High-school football is back in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, and — as usual — the wins and losses will be equally important off the field. If there is one thing Friday Night Lights has proven, it’s that the game of life is a lot harder than the game of football. On the cusp of the season premiere, TV critic Alex Strachan and arts editor Chris Lackner call the plays for show’s fifth and final season.

CL: Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose! The FNL football mantra sums up exactly how I feel about this series as it heads into its final season — a show that has offered more heart and genuine human moments than any show on television over the last four years. While the fifth season aired on DirecTV in the U.S. this fall, FNL is back for regular cable audiences in Canada and south of the border. I’ve tried to avoid all mention of the show’s early run, so as not to spoil the surprise. Any early thoughts on how you expect the final season to play out, Alex? Any burning questions you feel the series needs to answer as the clock ticks down?

AS: Like you, I’ve studiously avoided all mentions of the season’s early run on DirecTV.

As for the big questions I want answered, there’s really just one: Will Tim Riggins, who sacrificed an awful lot for his brother, ever find peace and stability in his life? Most of the other, more talented kids have their futures ahead of them, and it’s on them whether they succeed or fail. Tim is the one person who seemed plagued by bad luck and lousy circumstances, beyond his own bad choices. Flipping your question around, is there any way you don’t want FNL to end? Is there anything that could happen that could conceivably wreck the whole series for you?

CL: Two things come to mind. Tim Riggins is certainly first and foremost in fans’ minds (especially the swooning females) when it comes to characters who deserve not only a break, but a true happy ending. He makes stupid decisions, yes, but Tim has always had an honourable moral compass beneath all the self-destruction. My fear is that the series will end on in implausible, cheesy note for Tim. Maybe the Taylors will move on to a new city (with Coach Taylor taking a job with a college team), leaving a paroled Tim as either the Lions’ or Panthers’ new coach heir-apparent. But I want Tim to realize that he is more than just a football talent, and that he can achieve in others areas of life than the field. I think he needs to find his own path — whether inside Dillon or far away from it. And that brings me to a related point: I also feel like it will be a cop-out if Coach Taylor leaves the Dillon Lions for college glory. Obviously, the team will continue to improve this year, if not contend. It would not seem very Eric Taylor-esque to make a group of young men believe in themselves and then abandon them for his own career ambitions.

The season also promises return guest appearances from every major former character. Alex, who was your favourite cast member to leave the show? And do you have any predictions on how FNL will say goodbye to Matt, Lyla, Smash and/or Tyra?

AS: Adrianne Palicki’s Tyra Collette is the one I’m most curious about. Her storyline is a cautionary tale for anyone who’s inclined, as I am sometimes, to make snap judgments while watching something live on TV. At the time, the whole Tyra bad-girl/rape/murder/redemption storyline gave me the willies. It seemed ill-conceived and jarring, like it was grafted on from a totally different show. I remember thinking — at the time — that it came close to derailing FNL‘s entire second season. And I wasn’t alone in thinking that. And yet, as the season went on, and in the season that followed, Tyra’s struggle to become literate, to better herself, and her constant failing and having to pick herself up again, are some of the strongest, most poignant memories I’ll take from the whole show. Now that she has graduated and was admitted to the U. of Texas-Austin — barely — I’m curious to see what’s happened to her.

CL: For me, I’d just like one more glimpse into the man Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) is becoming. Another perpetually hard-luck teenager with a good heart, except, unlike Tim, the calamities and hurdles he was forced to endure were rarely of his own making. From his varied challenges on the field, to an absentee mother and father, to caring for his deteriorating grandmother, I’ll miss his presence as a cast regular. Gilford’s performance in Season 4 after his soldier father died in Iraq should have earned him an Emmy. I’d like to see him further along the path to a successful career as an artist — far away from Dillon — and without a cliched romantic reunion with the coach’s daughter. (FNL‘s success has always been grounded in the real, and the latter kind of fairy-tale ending would not do it justice; sorry folks, real teenagers have their first loves and then move on.)

With Saracen no longer in Dillon and Tim in jail, emerging star quarterback Vince (Michael B. Jordan) seems poised to be front and centre this season. Will he put the gangster world behind him forever? How will his ego reach to his growing success on the field, and what other issues will Coach Taylor face as he tries, yet again, to mould a flawed boy into a man? Any thoughts on Vince, Alex? Or on how the Dillon Lions will do this season on the field?

AS: If I were to guess, I’d say the season could well pivot on Vince’s shoulders — both the QB situation, and the situation with the show itself. Vince is the kind of player Coach Taylor always had the most trouble with, personally and coaching-wise: a star athlete with a lot of growing up to do. I can’t help thinking it would be better for the show to have Coach Taylor lose one of his projects for once, but I don’t believe that will happen. To the extent that FNL can be accused of playing it safe, I think the coach will always succeed in the end.

I remember the pilot episode, when Dillon Panthers won a game at the very end that they had no business winning. The moment struck me as overly “Hollywood,” and I always thought it would have been better for the show if the team had lost that pivotal game. I was proven wrong, then, and I may be proven wrong again. It doesn’t really matter to me how the Dillon Lions do this season — I’m much more invested in the family/friends dynamic — but, if the past is anything to go by, I suspect the Lions will win every big game they play. That’s just Hollywood. Something we haven’t touched on, by the way: What do you think of the way FNL has portrayed economic malaise in small-town America, or small-town Anywhere, for that matter? That was always one of the things I think that set FNL apart: It’s just about the only prime-time network drama I can think of that shows ordinary, everyday working people struggling to get by during an economic meltdown.

CL: Quite right; I’ve always admired that aspect of the show. A cast of characters struggling to pay bills, find work and, in many cases, simply stay afloat; and teenagers whose lives aren’t spent in designer clothes, fancy cars and fancy locales.

We live in an age where it’s far easier to sell teen audiences on something like Gossip Girl, and equally glamorous fiction and reality TV to adults. That said, perhaps my only criticism of FNL would be that sometimes it has felt like a “Texas town” through the eyes of liberal, urban scriptwriters (albeit very talented ones). Some plot lines (for example, Vince’s criminal past and life with a negligent, alcoholic mother in largely black projects) can seem a little long on cliche — even when they do work on an emotional level. But I stand by my stance that few shows have matched FNL, play for play during its run, or look likely to do so in the near future. Any final thoughts on what the lasting legacy of FNL will be and how it will stand up to the test of time?

AS: Yes, FNL‘s look at a “Texas town” through the eyes of liberal, urban screenwriters was never more evident than in last season’s, for me, most heart-wrenching, and brave, storyline: Becky Sproles finding herself pregnant with a football player’s baby and wrestling with the decision whether to have an abortion or carry the baby to term. Abortion isn’t just a hot-button issue in the U.S. culture wars right now; there are times when it seems to be the issue. What I found unique about that whole storyline was the way the writers, liberals or not, addressed the issue without bringing a blatant agenda to it, even though you know the liberal, urban read on abortion is pro-choice all the way. Becky was scared and really didn’t know what to do. Her boyfriend, while caring, was basically passive about the whole affair, and so Becky went to Tami Taylor and Coach Taylor for advice, not because she trusted them, but because she had nowhere else to go. That’s pretty profound, for a simple, popular-entertainment TV program, and it neatly summed up what I think made FNL special all these years.

How will it be remembered? The ratings were never high. FNL’s following, while passionate and devoted, never turned the show into a a big, mainstream hit like Beverly Hills, 90210 and Dawson’s Creek. But — and this is the key, I think — thanks to DVDs, online libraries and TV’s growing sense of its past, its history and its legacy (the Peabodys, the Humanitas Prize, the Paley Center for Media, the Museum of Television & Radio, etc.) — I suspect what will happen is that FNL will become one of those long-remembered, well-respected family dramas like I’ll Fly Away, James at 15 and My So-Called Life. Those are shows that never rocked in the ratings, but which are remembered today as being some of the best TV of their kind. Here’s the potential test: My So-Called Life gave us Claire Danes. How many serious, big-time film actors and actresses could FNL give us? My guess is, plenty. More than one, anyway. Clear eyes can’t lose, indeed.

Friday Night Lights premieres Wednesday, April 13 on Global 10 p.m. ET/PT; April 15 on NBC at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

   

Share