Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 59: 'Friday Night Lights' finale
Dan and Alan talk for a very long time about one of their all-time favorite dramas
Clear eyes, full hearts... bonus podcast! As promised, you get an extra Firewall & Iceberg Podcast this week, in which Dan and I spend 80-plus minutes discussing the "Friday Night Lights" finale and answering your many, many, many fine questions about the series. If you're waiting for the DVD release on April 5th, or for the NBC run (which starts April 15th) to wrap, just download the podcast and save it for when you're ready. (I'm sure we'll also be bumping up this particular post as a reminder after it airs on NBC), but this was a really fun one to do. No need for a rundown, because it's all-"FNL," all the time.
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All through his childhood, Alan Sepinwall's relatives told his parents, "All that boy does is watch television! How's he going to make a living doing that?" His career as a TV critic has been 15 years and counting of his attempt to answer their concerns. "What's Alan Watching" is a blog whose title is self-explanatory: Alan watches TV shows, then writes about what he watched. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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February 10, 2011 at 2:43PM EST Reply to CommentWrite a comment...
RC
February 10, 2011 at 2:57PM EST Reply to CommentJust wondering—You didn't do an all-LOST podcast when it ended, did you?
sepinwall No, though we talked about the Lost finale at length the day after, and we had also discussed every episode of the final season each week on the podcast.
February 10, 2011 at 3:01PM ESTdan And we certainly could have. I think that what we did here worked fairly well, in terms of discussion and answering a slew of very specific reader questions. If "Lost" were to end again next week, I think we'd probably do a "Lost"-only podcast. Maybe...
February 10, 2011 at 3:17PM EST-Daniel
Guest I think the stand-alone nature of this podcast works especially well for FNL.
February 10, 2011 at 8:05PM ESTBecause of FNL's staggered airing dates through different channels, people can seek it out and listen to it when they've watched the finale.
February 11, 2011 at 1:27PM ESTOr, not.
Mernaggie12
February 10, 2011 at 3:24PM EST Reply to CommentListening to the podcast, just one bone to pick. Y'all keep talking about how we loved the 1st cast more than the second. However, I think this is just the function of having more time with that cast compared to the shortened 4/5 seasons. I think we had time to explore these characters like we did in that first season, we would have grown to love them just as much.
AP Oz
February 10, 2011 at 5:08PM EST Reply to CommentFNL certainly had numerous great characters, but it was so poorly plotted that I don't see how it could ever merit Top Ten Drama of All Time consideration.
Just about every major character underwent some completely ridiculous employment/athletic/educational opportunities (or lack thereof).
(1) Coach Taylor takes a team to the state finals for the 2nd time in 3 years, and then gets fired? Really?
(2) Tami Taylor gets offered Dean of Admissions at a prestigious school without any college-level experience? Are you kidding me?
(3) Jason Street becomes an agent despite not having a college degree. Please.
(4) Smash gets an in-season opportunity to tryout at Texas A&M, in clear violation of NCAA recruitment rules?
(5) Matt Saracen is suddenly revealed to be a good enough artist to gain a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago? C'mon.
(6) Luke Cafferty is the second-best player on a team that won a state championship in TEXAS, but can't get a D1 scholarship? That's just silly. (btw, same argument applies to Tim Riggins)
(7) Landry making the Lions as kicker in S4? Fine. But him playing for the vaunted Panthers as I think a TE in S2? After never playing football before? That was frankly more unbelievable than the murder storyline.
Anyway, those are just the ones I could up with off the top of my head. Overall, I think FNL's unwillingness to allow major characters to experience true failure (Riggins going to jail doesn't count because of its underlying nobility) is I think the show's most serious shortcoming. Which is why I don't think FNL is a great show, just a very good one with some great moments.
Brett Nothing much to say to this except you're completely wrong.
February 12, 2011 at 4:53AM ESTRob 1) Eric's firing was all about a power play from Joe McCoy after he turned him in to Child Protective Services and benched his son in the second half of the state game. It had nothing to do with wins and losses.
February 12, 2011 at 5:21AM EST2) I agree that Tami wasn't qualified for that position.
3) Sure.
4) It is in fact legal to try out as a walk-on during the season, as opposed to trying out for a scholarship.
5) We've known from the beginning that Matt was a good artist.
6) There are plenty of very good high school players who don't merit a D1 scholarship for various reasons, whether it be lack of size, speed, etc. I know of an all-state player who decided to walk-on at my alma mater (University of Washington) because he had no D1 offers. It happens. As far as Riggins goes, I think his grades were the main thing that prevented him from receiving a slew of offers.
7) I guess I missed the episode where Landry played tight end. He was primarily a special teams player for the Lions and I believe only got to play on offense once in S2 after the game was out of hand.
Just about every character experienced failure, be it big or small, at some point in the series. Just because none of the characters' lives were ultimately ruined by them doesn't prevent FNL from being a great show.
AP Oz 1) This is one of many reasons why the McCoys were the second worst storyline on the show. Because there's no way Joe McCoy would have been able to get a coach with Eric's record of accomplishment fired, especially after
February 12, 2011 at 1:44PM ESTAP Oz (1) This is one of many reasons why the McCoys were the second worst storyline on the show. Because there's no way Joe McCoy would have been able to get a coach with Eric's record of accomplishment fired, especially after his son played so horribly in the championship game.
February 12, 2011 at 2:22PM EST(4) While it's true that non-scholarship students can try to walk-on to a team, Smash was not enrolled at Texas A&M when he tried out during the school year. So there's no way he would have been eligible to play for A&M that year.
(5) Can you cite a Season 1 example of Matt being a good artist (or even interested in art)? Because I can't recall a single instance of it.
(6) I can see how an all-state player in Washington might not get recruited, but Texas (along with Florida) consistently produces the most D1 recruits.
(7) Actually, the game was not out of hand. Here's an account of Landry's game winning exploits on defense AND offense from Dan the Man Fienberg himself:
http://fienprint.blogspot.com/2007/11/friday-night-lights-gets-closer-to.html
And since my last sentence of point (7) would constitute plagiarism if I had read Dan's blog (which I don't think I did prior to the joint podcasts), I'll just include his take for the record:
"Let's just say that all season long, I've had a much easier time believing Landry as a Tyra-banging killer than accepting him as a productive member of the Dillon Panthers."
Lastly, I think the lack of a truly tragic storyline goes hand in hand with FNL's other shortcoming-- namely, an overabundance of sentimentality.
For example, I thought the moment a few episodes ago when Matt tells Julie to go home and stop running away from her life was a great moment that rang true to me. So to see him show up to propose so soon thereafter ruined that storyline for me. (I'm definitely on Coach's side regarding the engagement-- especially considering what Julie's been through this year.) So I was disappointed to see the writers once again resort to a conventional happy ending.
Peter
February 10, 2011 at 5:25PM EST Reply to CommentYou guys talked about Devin and Stan Traub, but you forgot about the lesbian mayor. I thought that was a season 2 plot point, but nope, Season 1 episode 13. It really was their "Bill Rawls in the gay bar" moment.
February 10, 2011 at 6:47PM EST Reply to CommentGreat podcast guys. I'm going to miss this show a lot.
belinda
February 11, 2011 at 8:53AM EST Reply to CommentHa! You guys really are terrible with names. (But, thanks for answering my question!)
Great podcast! Couldn't think of a better way to send off the show than hearing all the love for it (and the murder jokes. It IS the gift that keeps on giving!) I'm going to miss the show a whole, whole lot.
isaacl
February 11, 2011 at 12:29PM EST Reply to CommentIn the finale, I enjoyed the moment when Eric told Tammy about Matt proposing to "her daughter", and when Tammy said, "Julie?", Eric responded, "No, Gracie."
Though I would have liked to see more of Landry (and thought his absence in the little get-together with Matt, Julie, Tim, and Tyra was conspicuous, given that it was kind of a celebration of Matt and Julie's engagement), I understand that there was only so much time available in the episode. Personally I wouldn't have minded seeing less of Tyra; I think Lyla would have provided more of an aspirational goal for Tim, but I understand why dramatically Tyra was a more interesting choice to help bring Tim's story to a close.
I agree that the outcome of the final game just didn't feel important, because we knew everything was coming to an end: the team, Eric's time in Dillon, the series. It robbed the drama from the game, but given the episode was already filled with dramatic moments, it didn't suffer.
I didn't feel very invested in the Jess/Vince relationship (probably lingering resentment that Jess dumped good guy/fugitive from justice Landry). But the ambiguous ending, with both of them continuing with their dreams independently, was a nice sendoff.
Being able to see both the building of a team from scratch, and the hype and magic of a well-established success worked out really well. As sad as it is for the show to come to an end, it perhaps works better as lightning in a bottle, to better spotlight the specific heroes we've come to know. Congratulations to the writers and producers for overcoming the odds, much like the teams they depicted, in bringing us such wonderful stories, and demonstrating that even in the real world, that the following can be true: Clear eyes, full hearts: can't lose!
Guesser
February 11, 2011 at 12:35PM EST Reply to CommentThis was a terrific podcast on a terrific show, and a great listen. I like Dan pointing out that the season 2 murder was just one among a multitude of other head-scratching plot turns that year (albeit the most memorable). I also enjoyed the analysis behind why FNL wouldn't have been better on a premium cable channel. The characters and setting were so consistently believable and realistic that adding a dose of sleaze probably would've detracted from the viewing experience (unlike, say, Sopranos, where witnessing murders and adultry helps integrate viewers into that world).
February 12, 2011 at 12:10AM EST Reply to CommentI was not rooting for Landry and Tyra to end up together, but I would have loved a scene between the two: possibly one in which he tells her about the great new girl he is dating at college.
DAR
February 12, 2011 at 5:49PM EST Reply to CommentGreat podcast, loved this show, really going to miss it. If we're going to pile on Season 2 let's not forget the episode where Coach and Peter Berg's cowboy get into a fight at the restaurant.
Also there needed to be a mention that this had the best score of any tv series I've seen.
DAR
February 12, 2011 at 6:23PM EST Reply to CommentOne more thing that wasn't mentioned but Billy Riggins became a fantastic character as the show wore on.