Vince and Luke continue to butt heads as East Dillon teammates.

In “A sort of Homecoming,” East Dillon alumni are brought back together in support of the school’s new football team.

Tragically, another sort of homecoming comes with the devastating news that a Dillon favorite son soon will be coming home.

The episode opens with the ever-present, annoying voice of Slammin’ Sammy, taking to the airwaves to give voice to callers bashing Principal Tami Taylor’s decision to expose Luke Cafferty’s fraud.

Coach Eric Taylor approaches Principal Burnwell to gauge his interest in holding a pep rally to jump-start interest in the Lions. Assured it won’t cost the cash-strapped school, Burnwell signs off.
Read the full story

Coach Eric Taylor continues to struggle to win over his new team.

For Buddy Garritty, the love affair ended. For Eric Taylor, the truth blindsided him.

Just another week in Dillon, Texas.

Taylor knew the odds were stacked against him. Taking over at a new school with no funding, no support and no talent, he knew he was a million miles away from his days atop the heap as head coach of the Dillon Panthers.
Read the full story

Coach Eric Taylor deals with the aftermath of forfeiting East Dillon's opening game.

Something was missing for Coach Eric Taylor.

He had lost his team. He had lost his confidence. He had lost his way.

He had lost his Inner Pirate, or so said the strange man filling up late one night at Airport Express Food and Gas.

In the second episode of the fourth season of “Friday Night Lights,” Taylor deals with the fallout from his decision to throw in the towel at halftime of East Dillon’s opening game. Read the full story

Friday Night Lights returns for its fourth season with several new faces joining familiar ones.

Throughout its three seasons, “Friday Night Lights” has faced myriad challenges.

Beloved by the critics (myself included), for whatever reason, it’s never drawn the ratings it has so richly deserved. Thankfully, for loyal viewers, NBC has gone against type and actually made the right decision for once by sticking with the show. The network of Lenogate that has been so quick to drop promising shows — “Southland” as a perfect example — actually has believed in Lights and kept it on the air. By bringing in DirecTV as a partner, NBC assured us two more seasons.

As for on the field, Lights writers were faced with the challenge of keeping the show fresh, and as much as we love rooting on the Dillon Panthers, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” was becoming a bit cliche. Plus, several of the show’s characters were getting, shall we say, a little long in the tooth. Believing that, say Jason Street and Tyra Collette still were in high school while they were played by actors in their mid-to-late 20s required a serious suspension of disbelief. Read the full story

What could have been a graceful ending, thankfully, turned into a new beginning for “Friday Night Lights.”

The show’s writers displayed foresight in writing Friday’s season finale as a possible series finale if the perennially ratings-deprived drama was canceled after three seasons. With last week’s surprise announcement that DirecTV and NBC will continue their sharing agreement for not one, but two more seasons, the finale acted as a promising lead-in to next season.

“Tomorrow Blues” opens five months after the Panthers’ state championship loss. While Billy and Mindy are preparing for their wedding, the senior class is honored at a breakfast. Matt is going to the Art Institute of Chicago and Tim and Lila each are going to San Antonio State. Tyra, meanwhile, is awaiting word whether she will be accepted to Texas.
Read the full story

What could have been a graceful ending, thankfully, turned into a new beginning for “Friday Night Lights.”

The show’s writers displayed foresight in writing Friday’s season finale as a possible series finale if the perennially ratings-deprived drama was canceled after three seasons. With last week’s surprise announcement that DirecTV and NBC will continue their sharing agreement for not one, but two more seasons, the finale acted as a promising lead-in to next season.

“Tomorrow Blues” opens five months after the Panthers’ state championship loss. While Billy and Mindy are preparing for their wedding, the senior class is honored at a breakfast. Matt is going to the Art Institute of Chicago and Tim and Lila each are going to San Antonio State. Tyra, meanwhile, is awaiting word whether she will be accepted to Texas.
Read the full story

Sometimes victory comes through loss, a point made clear in the latest “Friday Night Lights,” which once again displayed why it is nonpareil when it comes to network television dramas.

“Underdogs” could have followed the tried-and-true format of feel-good TV. The plucky local team falls so far behind to appear to have no chance of winning, only to somehow rally and capture the state championship. The Dillon Panthers did fall behind and did stage a stunning rally. That last part, however, strayed from the typical script.

That the South Texas Titan kicker knocked the last-second field goal through instead of clanging it off an upright was the perfect ending. Of course, it would have been nice to see the Panthers win another state championship, but it would have rang false.
Read the full story

In its three seasons, “Friday Night Lights” has been faced with several fourth-and-long situations. Always a darling of the critics, “Lights” never has gotten the ratings and always has seemed to be one dropped pass from cancellation.

On Monday, however, NBC and DirecTV made the surprise announcement that the show isn’t coming back just for next season, but has been renewed for two 13-episode seasons. DirecTV once again gets first-air rights, followed by NBC.

After an inconsistent second season, “Lights” has bounced back with a compelling season featuring some of the best acting on network or cable TV. Having already watched the entire third season on DirecTV, I was struck with how the season finale (which airs on April 10) was written so that if the show wouldn’t be back, it would have acted as a solid series finale.

Thankfully, it wasn’t the end and we’ll get another two seasons of Coach Eric Taylor and the Dillon Panthers.

J.D. McCoy is faced with off-field issues.

My father and I haven’t had the closest of relationships.

But watching this week’s “Friday Night Lights,” made me miss him and appreciate him. You see, growing up, I was J.D. McCoy. No, I wasn’t that good. No one is that good. This is TV after all …

But I enjoyed some success in athletics, partly because of my father. He was a former coach, so he could have pushed me harder. But he didn’t

He was no Joe McCoy. Thank God for that.
Read the full story

Julie and Matt are caught in bed by Coach Taylor.

Having previously watched the third season of “Friday Night Lights” when it was first shown on DirecTV, I’ve enjoyed watching the season all over again with NBC’s broadcasts.

But not this week.

Knowing what to expect in this week’s episode, I endured it, rather than enjoyed it. It wasn’t that it was a bad episode. Far from it. The writing and acting, as always, was superior.
Read the full story