Friday Night Lights: Season 3 Review: Ep. 6 & 7

On January 5, 2014January 5, 2014 By jareddiehl88In DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film Reviews, Football, HighSchoolLeave a comment

Season 3, here we come.

Episode #6 It Ain’t Easy Being J.D. McCoy
This episode involves a hazing accident that J.D. participates in given that he is a freshmen. Coach assigns Tim Riggins to make J.D. feel at home. Time shows him what life in Texas is all about. Coach tells Tim: ‘You are a senior, you aren’t gonna be wearing that uniform much longer.” We also see the pressure J.D.’s dad puts on his son. Jason and Tim and Billy all work on the investment house that they paid for. Tyra’s bull riding boyfriend Cash owes his “family” 1,600 in child support. Tyra breaks it off with him. I love all the talks that Jason Street and Coach Taylor have. Jason tells him that he thinks he made a mistake buying the house. Coach says,” it always looks bad before it gets better…he says, ‘you are following through, don’t start giving up!’ Matt and Julie reconnect and go to a lake and kiss and fall asleep at the cabin. Things get a little out of hand when Tim take J.D. to a party and J.D. drinks.

Episode #7 Keeping Up With Appearances
Billy wants Tim to get into college. Tim keeps getting letters from OU.Coach runs into problems with his fullback. Who sees Tami and they realize his parents don’t know that he plays football. Jason doesn’t cave in the price for selling the house. Buddy tries to connect with his little kids and they give him a hard time. Jemarcus,the fullback, can’t play on Friday because of the parent situation. Buddy says,’they hate me, all a man has is his children.’ Buddy’s daughter says, ‘I wish you weren’t my father.’
The parents of Jemarcus hear out Tami and Eric about how football is good for men. Herc and Jason argue over the price of the house. Tami says to someone,”this is the beginning of the rest of your life, you are a good person, and this is just the beginning.” J.D. has a rough game. Coach tells him, ‘I had expectations and it was hard to live up to them!’
Billy makes a highlight tape of Tim for colleges. Coach, in the video, says, “What defines Tim Riggins,no fear, toughness.” Jason struggles and tells Lila,’You think I could make it somewhere else?’

Friday Night Lights: Season 3, Episodes 1-5 Review

On January 3, 2014January 3, 2014 By jareddiehl88In DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film Reviews, Football, HighSchoolLeave a comment

What are a way to kick off the New Year. I hope you all have been enjoying the recent “older” reflections I have been posting. I still intend to continue to eternal football week post/spirit. But as the new year is here, there are lots of plans( in my head) to start talking of books, films and other relevant topics. For now, there is this..

Episodes 1-3
Season 3 of Friday Night Lights starts off in conflict. Keep in mind that the show broadcasts its main issue: the Dillon Panthers. Everything revolves around how good the team will or will not be. Coach Taylor is back in the saddle as Coach. J.D. McCoy joins the team with his extra controlling dad behind his every move. Tami gets flack for the money that the school board has to spend. The team and the boosters, led by Buddy Garrity himself, want a megatron screen for the Panther games. Billy( Tim’s brother) proposes to Mindy(Tyra’s sister) and she says yes. Lila and Tim decide to give their relationship a try. Tyra decides to run for Student Council president.

Episode #4 Hello, Goodbye
Call it the episode of ‘shaking things up!’ Matt’s mom shows up in his life. He yells at his mom slightly with years of pain built up. He tells her, “I don’t need your help, I needed it 10 years ago when you left!” She says, “I will never forgive myself for leaving you!” Tyra finds herself rejecting Landry and dating a bull rider(one of Billy’s friends). Tami and Eric but heads and tell each other, ”
I miss the coach’s wife, she says I miss the principal’s husband!” Coach Taylor continues to feel pressure from all over as to who to start at quarterback. Smash gets help from coach regarding his coming tryout. Coach says, “God has placed you to do what you do best, go all the way!” Matt’s mom wants to help with the grandma situation. She says, ‘you are all alone in this!’

Coach Taylor moment: “take a look at brian williams, he would have said theres a guy with a hell of a lot of conviction.”
Brian “Smash” Williams makes the team at OU. Thanks the coach for everything.

Episode #5 Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Julie Taylor, the sweet and innocent 15 or 16 year old(by now). She decides to get a tattoo despite what her parent’s might think. Jason and Tim decide to buy Buddy’s old house and fix it up and try to flip it for more money. This is the beginning of that endeavor. Tyra and Cash, the cowboy, continue to bond and like each other.
Matt feels pressure to quit the team because Coach is starting J.D. McCoy at quarterback and not him. I think in this episode Julie’s parents make her remove the tattoo.

Friday Night Lights: Final Review For Season 2

On January 2, 2014 By jareddiehl88In DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film Reviews, Football, HighSchoolLeave a comment

Friday Night Lights review for episodes 11-15. Season 2 marked the start of shortening the seasons to less than 15 episodes. I think the first year they did this(for season 2) was because of the writer’s strike. Here’s the summary of the last 5 episodes.

After the Dillon madness calms down a little bit Coach Taylor learns more from the rival teams’ coach. He tells Eric that his wife has only three months to live. He says,” I have no game plan for that!” Tim and Billy steal a bunch of cash from the guy Tim was staying with. Most likely it is drug related money, but they take it anyway. Characters always are given opportunities to do the right thing. They either choose to change and do it right, or they choose scandal and conflict over doing what is not right. Tim finds himself into Coach Taylor’s house, where Tami’s sister has also been staying. Julie gets herself in trouble at a party and Tim helps her but coach thinks Tim is trying to be with Julie, so he kicks Tim out. Tim doesn’t defend himself.

Julie tells coach the truth. Coach tells Tim, ‘you have not complained once..what you did, as a Father, that is honorable.’
Someone in a moment of love says(about kids):’That’s not out burden, that’s our gift.’

Trouble happens with Matt when the caretaker( that he has been liking on) moves back to her home country. Smash is with a girl who has racist parents. This shows’ attempt to continue to attack this issue. Santiago’s friends come back into his life and try to get him to go with them instead of playing football.
Lila joins a Christian radio show. Tim calls in with a fake girl voice and pretends to have a serious question. Smash gets in a fight at the movie theater with his girlfriend. He gets suspended for three games because of the fight. The fight was over racist comments that guys were throwing at him.

Lila’s relationship heats up with the guy at church(and at the radio station). She kisses him. The evil guy that got his money stolen find Tim and says, ‘you have a week to pay me back!’ Smash does the right thing and apologizes for what happens. Tim says he loves Lila and she tells him to move on. ‘Chris(the radio guy) makes me happy1’ Billy and Tim give the guy the money back and almost get shot in the process.

Coach Taylor tells the team, ‘ Its about adversity and how we stand up to it,
We are gonna take adversity and take it into an asset!’

Episode 14 marks one of the best of the series and easily the best moment in Season 2. Matt has a breakdownwith all the people he feels have been abandoning him. At school he snaps at his teacher and calls her a bad word. He shows up to practice drunk and goofing off. Coach and him have it out. Here’s the scene:

Matt: Just shut up! You don’t care about me, you left me for a better job! Your daughter left me for a better guy, Carlotta left me for Guatemala, my dad left me for a damn war! Everybody leaves me. What’s wrong with me?
Eric: There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s nothing wrong with you at all.

Smash loses his scholarship but his mom says the best line ever: ‘I love you and I believe in you.’ Like I have said before, this show makes you want to be a better person and to really be better, like, for real.

Julie takes the driving test. Landry and Tyra admit to liking each other. Smash tells the team, ‘the best thing you guys can do for me is win, make the playoffs.’ Smash cries as the team leaves the locker room.

Season 2 closes off with Jason finding out he got a girl pregnant. A girl he had met at a restaurant on a horrible blind date. Coach tells Jason, ‘Your children and the mother of your children are the two most important things to you in life.” Smash gets a second chance and might still be able to play in college. Peter Berg( who is the creator of this show along with the book) guest stars as Tami Taylor’s old fling in high school. Coach and him get in a literal fight at a dinner with Tami and the guy( Mo is his name). Very funny actually. Its funny how in small towns( and even in life in general) people hold onto who they were in high school as the be all end all of who they are sad they aren’t in the present moment. We are all tempted to live in the past. Mo was still believing he had the right to be with Tami.

And Season 2 just ends like that. Its not as epic as Season one with the state title taking place for the Panthers.

Friday Night Lights: Season 2: Episodes 8-10

On January 1, 2014 By jareddiehl88In DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film Reviews, Football, HighSchoolLeave a comment

Episode #8 Seeing Other People
The drama of relationships take root in this episode.
Landry meets the brother of the perpetrator who hurt Tyra.Tim, find himself without a position on the team, after the stunt he pulled fleeing to Mexico. Coach shuts him out. Matt has trouble with the caretaker lady caring for his grandmother. He also shuts out the girl that he’s been hanging out with at school.

Episode #9: The Confession
Landry finally breaks and confesses what he has done. In this episode or the next Tim takes it upon himself to help Santiago out. Santiago is new to football, so Tim helps him learn how to tackle.More tension builds with Julie and her mom over the baby christening.

Episode #10: There Goes The Neighborhood
After a horrid tornado comes near Dillon high school, the Panthers are forced to share a field and locker room with a rival team. Tension builds and the opposing teams coach even touches Tim Riggins and Coach Taylor says, ‘I will kick you six ways to Sunday..I will make sure you never coach again!’ Both teams fight each other. Buddy gets news from Lila that her mom, Pam, is going to marry the guy she has been seeing. Someone says a very powerful line: ‘If you care about something you don’t give up, you do whatever it takes!’ Tyra tells Landry: ‘you make me feel to much, it freaks me out!’ There relationship grows and grows and would be my second favorite couple of the show.

Friday Night Lights: Season One: Episodes 19-22

On December 14, 2013 By jareddiehl88In DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film Reviews, Football, PIECES OF WRITINGLeave a comment

And the last review for season one..

Episode #19:Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Change
Buddy can’t get his wife back after he cheated on her. Coach Taylor gets an offer to coach at TMU, which would require his family to move again. Julie is with Matt and doesn’t like the idea of moving at all. She says, ‘I have dreams to and they are coming true here.’ Tim connects with his neighbor, who has a son that Tim has been teaching how to play football.The relationship becomes scandalous, as he is still in high school and she is in her thirties. Tyra tells her mom that she wants to break the mold of the Collette women and go to college one day( this happens throughout the series with Tami Taylor’s help). My favorite part, or one of many in the series is when Jason Street gives Matt advice in how to throw better. They are on the field at night and Jason says, ‘You hit the slants, you hit the posts, they’ll respect you, you hit this pattern, they will fear you.’ Tim and Jason also reconnect in this show and the line ‘Texas, forever’ makes its way into the show.

Episode #20 Mud Bowl
A Chemical plant accident forces the other team to come and join with the Panthers. This creates tension as they have to share the football field with them. Critics have commented on the scene with Tyra and this shows portrayal of rape. Its not graphic nor exaggerated, rather it does show that its a problem to be addressed. This is the beginning of that story in this show. The Mud Bowl take place because of the chemical spill and the Panthers win and advance to state. Lyla and Waverly connect and Lyla finds out that Waverly is bipolar and hasn’t been taking her medicine.

Coach Taylor moment: tells his players, ‘blood, sweat, and tears, it all stays on the field!’ while it pours down rain.

Episode #21 Best Laid Plans And #22 State
Coach Taylor is forced to make a decision about whether to move his family to, I believe Austin, where TMU is. He tells them yes but doesn’t tell his family that.
Coach tells Matt about the move, ‘when you have a family like I have, I promise you, you will understand.’ The famous lines and the best from Coach Taylor happen in these last moments of season one. Coach Taylor says, “Every Man(and this is might be a little out of order) will lose a battle, what makes him a man is that in the midst of the battle he does not lose himself..this battle is not over…Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.’

The final play comes down to Matt wanting to run a certain play and Coach says, ‘you run it!’ and they win State. The famous song Devil Town plays in the end. And Tami Taylor tells Eric she is pregnant.

Friday Night Lights: Season One: Episodes 16-18

On December 13, 2013 By jareddiehl88In DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film Reviews, FootballLeave a comment

And season one is taking more time then expected but I am committed to breaking down season one.

Episode #16 Black Eyes And Broken Hearts
Julie’s mad at Matt for giving in to the rally girls annual photo shoot for their calendar. Julie doesn’t appreciate being lied to by him. Meanwhile, Coach and the team are in disarray over race issues. Smash’s mom tells him to play. She says, ” You get back at him by playing, you are a leader honey, they’ll follow you.” And so the team doesn’t lose at the expense of Smash and the other players. Matt makes Julie a mix tape. Very classy. Tyra and Julie have problems because Julie’s parents don’t like them hanging out with each other.

Episode #17
Matt and Julie try to have sex but don’t go through with it. Julie’s parents know of it and tell each other that they have raised a good girl, we have to trust that she will make the right decision. It is always a must in tv to add all sort of relationship drama and create the idea that everyone in the series should all hook up by the end of 5 seasons. Its typical. Its sometimes cute but mostly its cliche and superfluous.That’s all there is to say about that. Tami holds a forum at the school to talk about racism and sparks fly as it turns out not to be a civil discussion.

Episode #18 Extended Families
Conflict arises when Buddy and Tyra’s mom hook up. This is an affair for Buddy, and a bad decision for her. Tim’s dad stole a camera from the team after Tim defended his dad to Coach. Lyla and Jason connect in light of the division in Lyla’s family. Coach Taylor in his infinite wisdom tells Buddy, ‘I think you hide your head in football to much..you need to pay attention to your family.’ Buddy responds with a line that describes the fervor in this character. Buddy says, ‘I will always care about the Panthers, always,Pam, can cut off my head and stick it on a spike!’Basically nothing is more important than football. That is what Buddy stands for. In an effort to touch multiple social issues the series tackles racism and the implications of making life about a sport. But talking about mental health issues(something that is becoming more common now( i.e. Silver Linings Playbook and Homeland) but this show touches it a little bit, which I appreciate.
Smash has been seeing Waverly(the pastor’s daughter) and she has been diagnosed with bipolar mood disorder. And in this show we see that she gets off her medication and her dad’s concerns reach Smash and Smash learns that something is different about her. Someone says, ‘I love you and I need you in my life, I am not letting you go!’ Classic love.

Friday Night Lights: Season One Review: Episodes 4-8

On December 8, 2013December 8, 2013 By jareddiehl88In DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film Reviews, Football, PIECES OF WRITINGLeave a comment

And the goodness of season one continues..
Episode #4: Who’s Your Daddy
Dillon gets desperate to replace Jason Street. Buddy Garrity, who plays the ultimate die hard do whatever it takes to win football fan. Buddy had won a state championship back in the eighties. A new quarterback shows up in town, Voodoo is his name. Matt Saracen begins to like the coach’s daughter, Julie and worries that he won’t be number one at quarterback. Coach tells Matt to ask her out, whoever she is. Lyla and Tim kiss and start spending time with each other behind Jason’s back. Coach has the whole team over at this house and a brick(from the other team) throws a brick through his window that says, ‘die panther pigs!’
The team smashes up the rival quarterbacks car. Matt gets beat up by them at work.

Coach Taylor quotes : “I believe you can do anything you put your mind to, and ‘winning goes to the one who wants it most!”

Episode #5: Git’er Done

Voodoo disrespect the coach and says he is only on the team to get noticed and get into LSU. Tim gets over blaming himself and finally visits Jason in the hospital. Jason says “I need you right now..you are my best friend.” The Friday night game ensues problems with Voodoo, he calls his own plays and causes trouble. Coach yells at him and says, ‘you are done!’

Episode #6: El Accidente

This show captures the mentality that football is life. Football is all that matters. And even lying to make your team be the best of the best is acceptable in this town of Dillon. 16,0000 people fill Herman field every Friday night. In this episode ethics regarding how Voodoo got on the team confront the coach. Buddy Garrity wants to say he is eligible. Racist comments from Voodoo cause one of the kids to get kicked off the team. Someone says, “we will rise up, we will get through anything at all.” Tim and Lyla take Jason out of the hospital for a day and the famous line: Texas, forever!

Episode #7: Homecoming
Jason Street is asked to come to the game for Homecoming night. Smash feels pressure from a scout and doesn’t have a good game, at all. Tim Riggins steps in and tears it up. Due to Brian ‘Smash’ Williams bad game the scout tells him to improve his speed and strength. This makes Smash resort to taking performance enhancers/steroids of some kind(just like the movie The Program.)

Episode#8: Crossing The Line

Matt gets Smash a job at the Alamo Freeze and tries to steal cash from the register. Smash lies to his mom about what he needs money for, and the church he attends takes up an offering for him. He gets corrupted and uses the offering money for the drugs. Billy(Tim’s brother) confronts Tim and says ‘ no one wants you!’ Jason overcomes and plays in a wheelchair game with Herc(his roommate from the hospital). Jason also finds out that Lyla and Tim have been hanging out behind his back.He yells at Tim and says ‘You are a coward Tim, you are a coward!’

Friday Night Lights: Season One Review Part 2

On December 6, 2013 By jareddiehl88In DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film ReviewsLeave a comment

Like many seasons one in television the first season is the introductory to the storyline, the plot, and most importantly the characters. Developing the characters is what leads to the audience loving the characters. Season ones can go down as the best of any series. Lost season one is one of the best of any other show I have seen. Jack Shepherd pulling dead bodies out of a plane while John Locke sits on the beach with his suitcase full of knives. And so and so. Heroes season one was by far the best season of that series. It did get a little weird after that.So, so far season one of Friday Night Lights is very well played. Episode Overview #2: Eyes Wide Open The injury of Jason Street is worse then everyone was thinking. Coach tells team that Jason won’t be able to walk again. Doctors say he might regain movement in his hands and arms. Lyla(Minka Kelly) believes that Jason will walk again.Lyla says, ‘everything is going to work out just like we planned.’And I think its her that says ‘I believe in you with every fiber of my being.’ Coach and Matt talk, coach asks him: ” when you threw that winning pass, were your eyes closed?” Matt says,” my eyes were open, my eyes were wide open. The town grows skeptical of the rest of the season due to the fact that Jason Street was the anchor of the team. Coach Taylor One Liner: he tells Jason, ‘you are a good man, your what makes guys like me want to coach.’ Coach tells Matt: ‘This is all yours for the taking.’ I don’t know where I would be without my dad. Matt’s dad is not around. This gets developed more throughout the show. Coach says: ‘If they can hear you, they will believe in you!’ Matt Saracene struggles with being the new quarterback, even though they pulled off a win. The dna of the show centers a lot on the obsession with football. The ladies in the room tell Tami Taylor(Connie Britton)say, ‘let’s talk about what is important?’ Buddy always seems to say ‘football, that’s all we got.’

Episode 3: wind Sprints

Tim Riggins has been blaming himself for Jason’s accident. Coach tells him, ‘you can blame yourself for everything if you think about it long enough.’ Coach lets Tim off the hook. Lyla and Jason conflict with his new set of limitations. Jason says,’I will never walk again football over, going pro gone, you and me we are not getting married!” He kicks her out of the hospital. Keep in mind that in every show all the main characters have to all kiss by the end of a season and a series. And most have to be with each other for a certain period of time. Lyla and Tim hook up in the midst of the confusion. And always remember: “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!”

TV Show Review: Friday Night Lights(Season One 2006) Part One

On December 5, 2013December 5, 2013 By jareddiehl88In Book Reviews, DAILY LIFE, FILM, Film ReviewsLeave a comment

I have always been a fan(and participant) in two things: powerful, well-played dramas on television(and always in film) and sports. I grew up playing ice hockey. Hockey was life. Hockey was religion. Second to spending Sundays with family hockey came at a close second place. All that being said I have yet to find any hockey television show out there. Football is not my first choice of sports I know about. As I just posted last week I am in a fantasy football league and I am the most inept in football knowledge. The highlight for me is making weekly update podcasts that have nothing to do with stats,facts, or anything near that. I make the show to incorporate movie facts, pop culture, and creative ways to poke fun at our league.

I have stumbled upon something as amazing as watching Parenthood(a review soon to come as well). Parenthood really makes you want to be a better dad, better man and better spouse but Friday Night Lights, well, it makes you want to be a better person. The idea for the show began as a book by H.G. Bissinger. The book came out in 2000, and was all about(I have never read it) the obsession with small town Texas football. Football as a way of life, as a way for people to come together. The movie came out four years later starring Billy Bob Thorton as the coach. The movie, directed by Peter Berg, who then two years later started the show with NBC and with producer Jason Katims(My So Called Life, Roswell, Boston Public, and currently Parenthood).

I realize I am 5 years later to this show but it is completely worth writing about because it is the shaky hand cam( sort of like The Office and Modern Family). Friday Night Lights tells the story of how football is not everything. Football is not all their is to life but in the town of Dillon, it is all people hold onto. Football for these characters is what they hold onto to succeed in life. Tuned to the melody of Explosions In The Sky(they do the theme song) the music is almost the best part of the show.

I am turning this into multiple posts because there are 22 episodes in the first season.

Pilot
The first show opens up with Sport’s Illustrated interviewing the famous number one ranked Dillon Panthers. They are considered the best in the state. Coach Eric Taylor(played superbly by Kyle Chandler) is in his first year for this team. Jason Street(Scott Porter) is the anchor of the team, he is QB and he is the future of the team. Tim Riggins(Taylor Kitsch) as the hard-hitting fullback, alcoholic and without parents. The Boobie Miles of the team is Brian “Smash” Williams(Gaius Charles). It seems like Terrell Owens and Randy Moss climbed inside the psyche of a teenager and created this character. The first episode shows these star players playing their opening game and tragedy strikes. Towards the end of the game, in an effort to stop a game-winning run, Jason Street tackles a man and takes him down but while doing so hurts himself. He can’t get up and then the ambulances come and take him away. The coach says “its only football” which seems to be a shocker in the town of Dillon, to even say that. Coach Taylor also says “people are expecting a lot, you have earned this, the right to win.”

I don’t remember exactly what episode this was from but Coach Taylor deserves to be quoted, probably more than anyone else in this show. He says: “we will all fall at some point in our lives and what we have is special, when it is taken from us we will be tested, it is this pain that causes us to look inside ourselves.”

The show spins towards football still being everything but everyone in conflict after Jason Street gets badly injured.

THE RUCKUS JOURNAL

Tag: Kyle Chandler