'Friday Night Lights' takes Manhattan
Why is it so hard to say good-bye on Friday Night Lights?
[Like Eli... Spoilers coming... Spoilers coming...]
Wednesday (Nov. 19) night's episode, titled "New York, New York" was the second time this season that Friday Night Lights has needed to jettison a long-time cast member they could no longer afford. While the episode and circumstances around the departure of Scott Porter's Jason Street weren't quite as strong as the set-up for Gaius Charles' exit in "Hello, Goodbye," I'm guessing the hour hit many of the right emotional high points for long-time viewers.
It needs to be said that with both character exits, the actors involved did a far, far better job of selling the moments than the writers did.
When Charles' Smash exited, he had seemingly received a walk-on at a major college football program. You know, one of those opportunities that colleges are constantly giving out at midseason to kids who haven't even been accepted at the college in question, much less enrolled. But Charles was so great -- as were Kyle Chandler and Liz Mikel -- that you could ignore that the writers weren't giving any consideration at all to plausibility or facilitating an organic departure.
The same was true with "New York, New York" and the unlikely rise of Jason Street: Uneducated Budding Sports Agent. I already discussed last week how strange it was for two characters we'd never seen before to have pushed Street's future in a direction he was woefully unqualified for. At least the series semi-acknowledged that the odds of somebody like Jason Street landing a job in a business that usually requires a law-degree and an extensive apprenticeship, would be low. Then they promptly negated those concerns by falling back on something we've learned to be the case on several occasions: Jason Street can sell anybody on anything at any time. He can make you buy a car. He can convince you to sell him your house. He can make you keep a baby conceived after a drunken one-night stand. He's got that Obi Wan, "These are not the droids you're looking for" Force action going. So we knew when Street went off to Penn A&M to talk Wendell into changing agents -- I hope Penn A&M is looking forward to some probation in the years to come when the NCAA learns their star played signed with not one, but two agents mid-season -- he would be unstoppable.
So yes, part of me would like to know how Riggins and Street got to New York City in the first place. That part of me also wants to know how Riggins -- so gung-ho on his college hopes just last week -- was able to just ditch a week of practice leading up to a key football game. That part of me also thinks that the $14,000 the house-flippers made in their real estate deal isn't going to last so long.
But to heck with that... Street and Riggins in New York City? Who'd want to listen to the pesky logical portion of their brain that would dare negate the unbridled awesomeness of Street and Riggins taking on the Big Apple? They bought suits! They were disoriented by a succession of scary minorities! They bought tickets for Gypsy! I'm not sure if they went to Gypsy. And I'd have liked to see that. But I admire Riggins' ability to track down the most respectable current Broadway production about stripping. He's bound to have been disappointed. They'd have eaten Gypsy Rose alive at the Landing Strip.
What I'm saying is that the Jason Street exit strategy was patently absurd and became less logical the more they tried to show how it could happen, but because of Porter and Taylor Kitsch, I was mostly able to put aside my frustrations. By the time they bumped fists and said, "Texas Forever," yeah, I was a bit misty-eyed.
My only wish would have been for Coach Taylor to have somehow been involved in seeing Street off. But Coach was too busy being emasculated this week. It was an entire episode of people trying to ram things down Coach Taylor's throat and, for the most part, he kept folding like the sort of suit you get in Manhattan as part of a "2-for-$150 deal." He didn't want to hire JD McCoy's personal QB coach to replace the ailing Mac, but he caved. He didn't want to give Matt Saracen at chance at wide receiver, but he caved. And he didn't want to enter into discussion about buying a new house. He didn't cave on that part, meaning that no matter how close to castration Eric Taylor came, he remained in control of his finances.
At least the Saracen-to-Receiver thing made a little sense. From Antwan Randle El to Matt Jones to Ronald Curry, turning QBs into mediocre and inconsistent WRs is all the rage in professional football. Plus, the Dillon Panthers have never had a wide receiver before, or at least not one we've met by name.
The best part of the Saracen arc was how Julie made it possible with her passionate dinner table defense, setting up the deal with Coach that if Matt successfully ran 10 passing patterns, Coach would at least entertain the possibility of playing him at receiver.
That sequence led to the episode's two best lines, starting with a sore-armed Coach's "Do we have aspirin in the house?"
I also loved Julie's "So me being your girlfriend, does that entitle me to like 10 percent of your future earnings?" followed by Matt's speedy, "No, it doesn't."
That, by the way, was all I wanted from Mulie last week, just an acknowledgement that their post-sex relationship remained intact. I didn't want some big conversation about their status or anything.
Other thoughts on this week's episode:
What'd y'all think?
I teared up, too. It was very emotional--and I was so afraid she would turn Jason away.
I think I have a partial explanation for Tyra, but even then it's got huge holes in it. She appeases whomever she spoke with last.
So, talk to mom and accept her lot in life. Talk to Tami and think she can do more. Talk to Landry and...well, I don't know what that would be. Maybe think she could start a Christian speed metal slash scream-core band? Unfortunately, the writers also made Tyra the *strong-willed* Collette, so I have a problem reconciling that with her appeaser's personality. Oh well.
As for Street's farewell, my allergies kicked up, yeah. More over Tim's reaction than Jason's departure, though. That was some really fine acting Taylor Kitsch did without saying a word. On any other week, I would say it was the best silent acting I'd seen on television.
More of my thoughts here.
Dave... I know FNL is as real as it gets when it comes to a TV show, but it's still a TV show. We suspend disbelief for shows like Heroes, because the plot is so much fantasy in the first place. Because FNL is rooted in reality, it makes it hard to do the same, but I think we should for sake of the characters and the story. This was about giving a character who was a major player on the show the send-off he deserved, and that's exactly what we got.
Agreed with R.A, you could literally FEEL Riggins sigh of relief when his girl took him back. That was a great moment.
I don't care how implausible Street's rise to peon status is, it served the character well and the actors told an amazing story.
i could identify with tyra. as a high school senior who blew off college to be with 'the boy i loved' i could understand how she changed her mind so quickly.
You did NOT just go there with the "Mulie." I did not read that. I am going to pretend I didn't read that atrocious portmanteau name. *headdesks forever*
Other, good article. I like how you point out the implausibility of Smash getting on the college team, in particular. It's just something that made me bite my tongue at the time because I wanted things to work out for him even though the writing was sloppy on that point.
While clearly not the sendoff that Smash's was, it was still decent. I'm guessing that Smash's story is essentially what they would have wrote for him had they been able to finish last year and as such that would have put the timeline as sometime prior to finishing HS or the summer at the latest. Unfortunately, due to the strike and the way the show had to pick things up, it was put in an awkward situation timeline wise - hense the midseason walk-on status that Smash ended up with. Putting aside all of the implausibilities that Daniel (blogger) pointed out (for Street), I liked the story for just that "a story."
However (mini-rant starting), I have to say I'm disappointed in the number of errors/points missed by this review/blog:
1) The did see Gypsy. Riggins told Street to convince Wendell to sign with Grant's sports agency tomorrow after we see Gypsy tonight;
2) The suit deal was 2 for $125, not $150 - or the package deal of 2 suits, 2 shirts, 2 socks and a pair of shoes for $200; and
3) We never met a Dillon WR by name - uhm, what about Landry? (also, they did intro a couple in S1, but I confess to not remembering their names). (mini-rant over)
BTW, I too want them to find a way to keep Herc around. That was one of the bad things about losing Smash - lost his whole family plus people like Jana Kramer (Noelle) - and now Street with Herc, plus his new family (don't think there's a way to keep him singing lullabies is there?). I suspect we'll feel the sting even worse when Matt leaves and that means no more Grandma.
I don't understand why they didn't keep the v-ball team, as that is the out for Tyra - get a ship.
Oh yeah, one other thing JaMarcus didn't just start to play football last week, he was shown for the first time last week, but he was on the team the whole season - at least that was the implication in last week's episode. Otherwise, his loss wouldn't have been so big that it warranted Coaches Mac and Taylor asking Tami to not suspend him. There is no way for them to know what kind of impact he would've made after just a couple of practises.
Great review....Dan hit the main points without giving us a blow by blow recap and his analysis was really good. That being said, I love the show, the characters, the acting and am very willing to buy whatever they're selling.
Rishi --
Couple quick things:
1)Landry was a tight end, not a wide receiver. The Panthers have always run a weird offense that relies on p***es to running backs, fullbacks and tight ends without any actual wide receiver existing.
2)The JaMarcus thing was a joke about how he'd never been seen or mentioned before the last episode, when he suddenly became a focal point of drama.
3)Did we see Riggins at "Gypsy"? Did we get his review of "Gypsy"? Then he might as well not have gone at all. I want to know how his opinion differed from Ben Brantley's review...
-Daniel
I agree with most of your points about implausibility, but as a law school grad and someone that has some interest in the field of sports law and sports agency, I have to point out a couple of erroneous points you made.
Jason was trying to get a job at a sports agency. This is different from trying to get a job as a sports lawyer or an entertainment lawyer. There is no requirement to have gone to law school at all, and in all of my research I have never heard anything about any type of sports agency apprenticeship. In fact, a lot of the most successful sports agents are former athletes who decided to use their connections with former teammates and coaches to jump into the sports agency biz (much like the agent Jason tries to get a job from).
For example, Drew Rosenhaus is arguably the most successful NFL sports agent in history. While he did go to law school, he began building his agency by using his connections as an undergrad at the University of Miami (he used to play video games all the time with UM football players and had a solid connection with them on a personal level).
So yeah. THAT part of the story wasn't implausible at all. Former athletes jump into low-level positions like that all the time.