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'Friday Night Lights' - 'Toilet Bowl': Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies

Characters explore new opportunities, and the Lions face a beatable foe.

By Alan Sepinwall Friday, Jun 25, 2010 9:00 PM

<p>Riggins shows Becky some real estate on "Friday Night Lights."</p>

Riggins shows Becky some real estate on "Friday Night Lights."

Credit: NBC

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: "Toilet Bowl," in which the Lions finally have a shot at a win, and our heroes explore new opportunities. 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.

 

 

Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Related Searches: Friday Night Lights, Alan Sepinwall

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  • Default-avatar

    tom

    I think Landry's kicking style is perfect in it's awfulness. Tons of high school football players look great running and throwing, but 90% of the high school kickers I've seen in my life have truly terrible form due to the fact that most just don't have the talent for it.

    June 25, 2010 at 10:49PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Col Bat Guano

    So will Riggins be going to prison for possession of stolen property or for fooling around with Becky?

    June 25, 2010 at 11:22PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Lisa

    I was thinking about Becky and Tim throughout the episode and I know I'm in the vast minority here, but I don't see what is so wrong with the two of them. Tim is only a couple of months removed from high school himself, and Becky is likely 16 or so. I know Taylor Kitsch looks 30, but he's playing someone really close to Becky's age. I guess I like them because Becky seems to be the first girl that is 100% into Tim. She's not trying to change him or take him off to fancy dinners to eat squaw. She just likes him. Maybe it'll turn out that she just has daddy issues, but as it is, I'm not opposed to them.

    I read the comments on your review, Alan, and they were fairly anti-Julie. I questioned that too... I work in a high school and see girls like this all the time. I'm inclined to give Julie some slack. The boy that she thought was the love of her life just abandoned her. (Yes, abandoned. She didn't really think he'd leave. Not like that.) She's contemplating moving across the country for college. She switched high schools this year. I don't know, Julie has always been overly emotional, and now she's going through possibly the hardest patch in her life to date. I'd probably be pretty darn whiney too.

    June 26, 2010 at 12:27AM EST Reply to Comment
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      Alf Age issues aside, Tim slept with Becky's mom.

      June 26, 2010 at 1:44AM EST
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    Chazz_Goodtimes

    This episode had some of my favorite moments of the season but was bogged down by the Boston trip. The scene with the band was terrific and Luke's story continues to be the most compelling of the new characters.

    In addition to Landry's ridiculous kicking form I was a little put off by some of the football- especially the last play of the game which looked like an inside hand off or draw from the 20 yardline with only 16 seconds left on the clock and no timeouts. Really? Adam Carolla has an on-going rant about how anytime hollywood tries to do sports in a tv show or movie they need one straight guy in the writing room checking for that type of non-sense. I'd qualify that sentiment- and say that friday night lights ought to have at least one consultant (of any gender or orientation) who knows the game. I realize that the authenticity of the football action is a low priority for the show but given how little screen time the games actually get it would be nice to watch something a little more believable.

    June 26, 2010 at 1:55AM EST Reply to Comment
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    micguar

    Hey, Alan. I've read your blog for quite some time now, and it convinced me to check out a few shows. This is one of them. I just marathoned the first season of Friday Night Lights with my brother. We both loved it, especially the last few episodes. However, I've heard that season 2 is not as good as the first, and has a sensationalistic, poorly-written plot line about a murder, by my brother's favorite character, no less. And in general, I hear bad things about season 2 in comparison to the rest of the show.

    Some places I've read advise me to skip the season entirely, but that seems very drastic. I usually can't stand to skip or miss even a single episode of a TV show I love, but I don't want to slog through 15 hours of TV I don't like to get to two better seasons.

    What is your advice on this? Any readers care to chime in?

    June 26, 2010 at 3:14AM EST Reply to Comment
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      Sid I skipped Season 2 and didn't miss a beat.

      Because of the writer's strike, they didn't get to wrap up the storylines and basically started fresh for Season 3.

      June 26, 2010 at 5:01AM EST
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      Sid I actually started an IMDB thread about this recently and got some solid (if biased) answers.

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758745/board/flat/165073530?d=165073530#165073530

      June 26, 2010 at 5:03AM EST
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      mj I thought one of the most entertaining features of watching Season 2 was how Alan turned on the show in his reviews and the contentious debates in the comments to his reviews. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a diehard fan and have seen every single episode of the show sometimes multiple times but will admit that the one plot line in Season 2 stunk. At the same time the plot line did create some astonishing acting performances - Glen Morshower as Landry's Dad was worth watching and Jesse Plemmons played his role as Landry so well the producers gave him more and more work to do. And of course if you can't get enough of the brilliant work of Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton then Season 2 is another fine reason to watch.

      June 26, 2010 at 7:40AM EST
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      Jess D I agree with mj. I was less than thrilled with the direction Landry's story takes in Season 2, but Jesse Plemmons acted the hell out of it. There were some scenes with Landry and his dad that were just amazing from an acting an emotional standpoint, even if the situations they found themselves in were a bit ridiculous for FNL. And I find nearly every episode worth it if it includes some quality Eric and Tami time. Even in Season 2. It wasn't the greatest season, but I don't feel like I wasted my time by watching it.

      June 26, 2010 at 8:27AM EST
    • Midnight_run_mca255950_talkback_profile

      sepinwall There are certainly great performances and individual moments in season 2, but my problems with it went much deeper than just the murder. That plot was the worst part of that year, and the season, but overall very little of it worked on either an arc or episode-by-episode level, and there's only one episode ("Leave No One Behind") that's from start-to-finish of the quality of either season one or the seasons that came after.

      June 26, 2010 at 8:54AM EST
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      Dolphin Even on its worst episode, FNLs does well against most network television. I'd say watch it, but just be forewarned that there are some inconsistencies due to writers strike ... and enjoy Season 3 even more. (The Tyra/Landry mis step does not take up that much time per ep.)

      June 26, 2010 at 7:48PM EST
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    Slim Charles

    Even a bad FNL season is better than most of the shows on network TV.

    That being said, I'd never sit through it again.

    June 26, 2010 at 3:03PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Slim Charles This should have been a reply to micguar's post.

      June 26, 2010 at 3:04PM EST

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