FNL #4.01
I ended up watching s3 of FNL around the same time as s3 of Skins. Obviously, the shows couldn't be more different, but I found it interesting to compare how they each dealt with their graduating highschool characters. Skins was merciless: real 'ripping off the band-aid' (er, plaster... what nationality am I again?) stuff, replacing all of its core cast in one fell swoop. FNL, by contrast, pulled its band-aid off verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slooooooooooowly, bringing Smash and Street back for a couple of episodes apiece, metaphorically waving goodbye to Tyra and Lyla in slow motion as they each got their college acceptances. I like FNL's schmaltz as much as the next person, but I found all the long goodbyes quite wearing.
AND APPARENTLY WE'RE NOT DONE.
It's not that it's unrealistic that Tim and Matt, for different (though surprisingly similar) reasons, would flake out on college. But it's so hard to concentrate on the new characters (or newly 'promoted to the fore' characters, like Landry - yay, Landry!), and indeed, high school football, when we spend half the episode on two going-nowhere graduates (yeah, right, "graduates"; Taylor Kitsch looks about 40 at this point).
This show needs to murder its darlings. I don't care how popular Matt and Tim are (I know! I love them, too!). They need to go. I don't need to see Riggins getting drunk and sleeping with someone he shouldn't; I don't need to see Matt's sad eyes as he sacrifices for his grandmother. I HAVE ALREADY SEEN THESE THINGS.
We need some new stories. Starting with JD McCoy coming out of the closet, because I waited all season for that to happen in s3 and then... it didn't. :( JD/Matt OTP. I enjoyed their fight scene in #4.01 -- for the wrong reasons. :x
Anyway, now that that's off my chest, I must say that this season looks really promising. I love the East Dillon storyline: it's a real shot in the arm for a show that was beginning to feel stale. Importantly, it also takes the show back to the book, which really wasn't about highschoolers getting improbable sports scholarships, attending prestigious colleges despite crappy grades, or indeed, becoming sports agents (hi, Smash, Tyra and Jason. Writers: MURDER. YOUR. DARLINGS. :/). It was about the fleeting glory of football. It was about the weekly football game being your only distraction from the grind of life. It was about poverty and racism and classism and facing down a dismal future.
That's what I feel like we have with the East Dillon Lions. It's a brave narratorial decision to suddenly thrust your audience over to the other side of the fence, following not the privileged, mostly white winners at West Dillon, but the poor, mostly black kids who want to be good but find themselves written off before they even get a chance to try.
AND APPARENTLY WE'RE NOT DONE.
It's not that it's unrealistic that Tim and Matt, for different (though surprisingly similar) reasons, would flake out on college. But it's so hard to concentrate on the new characters (or newly 'promoted to the fore' characters, like Landry - yay, Landry!), and indeed, high school football, when we spend half the episode on two going-nowhere graduates (yeah, right, "graduates"; Taylor Kitsch looks about 40 at this point).
This show needs to murder its darlings. I don't care how popular Matt and Tim are (I know! I love them, too!). They need to go. I don't need to see Riggins getting drunk and sleeping with someone he shouldn't; I don't need to see Matt's sad eyes as he sacrifices for his grandmother. I HAVE ALREADY SEEN THESE THINGS.
We need some new stories. Starting with JD McCoy coming out of the closet, because I waited all season for that to happen in s3 and then... it didn't. :( JD/Matt OTP. I enjoyed their fight scene in #4.01 -- for the wrong reasons. :x
Anyway, now that that's off my chest, I must say that this season looks really promising. I love the East Dillon storyline: it's a real shot in the arm for a show that was beginning to feel stale. Importantly, it also takes the show back to the book, which really wasn't about highschoolers getting improbable sports scholarships, attending prestigious colleges despite crappy grades, or indeed, becoming sports agents (hi, Smash, Tyra and Jason. Writers: MURDER. YOUR. DARLINGS. :/). It was about the fleeting glory of football. It was about the weekly football game being your only distraction from the grind of life. It was about poverty and racism and classism and facing down a dismal future.
That's what I feel like we have with the East Dillon Lions. It's a brave narratorial decision to suddenly thrust your audience over to the other side of the fence, following not the privileged, mostly white winners at West Dillon, but the poor, mostly black kids who want to be good but find themselves written off before they even get a chance to try.