Friday Night Lights, episode 1.6: "El Accidente"

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Git Er Done again. Not having seen it since it aired, it struck me this time as the first episode since the pilot where the show felt almost wholly confident about what it did well. El Accidente, though, finds the show indulging in a more schematic, self-contained story in which characters learn valuable lessons. There's nothing wrong with the execution, but it's not as thrilling as the show can be when it is doing more complicated things.

Coach Taylor finds himself negotiating two sets of other people’s lies. Buddy has told the district athletic commission that Voodoo Tatum had been a Dillon resident for 30 full days before he joined the team. The truth, that Tatum had been in town two weeks before starting against Arnett Mead, would result in Tatum being deemed ineligible and the game’s outcome reversed. Eric isn’t happy about being implicated in the lie, but he’s willing to sit quietly and let Buddy tell the commission (represented by one of Buddy’s old University of Texas teammates) whatever he has to protect the team and their victory. Eric is also willing to not ask too many questions when his star safety, Bobby Reyes, tells a series of lies to justify having assaulted one of Saracen’s nerdy friends.

The episode’s other storyline is much better. Riggins finally goes to visit Street in rehab and, after his old friend shames him for abandoning him for so long, takes him (along with Lyla) out for a joyride and evening spent on the lake. There’s a lot in these scenes that the show is great at: showing characters just being familiar with each other, caring about each other, making heartfelt declarations to each other, goofing off with each other, etc.

These scenes are also surprisingly graphic about detailing Jason’s new life. A few shots show the surgery scar running down his neck. There’s also a fleeting shot of the bag collecting his urine peeking out from under his sweat pant leg like a sock. He describes his day as consisting of lying in a bed, being poked and prodded, having catheters replaced, and teaching his body to “crap on cue.” He’s thrilled that he can still get an erection, but quickly deflated when he’s told that ejaculating can cause semen to backflow into his bladder, giving him a severe urinary tract infection. These sorts of details make the Reyes/Tatum storylines (“There’s what’s right for the team, and there’s what’s right”) seem a little trite.

Other thoughts on this episode

• There are hints of the future version of Tim Riggins in this episode. He’s mischievous and funny in most of his scenes with Jason, and it suits the character and/or Taylor Kitsch much more than the dark and brooding version of Tim Riggins.
• The only downside to the scenes between Jason, Tim and Lyla is Tim’s totally inappropriate obsession with Lyla. While she seems relatively practical and mature, and also regretful, about their affair, she's also clear that it needs to end and never be spoken of again. Tim seems to think they’re having some kind of romance. Lyla’s exasperation with him is totally understandable.
• Her scene in the guidance counselor’s office with Tyra is the first time we learn anything biographical about Tami: that she was the pretty girl in school and was bad at math. Revealing little bits of her past like this is going to be a somewhat regular strategy for establishing rapport with someone in trouble (generally either Tyra or Julie).

Trivia/Historic Moments

• Voodoo gets fed up with Eric’s new preference for Saracen at QB (even though, practicing on defense, Tatum knocks down his passes) and tells a local reporter about his illegal recruitment before leaving town. Buddy reports that his school in New Orleans has re-opened, though the next time we see him he’s playing for another Texas school.
• Buddy played defense as a UT Longhorn
• When Tami confronts Eric about how he’s going to handle the situation with Reyes he gets defensive and asks if he’s talking to his wife or the school guidance counselor, and exchange that gets repeated and extended in the episode “Black Eyes and Broken Hearts,” though Tami regularly serves as his guidance counselor, too.

Notable Music

• Explosions in the Sky, "Inside it All Feels the Same" (As Jason, Lyla and Tim relax at the lake, Tami and Eric drink wine together at home) (Replaced for the DVD)

Friday Night Lights, episode 1.5: "Git Er Done"

We learn a little about Dillon, Texas in this episode: it has oil fields that have been sitting idle for some time. We learn this from Connor, who's in town to oversee a feasibility study on behalf of an investment bank possibly interested in re-opening them and. He also strikes up a flirtation with Tyra. Tyra is so disdainful of the town, and of the people in it, that she gravitates toward the young, successful handsome guy from somewhere else.

Dillon has had a series of oil boom-and-busts that apparently ruined a good number of people in town, including Tyra's father (as far as I remember, this is all we ever learn of him). The oil rushes and the cycles of big wealth and big losses are the first clear parallels between Dillon and Odessa, and both the book and Tyra use drug metaphors to describe the town's behavior during the boom times. Connor never talks about what he learns from his geologists, but we can probably surmise something about Dillon's future by how he cuts his trip short and heads back to Los Angeles. Not to spoil anything, but nobody ever comes to re-open the oil fields.

In the rehab center, Herc takes Jason to see his possible future: quad rugby, a chance to be an athlete again.

Voodoo Tatum is also thinking about the future. In the only scene that ever elicits any sympathy for him, he tells Eric how unhappy he is in this new town, in this new school, with this new food, this new weather, and with how people keep going on about Texas; he wants to go home, to Louisiana, and getting noticed on the field and winning a scholarship to LSU is his best chance. He's got talent to go places while Eric, since losing Jason Street, is struggling to hang on to his job; the two of them, according to Voodoo, are a marriage of convenience, nothing more.

Still, though, Tatum makes no effort to work with Eric or even befriend his teammates. His talent alone wins him the start against Arnett Mead, and his touchdown wins him a reprieve from Eric for having called his own play. When he does it again, and the result is a touchdown interception, Eric jumps at his chance to pull him for Saracen.

The morning after Saracen leads the Panthers to a come-from-behind victory against their arch-rivals, Eric is beloved by Dillon. He's stopped in the street for handshakes, hugs, and well-wishes. The tension between him and Mac that's been hinted at (and is elaborated upon somewhat in a deleted scene) evaporates, Buddy seems warmed up to him, and his Saturday morning press conference, in contrast to the one following the South Milbank game, seems very friendly.

Even with the district officials in town to investigate Tatum's eligibility, Eric's place seems a little more secure in Dillon. Jason's discovery of quad rugby seems to have energized him, too; he gets up early to work out by himself. The same morning, Tyra is waking up in Connor's room and learning that he's going back to Los Angeles, and his ladyfriend, without her. Eric has earned the right to stay, but if Jason and Tyra ever want to get out, they'll have to earn that for themselves, too.

Some other thoughts

• Lyla is a straight-A student but her college plans have always depended on where Jason ended up playing football and, to Tami's distress, they still do. Tami's suggestion to her, that she should have future plans that aren't contingent on following her boyfriend, is ultimately what Julie will do in the fourth season when she's invited to follow a boyfriend someplace.

Trivia

• Herc was once a runner, and his injury is the same as Jason's: C7, T1. I looked this up on the internet, but couldn't figure out exactly what it means; I saw more references to nerves than vertebrae.
  
• Herc's real name is Vincent Gossler (deleted scene, see below)
• There are 16,000 people at the Dillon-Arnett Mead game.
• The band playing over the opening scene, Heartless Bastards, is who Julie and Matt travel to Austin to see at a music festival in season 4.
  

Notable Music

• Camera Obscure, "Let's Get Out of This Country" (as Tyra wakes up, the Taylors eat breakfast and Jason works alone on his rehab Saturday morning)
• Explosions in the Sky, "Look Into the Air" (as the team visits Jason on the way to the Arnett Mead game) (Replaced on the DVD)
• Explosions in the Sky, "With Tires Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept" (as the Panthers stage their comeback to win the game) (Replaced on the DVD)
• Heartless Bastards, "All This Time" (as Lyla dresses and jogs over to Tim's)
  

Deleted scenes

• A sequence in which: Smash brags on how he's going to win the game; Landry gets shot down by a girl he tries flirting with; Arnett Mead guys who beat up Matt in the last episode vandalize the diner; Eric and Tami go out to dinner and run into Mac and Buddy having a drink together; Riggins, Smash and Matt catch up with the Arnett Mead vandals and start a fight with them just as Eric and Tami are leaving dinner; Eric sees the fight and breaks it up.
• Jason getting a sponge bath while Herc tells him stories of his sexual conquests; Jason's mom comes in, but in embarrassed to interrupt Jason's bath (though Jason doesn't seem bothered by it) and meets Herc.
• The coaches watch Voodoo and Saracen practice, and note that while Saracen is stepping up, Voodoo spmething special. They also note, though, that the team seems to like Saracen more.
  

Friday Night Lights, episode 1.4: "Who's Your Daddy?"

One of the themes spanning the Friday Night Lights multimedia empire is the crushing weight of tradition. There’s a lot of tradition in the book and film; cross-town rivalries and resentments, inter-family football traditions, and traditions handed down from one generation of football players to the next (these latter two are explicit in the film). Very rarely are these traditions presented with much sentimentality; they’re more often outright burdens. Coach Taylor’s disgusted reaction to seeing his locker room trashed and vandalized by longtime Panther rivals the Arnett Mead Tigers sums is a pretty good encapsulation of how any of the Friday Night Lights generally views its football-related traditions.

Tami learns the hard way that obligations to football tradition don’t stop with the players and coach. On short notice, she’s having to plan and host a party at their house for the players, their parents (though neither Smash’s mom nor Grandma Saracen appear to be there), the boosters and what seems like a huge number of other people. Though she is willing to look happy for Eric’s sake she also tells him its one of the parts of being a Panther coach’s wife that she hates.

Both Saracen and Jason Street have new competitors. Jason’s roommate in his rehab center, Herc, is loud and offensive, but his antagonism ultimately makes him a more effective rehab coach than Phil the physical therapist’s handholding. Saracen is bonding with his team and the coach (and, to Eric’s chagrin, Julie) but he’s self-destructing at practice. Meanwhile, Voodoo Tatum, who's been alienating everyone except Buddy Garrity, proves his prowess and confidence on the field.

It’s a bye week for Dillon, which means Coach has an extra week to make up his mind on which quarterback to start against Arnett Mead. He obviously dislikes Tatum (for the kid's arrogance and possibly because he feels guilty about how Voodoo was recruited) and wants to start Saracen, he likes him and the kid so desperately wants a father figure to impress, but Saracen is giving him no reason to buck the pressure from everyone else to start Voodoo.

Other thoughts

• The relationship between Eric and Buddy is still pretty antagonistic at this point.
  
• Matt, Tami and Jason try to be calm and reserved but are all pushed to emotional breaking points by the pressure on them this week
• Tyra isn’t much more than a sketch of a character right now, but the scene where she visits Jason in rehab surprised me. She tells him how sorry she is that a good person like him had something so bad happen, something she repeats in the third season when she’s working on her college application essay.
  

Trivia and historic moments

• The first overt reference to Grandma Saracen’s dementia; first mention of Julie’s friend Lois; and the first appearance of Reyes in an episode (he was introduced in a Wind Sprints deleted scene).
• Last year, Voodoo won state in Louisiana, and broke five records.

Notable Music (Replaced on the DVD)

• Explosions in the Sky, "Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean"
• Explosions in the Sky, "Look Into the Air"

Deleted Scenes on the DVD

• Riggins working out with Voodoo, who refuses to spot him when he needs help. Smash comes over for the spot.
• Smash and Riggins invite Saracen on their retaliation mission against Arnett Mead
• Tyra and Tim have an awkward meeting in the hallway for the first time since breaking up
• Tami going to bed while Eric watches game tapes
• A doctor tells Matt his grandmother’s dementia will be sporadic and unpredictable: “You’re just going to have to keep an eye on her”
• Eric meets with the Arnett Mead coach to talk about being a united front on the rivaliry and vandalism issues; the coach coach accuses Eric of having stolen Voodoo from his district
• Jason's parents visit him in rehab in rehab and argue about what to tell him. They mention “there’s going to be a lawsuit” and ask if Coach Taylor ever ran him through tackling drills. When Jason protests his mom breaks down, sobbing that there's no other way to pay for everything.

Friday Night Lights, episode 1.3: "Wind Sprints"

At the end of Eyes Wide Open, things were looking up for Matt Saracen. He’d forged a bond with Coach Taylor and, as the episode closed, took the field with renewed confidence. As Wind Sprints opens, harsh reality sets in. Saracen performs much better than expected, but the rest of the team struggles. The Panthers lose to the South Milbank Rattlers, and the town turns on them. For Saracen, this means his yard is vandalized and the Rally Girls suddenly ignore him.

The town is less pass-aggressive towards Eric. The boosters second-guess his strategy during the game. He and Julie are menaced by a burly ex-Panther at a hamburger restaurant. His team revolts against him in practice. His assistant coach, Mac McGill, seems to be spending a lot time with Buddy Garrity. Buddy is pressuring him to throw Saracen overboard a recruit (before someone else does) a talented quarterback, Ray “Voodoo” Tatum, recently relocated from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. On top of it all, Smash Williams takes his dissatisfaction public by giving his “off the record” opinion about Coach’s leadership during an on-camera interview.

If there’s a theme that ties this episode’s various plot threads together, its helplessness. Jason struggles against his broken spine and Lyla’s refusal to acknowledge the gravity of his injury. Matt has nobody to help him care for his grandmother. Riggins is so consumed with guilt that he’s ashamed to run into Jason’s mom, skips the pancake breakfast fundraiser benefiting his best friend, walks out on practice, and spends a lot of time drunk. By the end of the episode, we realize that Lyla’s relentless optimism is just a front for her own sense of helplessness.

For all the pressure he’s under, though, Eric is one of the few characters who can also do something about it.* He orders Mac to get the team together for a late night trip out to run sprints up a muddy hill in the rain. He orders Riggins to stop blaming himself for an accident he couldn't have prevented. At the next day’s practice his players seem disciplined, Saracen is hitting his receivers (the assistant coaches even seem to like him now), and Mac is deferential. Just as things are looking better Buddy walks on the field and introduces Voodoo Tatum as the team’s new quarterback, thus introducing a whole new set of problems.

Some other thoughts

• (*)Strictly speaking, the affair Tim and Lyla start in this episode is also a way to cope with their stress and helplessness; it’s just one that will compound problems, not resolve them.
• Unless I’m forgetting something, I think the reference to the Iraq War in the previous episode and the one to Hurricane Katrina in this one are the only overt references to the non-fiction world.

Trivia and historic moments

• Tami learns that the previous school counselor killed herself. Mayor Rodell thinks it was pills, but can’t be sure. I believe this information never comes up again.
• First references to Grandma Saracen having good and bad spells.

Notable Music

• Explosions in the Sky, “The Only Moment We Were Alone” (Replaced on the DVD)
• Explosions in the Sky, “Your Hand in Mine” (Replaced on the DVD)
• Explosions in the Sky, “The Sky Above, The Field Below” (Replaced on the DVD)
• Mogwai, “New Path to Helicon Part I”

Deleted Scene on DVD:

• Tami lamenting that her Saturday mornings with Eric are no longer for “sleeping late and making love and reading the paper” before Eric goes to take pointed questions from the community about his strategy against South Millbank. He gets in trouble when he points out it was a non-conference game, as if that makes it “okay to lose.”

Addendum to Episode 1.2

I forgot that the DVD has deleted scenes for some episodes.

• Reverend at Smash's church telling him his team needs him to lead, not to dazzle.
• Tami getting drunk (with someone) and angry about Jason Street only being valued by Dillon for having a good throwing arm
• Local media interview Panther players and coaches, some of which is incorporated into the episode. Notable, though, for being the first time we meet Bobby Reyes (#42, Safety) and the only time we meet Jeroma Dolia (#01, Wide Receiver). We also learn that both Assistant Coach Mac McGill and Coach Taylor are Johnny Cash fans.
• An extended version of the scene where the book club ladies tell Tami how Eric should use their sons on the team, which ends with Julie’s English teacher introducing herself and taking Tami away to get drunk (apparently leading in to the second deleted scene).
  

Friday Night Lights Season 1, episode 2: "Eyes Wide Open"

In spite of a miraculous, last-second win in the season-opener against Westerby, Dillon, Texas is not embracing Matt Saracen as QB1. The boosters, led by Buddy Garrity, and Mayor Rodell are giving Coach Taylor unsolicited advice on strategy and brazenly telling him how little faith they have in Saracen. Even a customer at the Alamo Freeze, one wearing a Panther hat, lest we mistake him for someone who could be ignorant of who Saracen is, gives him a hard time while he tries memorizing plays while filling orders.

When I watched the first episode, I thought it wasn’t clear how familiar Street was with Saracen, the gaps in social standing and athletic ability between them being what they were. In this episode we learn that Street not only knows who Saracen is but he likes and rather envies him for his creativity.

Some other thoughts:

• The expense of a new air conditioner prompts Tami to get a job as a guidance counselor at the high school. This is a pretty major thematic break with the book, where head coach is, by far, one of the school district’s best-compensated positions.

• Matt’s reluctance to let Coach Taylor see inside his house echoes a character in the book who’s too self-conscious about his home to let even his girlfriend see it.

• Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton had pretty great chemistry and timing in their scenes together very early in the show…

• …but Taylor Kitsch (as Tim) and Minka Kelly (as Lyla) did not. I’m glad the characterization of Riggins as a brooding alcoholic, and possible racist, didn’t stick(*). Likewise, Lyla Garrity becomes a much more interesting character when she becomes disenchanted(**) with the Dillon football culture. Both of these characters and performances really come alive starting in the third season.

• (*) I do appreciate that he will always be a drinker, though. The show’s nonchalance when it comes to teenagers acquiring and drinking alcohol (to say nothing of its matter-of-fact approach to teenagers having sex lives) is pretty remarkable, and must be due somewhat to the fact that almost nobody has been paying attention to this show.

• (**) In some ways, Lyla’s arc is very similar to Becky’s in the fourth season, in that both stories are about a young woman learning in hard ways that their options in Dillon are limited. All the major teenage characters (including Julie, Tyra, Matt, even Jason) come to this realization at some point, but Lyla and Becky have in common that they start out as especially, sometimes annoyingly, callow (one's a cheer leader, the other a beauty pageant contestant) and end up much wiser and stronger.

• Another character who gets better as they develop: Tyra.

• This is the episode where we first meet Corinna, Smash’s mom. I've always liked that she works at Planned Parenthood. I worked at one for a few years, and in spite of the organization's political baggage, a lot of the front-line employees had more in common with Corinna than with political activists; just wage-earners raising kids on a small amount of money.

Trivia and historic moments

• We find out, via a picture in Grandma Saracen's house, that Matt's dad is deployed to Iraq.
• Eric and Buddy have known each other a long time (since Buddy was a junior salesman and Eric was a junior high coach).
• I think this was the first episode with Rally Girls
  

Notable Music (all replaced on the DVD)

• Explosions in the Sky, "Yasmin the Light"
• Explosions in the Sky, "Your Hand in Mine"
• Explosions in the Sky, "First Breath After Coma"
• TV on the Radio, "Wolf Like Me"