntenseDebate wouldn't display your first comment no matter what I did with it.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:48 am
r.a., thanks for setting me straight on why Aikman was a jerk. I completely missed where he was the one who called Joe about JD's attention straying in practice. I'm with Chris Littman on this one – v. strong episode, probably one of the best of this season. My heart was tugged by Grandma S falling out of the car, Grandma S and her slippers, Matt & his mom at the hospital, Buddy's realization of the optimality of Coach having bad information about future redistricting, Joe's beating of JD, JD's mom's reaction to the beating, JD's boyish confusion about what had happened with his Dad, Tyra's emotional "why can't I want that?", and Tyra's mom's speech. As you and others have pointed out, some of those emotional tugs might have been eerily similar to various high points in Season 1. I suspect this is a deliberate choice on the part of the writers. It's Dillon. It's a small town. The residents don't get exposed much to events and opportunities that would create significantly different storylines. The show has always been about subtlety and to introduce storylines that were all that different to what we saw in Season 1 would make the show more like a soap opera than like, well, FNL. (though I disagree with most folks about the quality of Season 2 – I thought there were considerable strong points during the season – I think we saw evidence of what happens by veering too far away from basic realistic storylines). In fact, I applaud the writers for the way they're not only setting some things up for change in a potential Season 4, but they are doing it in a way that I think reflects a natural development of what life would be like in Dillon. If those who decide FNL's Season 4 fate want storylines that in concept don't seem repetitive, I for one would be ok with the Season 3 finale being the end of the series. Ok, I take that back. I will *never* be ok with FNL ending.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Don't get me wrong. Everything Saracen related was amazing and tore me up inside, from Grandma getting out of the moving car to her slippers rant. Those two – three, really, mom's is doing a great job acting as well – were pure and perfect. And even if I do agree that people don't change much and often go through the same issues multiple times until they resolve them, it felt like every story last night was like that.
People get down on Tyra for making the same stupid choices to the point where her storylines are repetitive and uninteresting, but when ALL the stories are like that at once…it just struck me as off.
It doesn't help that I haven't liked JD McCoy. And I was touting Jeremy Sumpter from the first time I spotted him this season, having loved him in CBS's short-lived Clubhouse. I thought he'd really bring something special, but he's been pretty one-note, just wide eyed and naive, all season. I think he's basically had one scene where he showed any real verve, back in "How the Other Half Live" when he walked in on Matt and Julie in his trophy room. Otherwise, he's been a blank.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Interesting that your expectations about Sumpter have not been met. I had no expectations and the fact that he has played the role of J.D. as naive feels kind of right given Joe's way of shielding JD from the world for all of JD's life. That said, I agree that Sumpter has been somewhat one-note and if there was a Season 4, would hope that JD coming out of his naive shell would be full of storyline opportunities. On the direction of the show more generally, it almost feels like a football game to me – we all know the basic parameters, we all know those parameters are not going to change all that much from game-to-game, and the interest is in seeing how the players navigate different conflicts as they try to get a win in each game. I suspect the writers would have no trouble finding interesting twists on the basic parameters each week in a hypothetical Season 4. What would concern me is how they would actually make the snippet of the actual football game each week a relevant "player" in the show. There's only so many twists that i think the writers could pull in getting the Panthers over the line each week. This makes me worry about the show's future because I think most of the best episodes are when the football game permeates the characters' lives. For now though, I'm going to just savor episodes 12 and 13.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:19 am
This episode felt middling to me at best.
I can't believe, however, that you think this episode is "obviously better" than ANYTHING from season 2 of the show. Really? I've seen similar sentiments echoed on other websites, and I don't understand it. Did people just dismiss the whole of season 2 as soon as Landry killed somebody?
I agree with you–it's irritating to me when moments in season 3 begin to feel like watered-down rehashes of much more memorable scenes from season 1.
Personally, I think always holding FNL to its season 1-standard of reality means that things are going to be repeated. At this point, I much prefer when the show takes risks. Nothing here resonated for me as strongly as the fallout from Landry's murder, Tami's struggle to live without her husband, Street's futile quest to walk again, etc.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Maybe I am being too harsh in my assessment of season two, but it wasn't just Landry's story that was melodramatic. Let's not forget harpy-Julie or Tim in Mexico or born again-Lyla. I imagine I'll breakdown and buy season two on DVD at the same time I pick up this season. Maybe then I'll see it differently, but when I think back on it now, I just see mistake after soap opera mistake.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Definitely go read Chris's review for the opposing viewpoint. He's always got insightful things to say.
And like I said, it's cold and rainy and I'm Mr. Crankypants right now. Maybe this episode will seem better to me in a few days.
December 18th, 2008 at 7:01 am
No problem, gracias.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:11 am
I'm kind of in between on this one, but my one observation is my agreement that the McCoys needed more attention early in the season. There was a moment where Joe was listening to the other parent next to him, who was attacking JD, and where it felt like he was having to choose between defending or attacking his son. That was a moment of really intriguing self-reflection, but it felt like a thinly drawn moment of uncertainty before a 10m plunge into the depths of melodrama. They did better work with Matt's father, to draw into your parallel, if only because he had a justifiable reason for his behaviour: Joe McCoy is just a jerk, and a violent one for all intensive purposes, and that's a sign that the show has had to resort to villainy shorthand after spending so much time saying goodbye, perhaps justifiably, to Smash and Street.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:16 am
You know last week, I saw that scene in the McCoy's bedroom late at night differently from everyone else. I could have sworn when Joe said, "that little bastard," that he had a little smirk on his face, as though he wasn't completely opposed to JD stepping out. Of course, I was very wrong about that. He's 2-D and it's a shame.
Matt's dad's a decent man who just doesn't fit in in the civilian world or really know how to talk to his son. Joe's just a tool. They might as well give him a mustache to twirl at this point.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:21 am
I agree with Eric that Season 2 did take risks and wasn't that bad. I just loved the episode where Street dives overboard in Mexico. Consistent with r.a.'s soap opera argument though, I wasn't crazy about the Carlotta or Ferret Guy storylines and Julie wasn't at all enjoyable to watch as a brat. Season 3 has been much less risky and much more consistent with what it seems the writers originally set out to do – develop organic storylines where the subtlety is worth bottling. Interestingly, the fact that the show did not have network ratings breathing down its neck this fall probably allowed it the licence to return back to its roots. I really do hope this directv experiment works – if only the word of mouth this Fall could make a real difference. It could spurn some really brilliant tv series in years to come – including, fingers crossed, a Season 4 of FNL.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Yeah. I think DirecTV missed some opportunities to promote FNL, unfortunately. Maybe they were restrained by the contracts, but it seems they should have had the right to sell exclusive merchandise to subscribers. A lot of it. Where, for example, is my Dillon High varsity jacket?
That would have been good for DirecTV and good for NBC, when that free advertising hit the world. As it stands, all I've got is my Crucifictorious tee from the NBC-Uni store.
December 20th, 2008 at 11:42 am
You missed out 'Panthers play state semi final in horrible conditions', on your list on things we've seen before.
R.A, I don't how you can complain about Minka Kelly's acting and then praise Sumpter, who nearly ruined the scene outside the restaurant (by the way, I realize that it is product placement, but you'd swear from watching this show that applebees is the only restaurant in Dillon). I mean, at least Minka is nice to look at. Far as I'm concerned, the less lines Sumpter has, the better.
I thought the episode was good all round, with the expection of Tyra. But I've never liked her plotlines too much, so that shouldn't be read into too much
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:32 am
Don't get me wrong; I think Sumpter has been pretty poor on FNL. But I've seen him be good and had high expectations from him. Kelly, well, she's nice to look at.
December 30th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
R.A., just a heads up:
Here’s the latest on FNL ratings on DirecTV. Sorry to dig into an old post, but this was the most recent FNL one I saw.
March 27th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
[...] Original post: Friday Night Lights: “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” [...]
March 30th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
While Matt's dad didn't seem as extreme as Joe, and his character seems more multidimensional, I definitely was getting abusive power-and-control vibe from him, towards Matt, Grandma, and apparantly it was bad enough to drive Matt's mom away. I'll definitely agree that Joe is way too 2-D to be an interesting, complex character – which is a little disappointing for the show. They were able to humanize Matt's dad, after making me think that he was totally horrible and rotten, and they haven't even tried to do that for Joe (and he's been around long enough that they should have done that by now…).
June 27th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I just wanted to say thank you for such a great post. I’ll be visiting your blog again and adding you to my reader ! Thank you again
Thanks,
Denise