Friday Night Lights Series Finale

[asta77]

There's the potential of me bombarding you all with posts today. I still have Outcasts to watch and White Collar to post about, but I feel it's best to post about Friday Night Lights while my thoughts are still fresh.

Comments

[callmeonetrack]

I'm a little talked out on FNL at this point but the rushed timing was indeed the main flaw of the last three episodes for me. If it hadn't been so rushed, I think they would have had more time to do a lot of things a bit more justice, like Eric's turnaround, Eric & Tami's reaction to Julie (which, I found it almost laughable when Tami insisted they trusted her after all the stuff that felt like it had just gone down with her TA), the Tim/Tyra stuff...etc.

Since you mention those things that went nowhere, Epyck, Buddy Jr., Hastings...I really do wonder if they broke the stories for the season expecting to get a whole 22 episodes? I mean it sort of felt like it. They did know this would be their last season but maybe they thought they were getting 22 and ended up with 13 and thus had to condense a lot in those last three eps?

[asta77]

It's my understanding that when Direct TV and NBCU made the last renewal deal it was for two 13 episode seasons, so no truncating of arcs would have been needed. I do know they weren't sure of the availability of some of the original cast and I'm sure had to expand or cut to accommodate schedules. I also know they wanted Smash back, but Gaius Charles is now studying to be a minister and wasn't willing to return.

[asta77]

I read that there was a lot of back and forth on Taylor's availability. Zach seemed locked in pretty early on, but with Taylor's burgeoning film career, he was harder to get a commitment from, even though I know he very much wanted to come back. And, yes, that would explain why new characters weren't developed as well as they could have been. But, for instance, had they totally dropped the Epyck storyline we could have seen more of Buddy Jr or Hastings

[jo_lasalle]

I knew Eric would ultimately choose to turn down the coaching job with the Panthers so Tami could follow her dream. I just didn't care for having one episode left for them to try and work it all out.

It says something about the show that I honestly wasn't sure! It wouldn't have been a happy ending, and bad for their marriage, but for a while... it's been such a theme that football considerations win out between them that I was wondering. Which made this ep pretty tense for me to watch! :-)

I agree there was a bit of weird couple stuff. I thought Tim and Tyra was done well as old friends who cared about each other, but omg was I dreading some romantic turn at the end. For me they stayed juuuust shy of that line, but I had to squint for it.

Matt and Julie -- I literally clapped my hands when he proposed. :-) Yes, the are young (though given that this is season 5, I wish they hadn't gone for 19/18 with their alleged ages, really...) but if anyone should end up together...

It was a good finale, despite some flaws.

[asta77]

The show has never shied away from making Eric look like an ass (bless them), but I didn't think they would want to end on that note. It has been eighteen years of career sacrifices fro Tami. Plus, it's not like Philadelphia doesn't have high schools with football programs! ;)

Matt, if I recall, was fifteen when he took over as quarterback so wouldn't he be 20 now? And Julie is only a year younger. That math seemed off to me too.

As soon as Matt stopped Julie outside the Alamo Freeze, I just knew and began to squee. :) And I loved that he dropped to one knee and no one inside seemed to sense what was going on!

[marcee12]

Landry was actually supposed to be in that bar scene...

[b]TVLINE | I was surprised you didn't give Tyra and Landry a moment in the finale. Talk to me about that decision.[/b]
[i]At one point, Landry was in the scene with Tyra, Matt and Julie at the bar. But when we got closer to [shooting it] it felt right to have a more intimate moment between Tyra and Tim. Jesse Plemons is so great; it’s great to have him in any scene. But it felt like the scene that he did have with Matt… What we tried to do with the finale was [refer back] to where the show started. And that Matt/Landry scene alludes to the early days with those two knuckleheads. There were many nods to the first season in the episode. The players being interviewed in those director chairs, we tried to shoot that to look like [the scene] in the pilot where Eric, Jason and Smash are getting interviewed.[/i]

[asta77]

Thanks for sharing that. I think I have to disagree with the decision. We had enough intimate moments between Tyra and Tim. We haven't had any interaction between Tyra and Landry in two years and she didn't end things with him in the best possible way. I would have liked to see some closer on their relationship. Plus, if it was a sort of celebration of Julie and Matt's engagement, Landry should have been there.

[daybreak777]

Or maybe it's just nice to have a show I can kick back and enjoy without obsess over. ;)
I understand completely.

What ever happened to JD and his father?
They caused Eric to lose his job. JD lost his wife but we never saw or heard mention of the kid again.

And do I even need to point out all the problems with Epyck?
No, you don't. I don't even get that. Why was she so hungry? I don't even know, Asta. All I can say was that Eric got to be Kingmaker and Tami didn't queen make with Epyck or the red-headed girl the way she did with Tyra. I did think about Epyck when Tam's turn for her career to shine came. Let her be Queenmaker this time, you know? Maybe she can't as a Dean of Admissions but knowing Tami, she'll try. :-)

Where did that turn come from?It was poorly handled. All I could think was he had nothing of his own, you know? In a way he was like JD's father, living through his son. And it's like JD's father hitting the kid. Not as out of nowhere, but not ever really resolved, either. Was he continually abusive? Who knows