Brawls On and Off the Field
Eric hopes he can get his old job back. Kyle Chandler by Mitchell Haaseth/NBC
Episode Recap: "Are You Ready for Friday Night?"
Is this show about football or hockey? There was so many smackdowns (verbal and physical) tonight, that I think I'm forming bruises in sympathy. What does it say about a show when the characters who are doing the best at the moment are the ones who recently committed murder?
That's right, you Tyra and Landry fans - the deed has been done, is probably going to be done again. And it seems like they're genuinely in love. Dillon's former bad girl - who seems to have passed on her particular brand of anger to Julie, but more on which later - is in a relationship with a guy that respects her and won't take advantage, so it's just too bad that the entire foundation of their love is that they killed someone. Their watch-shopping scene was the sweetest and lightest of the night ("it really doesn't look anything like [the old watch] except that they are both watches and have hands and tell time"). Definitely a welcome respite from the gloom and doom that seems to have rolled into Dillon over the last 10 or so months.
The rest of the show was like a competition for Whose Life Sucks the Most. Tim certainly put in a strong showing for this category. He found out that his brother is sleeping with his much older ex-girlfriend, which turned him into a bigger drunk and eam screw-up. The love of his life, Lyla, rebuffed him even after he went to her mega-church, and his best friend Jason told him that he was, "disgusted" and "disappointed" in him. Despite all of this, Tim lost the title for WLStM when he decided to join Jason for the medical miracle tour down to Mexico. There was a certain peppery irony in Tim's predicament with his brother, considering his liaisons with Lyla from last season. I had to wonder if part of his downward spiral was the realization that seeing someone you care about sleep with someone else you care about really blows, for lack of a better word.
Next in contention, we had Matt Saracen. Freshly dumped by Julie for the Swede, out of favor with Coach McGregor, and
sans clean clothes, he took his anger out on Smash during the game, prompting a fight. If he didn't have the possibility of future love with his grandmother's live-in nurse, I would say that his life was heading down the drain. All of this drama almost makes you forget that his father is in Iraq and that his grandmother is losing her mind. As is so often said about situations on this show, if it weren't
FNL, Matt's storyline would seem theatrical and melodramatic. But it is
FNL and
Zach Gilford is an incredibly gifted and subtle actor.
The winners (a dubious honor in this unfortunate competition) this week had to be the Taylors. All of them. Eric's made it quite clear that he hates his job and being away from his family, Julie's making out with a van-driving pot-head, and Tami's going out of her mind. Slapping Julie destroyed her, and Julie's ridiculously harsh response ("You got rid of me when you got Gracie and Dad left. You need to learn to live with that") certainly didn't help matters. Actually, that scene pretty much destroyed me too. I love this show, but it certainly isn't easy on your nerves - which is exactly why we all love it.
Finally, what do we make of Buddy Garrity? He picked up Tim from the hospital and seems to have a plan to get Eric back in Dillon as head coach; quite the turnaround from last week's drunken disaster. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Wouldn't it be something, dear readers, if Buddy Garrity ended up being the savior of Dillon?
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