FNL renewed!!

This came out of the blue: "Friday Night Lights", the best show on TV, has been renewed for a third season! It has to do with some kind of deal between DirecTV and NBC. I'm very excited. It's a full 13-week season. Who knows what direction it will take?

This is from the LA Times article:

"The 13-episode season will air first on DirecTV in the fall and then run on NBC in midseason, probably in its current Friday night time slot, said David Nevis, president of Imagine Television, which produces the show. NBC is expected to officially announce the deal in a presentation to advertisers in New York this afternoon."

"Nevins declined to say how much money DirecTV is forking over for the rights but characterized it as "a lot of money, significantly more than if we just did second runs on a cable network." Nevins remarked that he wished a deal like it had been possible three years ago when Fox was forced to cancel "Arrested Development," another show with a small but loyal audience."

FNL: Final (?) thoughts

The second-season finale of "Friday Night Lights," which aired two nights ago, will go down as the final episode of the series unless something unexpected happens at NBC before next season's schedule gets locked down. Ratings for the best show on television weren't stellar last year, and there's little indication they've picked up.

I'll keep holding out hope that somehow the network will see potential or an artistic halo in FNL, but the show's demise (if it comes about) will be one of the least surprising ones in my memory. It's not like "Arrested Development," a show so user-friendly you could start watching at any point in an episode and it didn't matter. To appreciate FNL, you have to at least be willing to get engaged in some stories about Texans, high school, and small-town life.

The closer wasn't the strongest episode ever, but I liked Tim's radio show and the silly confrontation between Coach Taylor and Moe (series creator Peter Berg). The whole thing with Street's one-night-stand waitress getting pregnant was a little over the top, but it was cute to end the episode with him telling her to just have hope. That goes for the fans, too.

What FNL is all about

Tonight's episode, "Leave No One Behind," was the best of the season, hands down. Great relationship developments, no ridiculous crime or violence stories, lots of opportunities for the cast to show off their phenomenal talents. Plemons, Palicki, Britton, Chandler, Charles, Gilford ... and a breakout performance by Aimee Teegarden. It looks like the season is nearing its end with the writer's strike continuing. Let's hope the great cast and crew go on to continued success.

FNL: DIY

YouTube user TugaA is doing something interesting: Re-editing Friday Night Lights clips and setting them to music.

On the surface, this isn't that big a deal. TugaA use good songs that could have been on the show (maybe they were) and does a pretty good job of editing. I'm not sure you could say the clips are exceptionally well chosen, because one of the things this exercise shows is that nothing on FNL has ever looked bad. Some of the stories have been preposterous, occasionally the dialog is forced, and a two or three of the actors are less than spectacular, but every single frame looks compelling.

But there's a little more depth to this than it seems. Take this video, for example:



The characters Tim and Tyra are an on-again, off-again couple. The show actually isn't very coherent on the deep meaning of their relationship. The writers are too interested in starting and resolving various outlandish stories among the sprawling ensemble cast. But TugaA seems to be trying to do that for them. It's the magic of editing: There's a story there that you didn't recognize until TugaA found it for you in the footage.

TugaA isn't alone, by the way.

Unfortunately, this effect runs out of steam before the song does, or maybe I just don't remember enough about what each of those scenes means to keep getting something out of it. Ultimately, this video just makes me want to re-watch a couple of the more spectacular scenes between these characters (the carnival and the roadside argument). But the idea has potential. And it raises questions: Could you re-edit FNL footage to achieve a fundamentally different tone from the show? What if you used a kind of music that's never been used on FNL? Some Bach might be interesting, for example.

FNL: Our long viewer nightmare is over

Talk about a relief. Now, let's hope Plemons and Morshower don't get sidelined for the rest of the season. Palicki will find her way into something, don't worry.

Nice that Tami and Julie made up, too.
....... aw, who am I kidding? The screaming match made my day!

Clever and subtle (OK, pretty subtle) touch of the night: Coach with Riggins right after Tami talked about celebrating her two little girls.

FNL 11/16

More Tami and Buddy!

More Tyra and bullhorn!

More Saracen and bad dancing!

FNL 10/19

OK let's just knock it out of the park on the acting before the opening credits, shall we? Plemons and Palicki! And on from there.

On the other hand...

More disturbing signs on tonight's FNL. Experimental treatments? Buddy losing it again? A hyperactive, unprofessional "character" of a live-in nurse? And the shots are getting more bland. I think they're pullin' the brisket outta the smoker too soon and tryin' to add back the flavor with sauce. Never works.

However ... maybe I can live with this Landry and Tyra thing if the danger stays vague, unsettling, and in the background. Plemons and Palicki are dynamite together.

FNL: Nail-biting time

I hope this MSNBC article is overly pessimistic, but I fear it's not. I was thinking just last Friday, before the season premiere, that FNL is a rare all-out drama on TV that isn't about murder, corpses, or courtrooms. Looks like I spoke too soon. Can the FNL team recover the ball?

However, I love what's still great about this show. Today I was instant-messaging with a friend and fellow fan at work and started speculating that if Connie could pick any movie from Netflix it might be Like Water for Chocolate, and oh, what Eric would have to say about that. Then I realized I was starting down the slippery slope toward fanfic. Regular readers know I can be a very enthusiastic fan of things I like, but FNL is the first work I've ever wanted to write fanfic about. Not that I have TIME for that, but the impulse is there. Weird.

FNL SP Take 5

OK I am just not down with this Tyra and Landry situation. It took me out of the FNL world. Not that it's completely impossible. Maybe they'll salvage it somehow. No shortage of acting skill between those two.

The Taylor family drama just gets better. Part of me just loves watching them, but another part just wants to get out of that house as soon as the scene's over. It's so realistic I can almost smell the dirty diapers.

Alright Buddy Garrity! Losing your shit at last! Brad Leland rocks.

Overall it was a busy episode setting things up, maybe a little less edgy look in some of the scenes, some incredible high points and some other stuff that felt like ploys to get more viewers. Gimme 15 minutes of Connie and Kyle every week and I'm there no matter what.

FNL SP Take 4

Are these party scenes shot a little more conservatively than last season? I do like some of the other stuff, though.

Coach Taylor raging, catching himself, whistling. Ha!

"I'm not wearing any shoes, Dad!" But she is being SUCH a bad girl.

Chandler: Amazing in the car scene. Very good lament by Julie, too.

OK, yes, it IS getting a little too dramatic with Tyra.

FNL SP Take 3

Nice jump cut to Tami .... wow wow wow Connie Britton! Tremendous acting!

Is it getting a little too dramatic with the Tyra and that weirdo?

FNL SP Take 2

Very Riggins comeback: "You look good."

I LOVE Grandma!

More great Taylor family scenes. Kyle Chandler rocks!

FNL Season Premiere: 1

Why are they getting all Paul Thomas Anderson on us with this pool scene?

Oh, OK, that's more like it. Very dynamic hospital scene.

Wait, this kid is supposed to be three months premature?

Countdown to FNL

The best show on the airwaves is back in less than 12 hours (if you're on the West Coast like me). Great acting, fine writing, and it looks. So. Good.

It's not really about football, by the way.

Review: The Kingdom

With targets as big as terrorism, American dependence on Arab oil producers, and the clash between Western and Islamic culture, it's so easy to go overboard that Peter Berg's The Kingdom triumphs by being a nuanced, if somewhat predictable, thriller.

The story involves a team of FBI agents going to Riyadh to investigate a major terrorist attack against a U.S. expatriate compound. Naturally, they're gung-ho types who take matters into their own hands while higher-ups play politics, but they're more smart than wise-ass, and their interaction with the local authorities is complex and interesting. Amid action would probably embroil all of world politics, the movie wisely stays focused on the FBI team and its ally in the Saudi army, Colonel Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom). Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper, in particular, make them worth our attention for 110 minutes. Jennifer Garner is also strong, and Jason Bateman, in one of The Kingdom's smart touches, is not as far from "Arrested Development"'s Michael Bluth as you might expect.

Visuals are a highlight of any project by Peter Berg, who brought the high-school football drama "Friday Night Lights" to TV as one of the best-looking series ever. (FNL fans will recognize Kyle Chandler as a distraught FBI agent and Minka Kelly in a more fleeting role.) All the touches that have made the fictional Dillon, Texas, look so good are here: handheld camera, shallow focus, extreme closeups, dialog shots in profile, face shots dominated by out-of-focus objects, characters shot through doorways and other frames, and near-silhouettes against blown-out sunlight. Naturally, the action sequences in The Kingdom are tailor-made for those edgy effects, but what makes Berg's work stand out is that he uses them in quiet in-between sequences too, creating a documentary feel.

The Kingdom isn't a profound film, but beyond a bit of exposition early on, it's more subtle than the average Hollywood production. Much of this is thanks to Foxx, who expertly balances the rage and intelligence in his character. Like Berg's signature camera angles, The Kingdom attacks its subject matter with a masterful series of glancing blows.

FNL renewed!!!

"Friday Night Lights" is coming back next season! It'll be on Fridays at 10, but with TiVo, iTunes, and online, scheduling means less than it ever did. Even better, I read that they're going to push the next season by pushing up the the release of the first-season DVD and discounting it. This is one of the best TV dramas ever. Thanks to NBC for having faith in it.

Why FNL rocks

At Salon, Heather Havrilesky articulates exactly what I've been thinking about "Friday Night Lights": Bright Lights, Big Pity.