Friday Night Football

Full disclosure: I have been nursing an obsession with Kyle Chandler since I was 16. I had a letter to the editor published in Us Magazine in 11th grade, extolling his hotness, and in my yearbook's senior predictions I believe I said I would marry his Homefront character Jeff Metcalf. Strange? Perhaps. But also, kind of cool, because not many people know who he is, so it makes him more mine. Wait, I think I hear a cease and desist letter knocking at my door. For what it's worth, he did marry a writer and have two daughters. Coincidence? Yes.

Homefront was a gem of a show. His follow-up, Early Edition, was not and I didn't love him enough to watch it anyway. So imagine my relief, when he came back to television in the role of Coach Eric Taylor on critically-acclaimed Friday Night Lights, except that at first I didn't watch. Football and Texas are not necessarily my thing. (Except tonight - Go Ravens!) When I finally did tune in, what I found was a show only marginally about football and actually about everything else that makes parenting and growing-up complex and gritty and wonderful and sad.

After striking a deal with DirecTV, where the third season aired last fall, FNL was saved from the ax, and the premiere of Season 3 was on NBC Friday. It's the beginning of a new school year and Tami Taylor is the new principal; Coach Taylor is officially back to getting beat up on local sports' radio as the Panthers head coach; Smash suffered an ACL injury that cost him his scholarship and Lila has made the switch from raising herself up to Jesus to laying down with Riggins (and really, who wouldn't?). Tyra and Landry are on a break and Saracen and Julie are status unknown. I assume, as the season moves on we will see how Jason Street is managing the unexpected pregnancy from last season.

There is also the addition of a new freshman QB, whose talent could jeopardize Saracen's place on the team. The kid is talented, and even Grandma Saracen noticed.

Coach Taylor is just a regular guy with a family and a football team. He loves his wife (the impeccable Connie Britton) and two daughters, though they generally cause him a fair deal of confusion. He has high expectations for his players, but knows that Riggins is a drunk. He isn't above throwing a player off the team when he has to, or taking him back. He tossed Saracen in the shower last season to sober him up and give him the Coach lecture, only to find a scared kid, heartbroken at the string of people who keep leaving him alone. He might try to heal everything with football, but he endures and that quiet devotion is what makes this more than a football show.

Friday's premiere found him helping Smash get healthy. On a show soaking in authenticity, Smash isn't doing anything but working at the Alamo Freeze fast food joint. Football is everything. It's a ticket out of Dillon and to college. Without it, many of these guys don't have far to fall to the bottom. I have a feeling whatever Smash's future holds; it's going to make all of us weep to watch him and Coach sort it out.

Tyra was the other focus of the premiere. As much as I want her to get away from Dillon and her stripper sister and drunken mother, I also feel frustrated that she has to deliver speeches all the time. FNL doesn't really do speeches, unless it's Coach getting his team pumped for a game (Clear Eyes! Full Heart! Can't Lose!) And yet, Tyra had to deliver a speech to her counselor. It's not that he didn't deserve to be told off, but the best part of this show is the quietness and the struggle to find the right words. I did, however, love her assessment of Billy's engagement to her sister. Marriage, baby, divorce, fights over child support. Ouch. The boys aren't the only ones hoping for a better day.

Of course there was Tim Riggins — currently star football player and hot as hell; future washed up football player and town drunk. He and Lila are all flummoxed about whether or not to let on to Dillon and all of Tim's girls-on-the-side that they are a couple. They share a kiss at the post-game party that settles the issue for the moment, but Riggins carries the wounds and weariness of a man twice his age, so I think this couple has some hurdles ahead of them.

No Friday Night Lights would be complete without the perfection that is Tami Taylor. When she took Buddy's jumbotron money away so that she could pay for school supplies and teacher's salaries, I just about cried with pride. I think Tami the Principal and the Panthers might have a few disagreements this season. It's been so interesting watching this character come into her life. From her job as school counselor, to a surprise pregnancy, to navigating her marriage and Julie's high school years, to her new promotion, she has shown what it looks like to emerge from the shadows. It's messy and exhilarating. I will cherish her character as one of the best on TV — ever.

Next in blogging land: Gossip Girl and maybe the inauguration (looking for the words!).

Bluck You

Seriously, why did I think I could focus on Gossip Girl while Mimi and Violet were still awake and fighting over who got to have the 3-inch Cinderella figurine in bed with them. Oh, they were supposed to be asleep, but they were not. Even with the power of the pause button (thank you DVR), I'm not sure I caught everything, so feel free to berate me if I leave out some juicy bit.

Maybe it was the constant interruptions, or my extreme fatigue last night,* but I found this episode kind of dull, although Adam pointed out that a lot was revealed. Interesting that 'he who does not watch Gossip Girl,' not only noticed that things were revealed, but seemed pleased. He's needs to own up and embrace his inner Dan Humphrey. He totally brown bagged it in private school.**

Anyway, yes, much was revealed, but it was very soap opera. Plus, Rufus' hair was bad. Not Jenny homicide-inducing bad, but the wispy bangs aren't a good look for him. I used to love the parents, because they are just a wee bit closer to my age than the teenagers and pre-wisps Rufus had a hot-dad, grunge thing going on. (I go for that these days.) But the whole adoption thing has ruined the hot parent thing.

Is it me or did Lily seem kind of pleased that the kid was dead? I found it pretty predictable that he isn't actually dead, but I am curious to see how it plays out. Just please let him not look or act at all like Aaron. What was with Lily's weird speech outside Rufus' door? Was she breaking up with him? Apparently not, since they are all going to be one big happy-ish family: Dan Humphrey, his girlfriend Serena, Eric and his hag Jenny. I'm excited for their Christmas card.

Don't you love that throughout the course of Lily and Rufus' trip to Boston their kids couldn't reach them, and they didn't call to check on them and the kids basically had to sort out all of their feelings about the love child BY THEMSELVES!? Not to mention the fact that it was revealed by Gossip Girl. And, ew, they don't share DNA.

I know some bloggers are rocking the mean girls, but I'm not. I don't know why. (Oddly enough, I love the mini-meanies. Very cute.) Maybe my dislike is really my fear that someday my girls are going to be on the wrong side of a group of girls who have the moral compass of Bernie Madoff. Or worse that they will be one! I know Blair is a mean girl and I love her, but we've seen her gooey, Chuck-loving, bulimic center. We know she's more than the bitch on the steps.

I'm also not sure if I believe that Nelly Yuki would have stolen Dan Humphrey's phone and spilled that level of dish. I see her more as a hanger on, than an actual sociopath like her 'friends.' I realize that Blair and her minions' machinations do keep the show moving and they often have the best lines, so I suppose I will shake off my real life woes and tolerate what must be.

Speaking of 'friends,' Blair and Chuck aren't even that anymore. After spending the entire episode in his tiny, tiny suit and lady's trench, Chuck took his sad eyes up Blair's elevator and was dismissed. Big time. And it's hard to argue with her logic. Whores, pills, public embarrassment, and the word 'wife' spit at you like bile, can make a girl pack it in. Really Bluck fans, none of you want a weak Blair and that's where she was headed if she took Chuck back, even though they weren't together together. They sure do have crackling chemistry though and are, I would argue, the best actors on the show.

(How HOT was Blair's dress for their non-romantic/romantic, didn't happen dinner? Blake Lively might be on the cover of Vogue this month, but Leighton Meester is a real beaut.)

There was some other stuff in this episode too. Chuck the Teenager was given control of his father's jabillion dollar company and then lost it to his conniving uncle, because of the aforementioned whores, drugs, etc. There was a fake-out last week that something had happened with Blair and Uncle Jack, but apparently that got dropped. For now anyway. Oh, and Vanessa and Nate had some sort of anniversary, for which coffee and candy is given. They are scintillating.

Next week it looks like Blair is back to being Queen Bee, and this time she's taking on teacher.

As for me, I forgot how hard it is to write and do anything else! This recap took me forever. More on that tomorrow. xoxo

* One of my resolutions was to get more sleep! I forgot to add it to my earlier list. Now I'm putting it out there, so I have to do it. Another one I forgot was learning to knit.

** He was a pb&J guy and as far I know never landed himself a Serena Van Der Woodsen.