Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights: Feelings vs. Football

We are two episodes into the second season of Friday Night Lights, and there has yet to be a football game.   

In fact, there has been everything but a football game.

Drinking, partying, yelling, and childbearing are everywhere.  We’ve met characters like the Swede, Dillon’s new head coach, and a homewrecking science teacher.  There were extended scenes of Eric Taylor counseling a young, emboldened football player. 

Oh, and Landry killed a guy.

There really hasn’t been any time for football.  To catch everyone up, here is a rundown of several of the new storylines.

Julie Taylor broke up with Matt Saracen.

Surprise factor:  Very high.  Matt and Julie were the “it” couple last year.  Sure, he was shy and awkward, and she was outspoken and bratty.  But that’s what made them work.  They had Corey and Topenga written all over them.
Similarities to my high school experience: I, too, had a girl break up with me in high school.  Although, we weren’t actually dating at the time.  Okay, we were never dating.  And, come to think of it, there was not so much an actual break up as there was a three to four year period where she stopped talking to me and acknowledging me in group settings.  Ah, young love.
What happens next:  Judging from the previews, Julie makes out with an older man and gets slapped by her mom.  Matt, I can only assume, hooks up with his grandma’s hospice worker.

Lyla Garrity is a Christian.

Surprise factor:  High to medium high.  Her sins were many before her conversion (sleeping with Street, sleeping with Riggins, sleeping with handicapped Street, various cleavage bearing), so she was as unlikely as any little heathen high schooler to see the light.  I’m glad the FNL producers don’t judge.
Similarities to my high school experience:  Everyone was a Christian at my high school, either because they wanted to or because it was required.
What happens next:  She’s been giving Riggins the eye, which always leads to regrettable sin.

Jason Street is considering experimental paralaysis treatment in Mexico. Surprise factor:  None at all.  The day Street stops trying to cure fractured spinal vertebra and a disintegrating central nervous system is the day FNL dies.
Similarities to my high school experience:  The worst thing anyone at my school had was acne, and there was nothing Mexico could do about that.
What happens next:  Street and quadriplegic friends road trip south of the border in search of the Fountain of Youth.  Hilarity ensues.

Buddy Garrity is a wreck.

Surprise factor:  Little to none.  Losing your wife, kids, and football team is as good a reason as any to hit the bottle, and I kind of feel that the bottle was being hit even before that.
Similarities to my high school experience:  None of the dads I knew were belligerent drunks and very few were controlling, football-obsessed glad-handers.  Then again, I was very naïve.
What happens next:  Counseling.

Coach Eric Taylor is coaching college football.

Surprise factor:  Very little.  When he took the job at the end of the first season, I thought he might renig on the offer before season number two started.  Instead, he is at the bottom of the coaching ladder and miles away from his family.
Similarities to my high school experience:  My football coach was barely qualified to coach high school football, much less college.  I cannot relate.
What happens next:  I expect a coaching coup in which Taylor undercuts the aging head coach at TNU using his clout and an impassioned speech.  Then, he moves the entire family up to Austin because he feels like he’s losing control.

Landry killed a guy.

Surprise factor:  Very high to very, very high. 
Similarities to my high school experience:  I thought up some pretty unique ways to impress a girl, but manslaughter was never one of them.  Attending softball games uninvited is one thing; killing a guy is another.  In the words of Ron Burgundy, “Don’t act like you’re not impressed.”
What happens next:  We all just hope this goes away.

This week’s episode should be the opening game, and the highlights should cut down on the ancillary drama for at least three minutes.  Let’s just hope no one gets paralyzed this year.

© 2007 KevanLee.com.