'Friday Night Lights' - 'A Sort of Homecoming': Father of the pride
Coach reaches back to East Dillon's past while his present-day stars fight it out.
When Lions fight, on "Friday Night Lights."
Once, again, I reviewed all the episodes for this season of "Friday Night Lights" on my old blog as they aired on DirecTV. Because I can't bring content from the old blog over here, each week I'm going to link to those reviews so you can see what I and the DirecTV audience thought of them back in the fall, then discuss them here.
This week: "A Sort of Homecoming," in which Coach reaches out to some Lions alums, Luke and Vince have beef and Matt gets some (more) bad news. Go read the review and - keeping in mind that we will not be discussing, or even hinting at, anything that happens in episodes that have yet to air on NBC - tell me what you thought of the episode.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupMylesMcNutt
May 28, 2010 at 9:29PM EST Reply to CommentFrom my memory, the episode was solid, but I have nothing substantial to say on the subject: instead, I would like to note that this promotional still seems to indicate something VERY different than I remember from that scene.
Just sayin'.
alone in the dark
May 28, 2010 at 9:50PM EST Reply to CommentI'm not sure Matt's motivation was re-written as thoroughly as you suppose, Alan. To me, it seemed more like a realization that his nobility had doomed him to a life stuck in a place he hates. Julie will be moving on soon and Matt is realizing that, for all his gifts and good traits, he's going to end up like Riggins. That's a bitter pill. He might be (and here is where we enter fanwank) trying to blame Julie just to take the edge off his pain.
jenfullmoon
May 29, 2010 at 12:06AM EST Reply to CommentWow, Devin likes to date...clones of herself, apparently. Weirdness.
Was kind of amused by Julie's spotting the closeted gay coach, or at least he's secure enough to work bar at a "gay" club.
Still find Vince utterly dull and charisma-charm-personality-free. All he does is pout and fight and I cannot figure out why the hell I should care about him. I miss Smash.
Did enjoy the Riggins/Saracen reunion and man talk about girls. About died watching Tim in this episode in general for so many reasons.
Go Landry.
Poor Matt.
Jim
May 29, 2010 at 2:26AM EST Reply to CommentWrite a comment...
Jim
May 29, 2010 at 2:31AM EST Reply to CommentI've always been bothered by Principal Tami, and now that she's the great scapegoat and traitor of Panther football it feels even more contrived. Wouldn't she be in even more trouble for attending East Dillon games and rallies?
I was also bothered by Matt saying he stayed for Julie, it was pretty clear last season he stayed for Lorraine.
And damn the people at Hulu or NBC or whoever it was who made tonight's shock ending last week's preview.
Chaddogg
May 29, 2010 at 10:57AM EST Reply to CommentAlan -- I'm not so sure the assistasnt coach really is closeted and compensating for it somehow with his "rah rah" excessiveness. Wouldn't it be funnier (in a sense), if he really didn't realize he had been at a gay bar at all?
And it hardly needs to be said, but....is there a character you'd more like to hang out with/grab a beer with than Riggins? Although I'd love to be friends with the Taylors, too.
(By the way, another continuity issue -- how did Tami get the spray-paint off her car? Wouldn't it be interesting if she was hiding the extent of the abuse she's getting, somewhat like Coach hid his spending on uniforms?)
bratcat
May 29, 2010 at 11:45AM EST Reply to CommentRiggins: "I'm going to tell you something, alright? You can't tell anyone else. My mother never took me shopping for a pageant gown. Because of that I never placed at Miss Texas, that's why I got into football. That's a fact."
one of 33's best quotes of the series.
wildflowermaven
May 29, 2010 at 1:01PM EST Reply to CommentI'm with you Alan, didn't like rewriting history on Matt's motivation. Although I'm sure Julie was part of it, we usually have more than one reason to do something. Would be better if they kept the reasoning the same, but Matt's mom stepped up to the plate so Matt didn't feel he needed to take care of grandma. I loved the scene with Riggins and Saracen hunting and Matt, inexperienced, shooting at who knows what so Riggins takes his gun away. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and this happens more than you'd like to think--someone shooting at something moving without a clear ID on what it is.
Chazz_Goodtimes
May 30, 2010 at 9:19PM EST Reply to CommentI was ultimately satisfied with the episode- despite a couple hiccups. The largest of those would clearly be the seemingly rewritten motiviation for Matt staying. I think it is possible that both Julie and Loraine were contributing factors- but it would have been nice for the to at least allude to Julie playing into the decision last season (assuming we're sure at this point that they didn't).
Also:
-Did they explain how Buddy knew those players from East Dillon so well?
-Kathy Ireland as a kicker for the Texas State University Fightin' Armadillos is about as believable as Kenny Powers being a 5'8 closer who used to throw straight gas... point being that there are definitely much bigger stretches than Jess playing punter/kicker for the undermanned Lion squad.
Finally- the pep rally scene was great- easily my favorite part of this new season.
Adam >Also:
May 31, 2010 at 12:59PM EST>-Did they explain how Buddy knew those players from East >Dillon so well?
One of them commented that he was a hell of a tackler, so I got the sense they had played against each other in HS.
Slim Charles
May 31, 2010 at 8:03AM EST Reply to Comment"The Landry of season two just would have killed her and tried to hide the body." Genius line, Alan.
When Landry was contemplating what to do with Jess, I couldn't help thinking "Dude, you dated the hottest chick in town last year...go get her!"
OrphanFunkhauser
June 1, 2010 at 12:02AM EST Reply to CommentWhy does NBC refuse to promote this show? It has the best acting of any show I watch on television right now. It's bad enough that NBC botched the scheduling in its early seasons, but it's not even trying to spread the word about the show.
June 1, 2010 at 9:19AM ESTI agree with a lot of the inconsistencies, except for the Julie/Devon relationship. I kinda liked they showed a scene with them in a car getting a milkshake or whatever and not having to have a big backstory with them bonding. That totally reminded me of high school, hanging out with a friend of a friend like it aint no thing because it really wasn't back then. Rang true for me.
Also, LOVED the Riggins line "We had different paths." Sounded like a direct quote lifted right out of Lyla's mouth.
Maggie
June 1, 2010 at 6:34AM EST Reply to CommentI realize this was more last episode, but it was shown in the previouslys for this week, so let me say that I'm definitely finding the idea that Julie is holding Matt back from being a true artist to be ridiculous. I agree that art can be strengthened by personal experience, especially those events with strong emotional fall-out, but why does that mean Matt can't have a stable girlfriend relationship? He's been abandoned by his mother, had to take care of his ailing grandmother, gained and lost his relationship with his father - even before his father's death, there's enough trauma to influence his voice as an artist. The suggestion that he has to break up with Julie in order to sink low enough into despair to unleash his artistic sensibility is silly.
I also still don't understand how Julie so easily was able to transfer to East Dillon, after the bit stink that was made about having to attend the school your residence was zoned for. Why is her situation any different than Luke's? The same rules apply, but in reverse. True, we're shown that East Dillon is less desirable, so Julie is likely the only one to have made that switch, but I don't understand why Luke's supporters aren't all up in Tami's face for allowing her daughter to do exactly what she stopped Luke from doing.
Slim Charles Most school districts will allow the children of teachers to attend the school where their parent teaches.
June 1, 2010 at 7:59AM ESTsarak
June 1, 2010 at 5:21PM EST Reply to Comment"(The Landry of season two just would have killed her and tried to hide the body.) "
Ha!
"Vince silently handing Luke back his wallet was funny, but wouldn't the cops have made Vince empty his pockets before they tossed him in a cell?"
That's exactly what I thought! When the boys got arrested, I was waiting for the cops to give Luke back his wallet. Although it was a great comic moment when Vince handed it back to him :)
Coach and Tami, as always, were perfection. But Riggs got the best lines this week :)