Alan sepinwall friday night lights game of the week

Do not discuss, or even allude to, anything that has yet to air on NBC. Thank you. The team is steamrolling its way towards the state championship, and the players and their coach are bonded more tightly than ever, as exemplified by that marvelous scene where they do calisthenics on the Taylor lawn while a beaming Coach, Mrs. Coach and Baby Coach watch. Only weeks after turning down all the money and power that Shane State had to offer, Eric could be on the verge of unemployment if the town decides to keep the tradition-laden Panthers and once again dismantle the Lions.

And even if that works out okay, Tami now has her only ridiculously tempting offer from an out-of-state college. Well, damn it. Earlier today I posted my breakdown of my favorite moments of the series , and you can also read my interview with showrunner Jason Katims about the ups and downs of the series, and Fienberg and I also recorded a podcast looking back over the whole series.

Coach as role models of how to make a partnership of equals work. When I did that breakdown of my favorite moments from the series, it was really hard to leave out Eric finding Tami in the mall and asking — no, begging — her to take him to Philadelphia. If not now, when? Tami knows Eric loves her. So Coach and Mrs.

And all around them, characters in the finale declare their own forms of love. On the other hand, most of those moments were splendidly-told on an individual basis, and not everyone got the perfect shiny happily ever after. Tim and Tyra, for instance, ended on a beautifully ambiguous note, wherein they acknowledged both that they care deeply about each other and that they want very different things in life.

If somehow their paths converge again, fabulous. I am trying to wrap my head around why you keep savagely ripping a show that is clearly one of the most thoroughly entertaining and well written on Television, week after week? Let me reiterate - I love your column and I read it regularly so your defensiveness over your FNL criticisms surprises me. It just seems like you are complaining about everything. Sure, the Landry storylines may not be perfect but the performances by Adrianne Palicki and Jessie Plemmons is so off the charts good and heart wrenching, I guess I don't want to complain about this show.

Plus, you barely gave the same attention to how off the charts fantastic Zack Gilford's performance was in his 2 major scenes where he stands up to a different Taylor - first he stands up to Eric Taylor, and then causes me to break out into spontaneous clapping by standing up to annoying Julie Taylor.

For the record, I think your criticisms of "Heroes" are dead on, though I think you are still too harsh on "The Office". Alan, it always amuses me when commenters on other sites reply to a nuanced but at least partially negative review of something with, "Stop hating, you hater! I hate you! Of course, if the only people who were allowed to watch a show were those who thought it was perfect, even the best ones would be canceled for lack of viewership.

In reality, it's the highest-quality works of art, TV shows included, that people tend to argue over most vociferously. When a show is dull and ordinary, on the other hand, while I may sometimes watch it out of screen-induced inertia, I have no desire to say anything about it one way or the other. And if I were a producer of "Friday Night Lights" -- which seems to be surviving based on a viewership that's very loyal and affluent but not that large -- I'd be a lot more worried if people stopped talking about it altogether than if they seemed to be having a vigorous discussion about what's working well and what isn't.

I am so pleased I could "amuse" you bigted. Do you even read my comments? I tried my damndest to have a discussion but if it makes people like you feel better to dismiss my criticism of Alan's comments which were also supplemented with explanation on my part and also mentioning how much I thoroughly enjoy his columns daily , than fine. I think that's a very simple way to respond to an honest and thoughtful criticism.

Alex, I wasn't referring to your comment. Which is why I specifically said "commenters on other sites. Long time lurker, first time poster.

I just wanted to give a nod to the actor who is playing Landry's father. Not a fan of the storyline, but am blown away by the portrayal of this fathers love for his son. The shot of him in the stands cheering as Landry left the field was gorgeous. These actors have me invested in spite of myself Let me just say that after a crummy night, this really lifted my spirits.

I really enjoyed this. And it looks like next week, we're going to get into the "suppressing evidence" storyline I'd speculated about with my family. Oh how I do love some FNL. Just that shot alone was reward enough for putting up with the implausibility that Landry would even be a part of the team.

I agree with Alan that the Landry storylines are mostly orthogonal but I do also think and it could be a stretch that Landry would never have made the speech that he did had he not been influenced psychologically by the other things going on his life. The motivation for the speech could well have been achieved in other ways but the point is there does seem to be more overlap in the Landry storylines than meets the eye.

Of course, the storylines came to an obvious crossover point during Landry's walk through the euphoric bar after being dumped by Tyra. And would we ever have had the pleasure of watching the stunningly nuanced performance by the actor playing Landry's dad without those orthogonal storylines? I watched the episode again this morning and was floored by how watchable it was second time through.

Assistant Coach Mac's "tulips" line in the context of the conversation he was having with Coach T was just beautiful. Riggins' declaration of love for his buddy, his sheepish request of Lyla for cash to do the booze cruise, his "contemplation" for how to get Jason off the beach into the truck, and his seamless flipping between using "Garrity" or "Lyla" to refer to Lyla depending on the depth of the point he was making was just pure FNL gold.

Watchable over and over again. AlexR - I agree with you that our host Alan is nitpicky about issues in Season 2 but better that he write about the show than not at all. And as you also point out, he really does have insight about the show.

I have reached the point of realizing that Alan's devotion to writing about the show and his sheer ability to identify moments of gold e. Clear eyes, full hearts Derek is insane but Mer realizes her issues haven't been solved as is trying anf the new R2's are actually spending some tome being doctors!

Some things are still extremely stupid, but Lexie could slightly make up for the loss of Ellis. I loved the dead cat story. It was obviouslt an attempt to relate and comfort - and Alex, being straight and honest with a woman? I tried to be vague as is this isn't a Grey's thread.

Is Landry's dad going to pursue the rapist's killing wherever it leads or be satisfied with breaking the kids up? Nope, you're not alone in that at all. There are enough good things to keep me pretty happy. Coach: I love these people. I also thought the last scene was so very Y Tu Mama Tambien that I almost had to assume the threesome happened after Lyla prayed. To me, this has always been the weakest aspect in the relative believability of the show -- clearly small, undersized Hollywood actors Street and Riggins notwithstanding looking like actual HS football players.

Otherwise, so much goodness Coach stuff. The sex talk with Mac. The burger stand talk with Saracen and Mrs. What's funny is that I believe Jesse Plemons is one of the few actors in the cast with actual high school football experience. Next to someone built like Taylor Kitsch, he doesn't look it, but he joked in some interviews that he didn't want to use a stunt double for the game action because he was looking forward to showing his co-stars how a real football player moves.

Please, can people stop lobbing the "nitpick" complaint? This is a blog with commentary. Alan and everyone else are free to voice their opinions, whether criticism or praise. The idea is an open, lively discussion.

None of us would be here if nobody probed deeper than "I liked this episode. She definitely made her own bed, but I still felt badly for her having to lie in it. Forgetting, for a moment, my overall problems with the manslaughter plotline, they still needed a scene where Tyra witnessed Landry idolizing his dad, so she'd feel compelled to stage the breakup. Otherwise, why not just tell Landry what his dad had said?

What teen girl isn't willing to defy her boyfriend's father's wishes, even in a situation like this? I think we are just tired of the same nitpick - 'the murder plot sucks'. I can deal with nitpicks, just not the same one week after week after week. The plot is not going to change Was there anything that was good to him with Landry at all?

That's what the argument really is about here The definition of "nitpick" that I've always been familiar with is "to be excessively concerned with or critical of inconsequential details. If I spent every review devoting the first three paragraphs to Adrianne Palicki's haircut or the new Panthers uniforms, then you could say I was nitpicking. Here, I'm complaining about an ongoing, significant part of the series. Did you just stop reading the post after the Landry section?

I wrote about all the other parts of the episode -- not at the length I devoted to the Landry storyline which was inarguably the episode's main topic, and the first time I've given it such significant billing in a review in several weeks , but I talked about virtually everything else, and was positive about most of it. But I'll grant you that I fall more on the "manslaughter plot sucks" end of the spectrum, so perhaps to those who don't mind it, the specific criticisms blur into one general complaint.

Yes, that is it, anonymous. No matter which angle it comes from, it all sounds like a broken record. Alan, I was not saying you didn't comment on the rest of the episode, but the murder plot hatred comes up every single time and dominates the discussion: " I've tried to hold my tongue or typing finger, or whatever with regards to the murder storyline. The point is, we know you don't like it.

And every time I read about it on the commentary, I feel like you are beating a dead horse. It ain't gonna go away. He isn't one of those Lost-phanatics who think that Nikki and Paolo were killed because "lostluver" wrote "Nikki and Paolo SUCK" the first time they appeared on screen.

He's sharing an opinion, a critical reaction, to each episode as it comes out. Alan's going with the idea that since the Killer Landry plot continues to annoy him each and every episode, it's a part of his reaction to each and every episode. And it's not like the Killer Landry and Football Landry plots are minor parts of this season thus far. They're pretty major. If Alan were to suddenly get a warm, fuzzy feeling toward the Killer Landry and Football Landry plots, you'd probably want him to discuss that new-found warm fuzzy feeling, so you may want to put up with any increased or variable agitation he's feeling.

Oh and alex r, I at least admire that you admit your hypocracy. When Alan rails against "Heroes," you agree with him, so it doesn't bother you. For the love of Pete, Alan wrote about how much he loved "FNL" every single week last season, rarely finding anything to criticize at all Rant over.

Nony Mouse.