OK, so this isn’t exactly the type of football show that makes you want to pull out your old Jock Jams CD, but what an opener. I just knew from the start when I saw Jason Street getting interviewed that this too-good-to-be-true life wasn’t going to last till the end of the episode, a feeling that increased as his parents spoke with the recruiter. That said, it was still hard not to be shocked when he couldn’t get up after slamming into the guy on the other team. But how wonderful was it to see Matt Saracen actually get a chance to play? The horror-stricken face as he was called up may have been the most true-to-life moment in this episode.In that vein, there are few shows that hit the ground with such a lived-in quality, but this is definitely one of them. We’ve managed to get some histories (Coach Taylor has coached Jason since PeeWee, Smash and Tim Riggins really hate each other) without it seeming forced or contrived. Riggins’ line regarding Smash that, ...
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OK, that headline may overstate the case a bit, but I do think this is the most important week yet of the new TV season, introducing several of the year’s very best new and returning series.Tonight (Tuesday) brings us the premiere of NBC’s wonderful, soul-stirring new drama Friday Night Lights. Don’t let the football backdrop throw you. This show, inspired by the book and movie about a small-town Texas high-school football team and the community that hangs on its every victory — or, God help the coach, defeat — etches an intimate, searing, authentically emotional portrait of American life. It is so rare these days to see a show built around everyday people: their passions, frustrations, beliefs (religion is a major undercurrent here, never patronized or exploited), along with the tensions of race and class conflict.As the embattled new head coach, Kyle Chandler has never been better. (Connie Britton, repeating her role from the movie as his wife, is equally ...
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Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler is exec-producing Super Scout, an animated pilot for Nickelodeon for which she will voice an obsessive Girl Scout-type, Variety reports.... Connie Britton will star opposite Kyle Chandler in NBC's TV take on Friday Night Lights — making me worry about the fate of Jack's Bakersfield booty call on 24.... Meet the Parents' Teri Polo will topline CBS' Welcome to the Jungle Gym, playing a TV journo and part-time stay-at-home mom.... Nancy Travis and Spy Kids' Daryl Sabara will play a single mother and her son on TBS' Boy's Life.
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With Season 5 now less than a month away, Fox's 24 has announced two more hires: Two-time Tony Award nominee Jayne Atkinson will fill the role of Homeland Security official Karen Hayes, while Tony winner Stephen Spinella will play her subordinate, Miles. These additions, mind you, are in addition to Connie Britton as Jack's new honey, Sean Astin as a CTUer, Julian Sands as a baddie named Bierko, Jean Smart as President Doofball Logan's wife, and Peter Weller and JoBeth Williams as a federal agent and his wife. These new folks are so gonna steal time from my "Chloedgar" romance, aren't they?
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Question: Got any scoop on 24? Tumbleweeds are blowing across!
Answer: Not much more to tell aside from what was announced last week: The fifth day — kicking off with a four-hour, two-night premiere on Jan. 8 and 9 — picks up 18 months later, with Jack leading a secret life with new squeeze Diane (Connie Britton) and her son Derek (Brady Corbet). And over at CTU, Bill, Curtis, Edgar and Chloe will be joined by recovering hobbit Sean Astin, who is joining the cast.
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