Friday Night Lights - 2x08 "Seeing Other People"

I've been thinking about this idea for a while, but that last episode kind of cemented it: Friday Night Lights has become what Studio 60 could've been, a show whose characters are elevated to a mediated with only a token resemblance to the quotidian. The first season was full of "accidental" hyper-naturalism, where its characters, both teen-aged and adult and cut from recognizable archetypes, were forged into preternaturally mature individuals, heroic in their noble ordinariness.

However, this season, the hyper-naturalism has been phased out in favor of a high school melodrama filled with brats confronting one emotional crisis after another (Julie vs. Mrs. Coach, Part IX; Saracen's attempts to get his Tom Brady impression right but in reverse, AKA The Latina Nurse is Hot and All but How Could He Dump Supermodel Kim Smith for Her?), all of which have been transparently engineered and planted by a producer-god. This sort of emotional apocalypticism subsumes even FNL's cast -- I can take only so much shrill keening before my expectations shift, which explains why I was hoping Mrs. Coach would slap Julie again regardless of Aimee Teegarden's *hem hem* development as an actress.

Anyway, I at least hope (and so should you) for Jason Street to regain mobility so he can lead the Patriots to the first undefeated season since the '72 Dolphins.




But look, a picture of Jason Street! From THE FUTURE!



Indie rating: Can - "Don't Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone"