(Spoiler alert) I just ...
Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Question: (Spoiler alert) I just watched the season premiere of
Friday Night Lights online and really liked it up until one point late in the episode. (I'm sure you know where I'm heading here!) I don't want to give anything away, but there's a storyline that's going to be really divisive to the show's fanbase. What was your reaction to the big "twist" near the end? I was watching it with three people and we all literally groaned. To me, it yanks a show that's built on a very effective, realistic feel into the realm of contrived, melodramatic plot devices. Why did they have to go there? There's so much to explore in the very real relationships of the two characters involved that mucking up the waters with this inescapably huge event feels not only unnecessary but actually disruptive. I really want
Friday Night Lights to survive — I'm fine with the obvious attempts to "sex it up" (like starting us out with a swimsuit scene) — but I don't really want to watch these characters struggling with
Law & Order or Lifetime Movie of the Week crime-based moral quandaries. I don't want it to lose what's special about it in a quest for better ratings. The rest of it is so good that I'll continue watching, but I may have to pretend everything related to this twist is one big dream sequence. Do you think this was a good move on the show's part?
Answer: In a perfect world, we could delay discussion of this troublesome twist until the show premieres this Friday. But since NBC has opened the door by making the episode available early to enterprising fans (and to fellow critics, some of whom have already posted cries of alarm), I will reluctantly enter the fray. (By the way, the photo accompanying this column is of the characters who are not a part of this controversy and who in the season premiere are once again unfailingly superb. How did the Emmys ever fail to recognize
Kyle Chandler and
Connie Britton?) Without giving anything away to those who choose to stay in the dark until the episode airs, let's just say that something very bad happens to two very strong characters who seem to make a very bad choice, and the way the story initially plays out plunges a show noted for its painstaking realism into a detour down a dark film-noir/soap-opera alley. Even though I had figured out that this was probably going to happen after reading some reporting on the show over the summer months, I still don't approve of the tonal disconnect, alhough I can understand the desire (on the part of the producers, studio or network) to inject a bit of heightened storytelling and suspense into the slice-of-life proceedings. It's not bad enough to ruin the show for me, in part because nearly everything else is so sublime, including anything involving Coach and Tami Taylor, Julie and Matt, the friction with the new Panthers coach and so on. The material in the premiere involving Lila's religious conversion also felt heavy-handed to me, but again, not enough to make me turn. What remains to be seen is how the show's one melodramatic subplot develops and whether it takes over the series and these characters. I doubt that it will, and as a reminder, don't come here looking for jump-the-shark affirmations. I don't play that game.
