I’m right 100% of the time, just ask my husband.”
-Tami Taylor

It’s nice that it only took them half a season to actually have Tami act like a Principal, and interact with students other than Tyra.  The Jamarcus situation allowed Wife Tami and Principal Tami to really become one, with Tami’s empowering speech to Jamarcus’ parents about the importance of football.  In any other town they’d be right, but with Eric, football does change lives.  He may be gone now, but Smash is the perfect example of what Eric is capable of achieving.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that any pep talk by Coach is going to prevent JD’s emotional breakdown.  He’s a good kid, but I just can’t see Daddy Lohan changing his ways after one smackdown.  JD’s been handed the responsibility of leading the team, and as much as I’d love for the Panthers to take State once again, I think JD being unable to handle the pressure the town foists on him would be better television.

While I don’t think JD will get a happy ending anytime soon, it’s obvious Jason is about to get his.  First he sold the house for his asking price (in this market?  No way), and then he got introduced to the Agent.  That final scene between Jason and Lyla, where she realizes his future is not in Dillon was the highpoint of the episode.  You’ll rarely find me commending Minka Kelly’s acting, but she did a fine job with Scott Porter, reminding the audience just how much history these two characters have together.

There’s no doubt Jason’s on his way out of Dillon, but is Tim?  Billy finally acted like an adult, stopped scheming, and started planning to get Riggs into college. The final scene with everyone watching in the living room really hit home, especially since it seemed like the moment Tim realized how much his success meant to his brother.  The tape, combined with Coach’s speech last episode that Tim won’t be a Panther for much longer will hopefully be enough to kick Rigg’s into gear.

And then there’s poor Emo Landry, who thought he’d stumbled upon Jean 2.0, but not so much.  Devon’s adorable, but she’s also into to girls. Which would be fine if Landry didn’t immediately go bragging to Tyra about how he’d found the perfect girl. His ego took quite the bruising, but thankfully Tami was there to make him realize there’s life outside Dillon, and that eventually, he’ll be the one to get the girl. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the look on Tyra’s face when Landry told her about Devin, but I really doubt that’s the end of these two.  And frankly, I want Tyra to grow the hell up and realize she’s won the lottery with him.

Things I Loved:

• Tim closing the blinds so the potential buyers couldn’t see Herc and Street fighting.
• The genuine awkwardness with Buddy’s kids: him telling them to stop texting, and how disgusted he got when his younger daughter mentioned public hair.  Brad Leland has given Buddy so much depth since the start of season two, he’s now one of my favourite characters.  I like him so much, I often forget he cheated with Angela.
• How awful Crucifixtorious is, it’s genuine.  Any other show would have the band be music prodigies on their way to superstardom.  With FNL, it’s just a way to spend a Saturday night.

It finally happened, Jill arrived.  She’s the one who broke Chuck’s heart, slept with Bryce, and pretty much destroyed any Mojo young Carmichael may have had in college.  But since Chuck is such a softy,  it took him all of twenty minutes to go from calling Jill the ’slightly eggheaded brunette with the cold heart’ to giddily answering her phone calls.  After all, she wears glasses, rocks a hasmat suit, and can talk Chuck.

Is there anyway that Jill doesn’t turn out to be bad?  With a PHD in biomedical engineering and a conference on infectious diseases, I’m thinking no.  Chuck was requested to do the technicals at the presentation, and the first thing Jill did upon arrival was ask for that person.  She initiated dinner with him, she flirted with him.  It all seems a little spotty, especially since she didn’t particularly care if he stole the tests.  I think Chuck’s being played.

Unfortunately Chuck already used their quota of hot girl fights this season, so the odds that Sarah will get to take down Jill are slim to none.  Which sucks, because you know she’s going to want to.  And Jordana Brewster is leagues above Nicole Richie, so frankly, I want her to too.  Jill’s appearance turns the tables on Sarah, and finally she gets to be on the receiving end of some emotional suckerpunches.  Jill is Chuck’s emotional equivalent of Bryce, so I’m excited to see Yvonne Strahovski play Sarah’s mixed emotions.  As Chuck said, Sarah’s a robot to her job, but if anything can take her off her game it’s Chuck dating (I miss Lou).

As for the Buy More, they tried to integrate Chuck more into the plot this week, and even brought Awesome along for the right, but I’d consider it forgettable if it wasn’t for the pillow fight between the Sarah and Ellie dummies, and of course, Jeff being the first to volunteer to ‘pound the plastic.’ As for Jeff, why the hell would Lester ever let Jeff behind the wheel of a car?  Hasn’t it been established that Jeff’s pretty much always drunk? And even when he’s sober, he’s still drunk. Not to say he isn’t the best thing in the Buy More, because he so totally is. He took one for the team just to prove it.  Although, I think he’d eat a pen cap when he got bored just for the hell of it…

Next week: Chuck betrays Sarah, and the promo monkey’s make it look like his life is in danger once again.

“If there’s a self destruct button, at least hide it somewhere it won’t actually get pressed.”
-Robin

She’s got a point there.  As someone with nieces and nephews, that soft spot is always in the back of your head when you’re carrying them down stairs.

Marshall and Lily are destined to be parents, but thankfully the show took the high road and had the characters realize they weren’t quite ready yet.  I hope ‘How I Met Your Mother’ makes to the birth episode, because Lily in labour is going to be entertaining, as opposed to drunk baby Lily which was such a forced parallel to Ted and Robin’s discussion.  But baby socks do have a power that cannot be explained, as do baby booties, and baby onesies.

Not that I take Robin’s sudden love of the tiny sock as an indication that she really wants kids.  Robin’s been established as someone who knows herself well enough to know that kids are not an option.  She is justifiably confused, and a mess because of her work situation, hence the obvious Round 2 with Ted that’s coming.  That’s something I’d normally hate, but it makes sense for the characters considering they’re in bad places right now.  Plus, I’m super excited to see Barney’s reaction.  The idea of Barney Stinson wooing a woman(as himself), is just as scary as the idea of Barney fathering children.  It’s gonna be great.

I’m off to buy a ‘NotAFathersDay.com‘ card for a friend.

Finally, it’s starting to feel like the season is coming together.  Too bad it happened so late.  Dexter broke further away from the code, Miguel had a hissy fit, Angel got all sensitive, and Deb got lucky.

Miguel and Dexter’s friendship started to show the first signs of cracking when Dex turned down Miguel’s request to kill Ellen.  Dexter’s only been privy to the put together Miguel, not the man who Syl sees falling apart before her eyes, or the corrupt attorney Leguarta is starting to learn about.  Miguel’s bad, he has no code, and little does Dexter realize he’s slowly falling into a trap.  It’s only a matter of time before Miguel won’t accept no for answer, and then Dexter will have to deal him. I’d be slightly more interested in this arc if it didn’t feel like it was going to end up repeating the end of season one, with Dexter having the kill the one person who understood him.

While Dexter wouldn’t kill Ellen, he did break the code to appease Camilla whose cancer had become unbearable.  For once the act of killing wasn’t done to relieve Dexter, but rather someone else.  It was a bittersweet irony that the perfect key lime pie was the one laced with poison.

Deb has issues not throwing herself in the middle of a case.  Season one she almost married the killer, season two she got involved with her boss, season three her informant.  It was obvious Deb and Anton’s relationship was going to get really complicated, but now that he’s bait, odds are Deb is in way over her head. Like usual.

Is it wrong that I could care less about Dex and Rita’s wedding?  In past seasons I’ve been more interested in their lives, just because Rita used to be a hot mess just like Dex.  Now that she’s all normal, I’m kinda bored. There’s no reason to be invested in her character, or their relationship.

Just like there’s no reason to care about Angel and his latest conquest.  She’s been in three episodes, and I still don’t remember the character’s name.  Although, it is great seeing Kristin Dattilo, who I loved on The Chris Isaak Show.

It was only a matter of time before Jill reared her not so ugly head.    Unlike Lou, who was cute from the start, I do not like Jill or her bangs.  At all.

Stella’s happy, Ted’s not.  Poor Ted.

The problem with ‘How I Met Your Mother’ is that the lead character is by far the least interesting.  So when an episode focuses so heavily on Ted, even with the rest of the gang there by his side, it’s still not enough.  It was obvious from the start of the season that Stella wasn’t the Mother, so as her character got more annoying, caring about her and Ted got harder and harder.  So caring about Ted and the break up was nearly impossible, which is why Ted’s realization that his happy ending was still out there meant that he could move on.  And so can the audience.  Quickly.

But that just brings back the bigger question, when will the Mother be introduced?  ‘How I Met Your Mother‘ is no different than ‘Lost‘, eventually the mystery needs to work its way towards a conclusion, or least drop bigger hints than a yellow umbrella.  With the distraction of Stella gone, it’s time for the writers to figure out the big picture.

My question to you is, should ‘How I Met Your Mother‘ have an end date, or can it go to the last episode without answering who she really is?

And if for some reason you don’t remember the awesomeness that was Elizabeth Shue, please indulge me and watch what I consider to be her finest career achievement:

Not only did we see some actual football, we got resolution to Smash’s strung out racism arc. He’s going to Whitmore, just like Mama Smash always wanted. And no matter how depressed he is by the decision, Mama was right, ‘When God closes a door, he opens a window.’ Smash should know by now to always listen to Mama. Whitmore seems like the perfect choice for the newly humbled Smash, a school that will appreciate his skills and give him more than ample field time to show his worth to the NFL. Certainly a step up from the arena football league that was touting a $14,000 offer.

The football was short and sweet, but it offered us the image of baby Gracie in a full body pink snowsuit. If this show is done, one of the things I’ll miss most is the utter quirkiness that was baby Gracie. The kid had spunk, and some seriously huge eyes. It was great to see an actual plot revolve around the Taylor’s this week, and Tammy just walking out on Eric and Mo fighting? Any other show would have milked Mo’s return as a chance to create some serious marital drama, but on FNL, all a fight did was encourage Tammy to make Eric’s next day hangover a little worse. It’s just refreshing to know that no matter what may have happened on the show, Eric and Tammy would always remain a constant, something so few shows would dare to do.

Also constant? Tim’s courting of Lyla. The previously quiet Tim is not only making wooing old ladies at church a weekly part of his routine, but he’s now got his own show on Lyla’s station, much to the delight of the women of Dillon. Lyla is of course smitten with Chris, his perfect hair, ranch and family. I’m not sold on their relationship, largely because Chris just seems a little too perfect. There’s no doubt that if the show were to continue, Tim would eventually get Lyla back. That’s what makes the plot feel thin, at least with Landry’s love triangle Jean was a worthy competitor. Chris doesn’t make any sense, nor does Tim’s continued longing for Lyla.

Just like Tyra and Landry’s relationship doesn’t make any sense to Matt. And of course, why would it? As much as we all balked about the murder plot, it’s the only reason their current relationship works.  It was refreshing to see Matt and Landry ribbing each other about their love lives, and the nerd in me was happy to see Landry putting together his Guitar Hero guitar. And Landry whispering about Tyra’s skills in the boudoir? Perfectly Landry and a definite laugh out loud moment.  I really hope it’s not the last funny Landry moment we get.

And then there’s Jason, off in his own plot completely separated from everyone else in Dillon. The writers have been struggling to find a place for Jason ever since he quit coaching and I’m really not fond of the pregnancy being used to reassure his manhood. Despite Eric telling him the importance of family, I don’t think Jason gets it.

That doesn’t matter though, because we may never know what Erin’s final decision ended up being, just like we’ll never know if Dillon will make it to State again, if Tyra will get bored of Landry and bolt, or if Matt and Julie will make their way back to one another. ‘May the Best Man Win’ wasn’t intended to provide any sort of closure, it was just meant to be the middle. A middle we may never get. Here’s hoping Friday Night Lights ends up somewhere next season, anywhere, because in the words of Lorelai Gilmore, ‘I want a middle.’

Friday Night Lights, NBC’s critically acclaimed, but low rated drama ends its second season tonight, after 15 episodes.  At this point, fans don’t know if they’ll ever see another episode, thanks to some rather disparaging remarks from Ben Silverman, the head of NBC Universal.  So here’s what you need to do, if you’ve ever watched Friday Night Lights and enjoyed what you saw, this is the time to act.

How you can:

• Watch damnit!  Especially if you have a Nielsen box.  PVR’ing the show is great, but networks haven’t figured out how to actually use PVR numbers to their benefit yet (plus, FNL already rocks the PVR stats), so watching live is better.
• Tell everyone you know to watch.  Especially if they have a Nielsen box.
• Email NBC.  Tell them why you love the show.
• Sign every petition you can.  Like say, this one.
• If you don’t own the season one DVD’s, buy them.  Come on folks, they’re less than $20 bucks.  What are you waiting for?  Seriously, they are $18.99.  What is wrong with you?  Here’s the Amazon link to make it easy for you.
• If you see an FNL related article on a major news outlet’s website, comment.  Believe it or not, comments made at TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Zap2It and many others are actually read by executives, or rather, their assistants.

At this point, things aren’t looking great, but there’s still a chance FNL could end up on NBC’s sister channel USA Network, or even another network.  Honestly, speak to any fan of this great show and they’ll tell you the same thing, ‘I don’t care where it airs, as long as it’s still on.’  Here’s hoping it will be.

Friday Night Lights is all I have left. Let me explain myself, I’m out of new television. Officially in a drought. I’m supportive of the writers’ strike, but damnit, I write about TV, I need TV to do that. Anyway, tonight’s episode, Humble Pie, proved yet again that the major flaw of season two is the inability to have plots flow and feel original, things FNL used to make look easy.

Let’s start with Smash’s racism arc. My attitude towards Smash is often indifferent, especially during most of this season when the writers reverted any growth he may have had during Waverly’s sickness, to him simply being ‘The Smash” again. Now it’s obvious the writers are trying to mature him, make the character realize that there are more important things in life than football, but unfortunately it’s continuing to feel like a retread of last year’s race storyline with Mac McGill, except this one’s a lot less subtle. Gaius Charles is no doubt effective, especially in the scene where Smash consoled his younger sister after the prank call and the final scene where Smash realized just how screwed he was, as is Liz Mikel as Mama Smash (often the highlight of any episode in which she appears), but as often is the case with this season of Friday Night Lights, the actors are once again saving otherwise weak story lines. Even with Smash’s future up in the air, I’m having difficulty caring about this plot.

Another plot I’m having difficulty with? Tim and the Meth Man. Tim went from being the show’s figurative punching bag, to the literal one. Of course he didn’t get away with stealing Meth Man’s money, but having Lyla provide the money seemed like a cheap way out. I doubt Meth Man’s gone for good (especially after Billy opened his mouth) however I wouldn’t complain for a moment if he was. The last thing this show needs is another murder.

And then there’s the epic love story of Lyla and Tim. Tim loves her, she doesn’t love him, I don’t care. It was great to see Lyla set him strait that they would never happen again, as they only made sense during Jason’s hospitalization. Without that dramatic event to bond them, we get no sense of why these characters should be together and Tim’s speech that he knows her so well fell short with me, does he really know her at all? Of course part of Lyla’s rejection is because of Chris, but there’s just something about him that rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it’s the smile and his seemingly perfect response to everything she throws his way? I’m hoping there’s something more to his character.

After two weeks off screen, Tyra returned with not one, but two story lines. After her refusal to give Landry a shot, it seems like the two parted ways a bit, with Tyra returning when she needed math help. Typical Tyra. It was nice to see something new get thrown her way, in the form of Jean. Her ridiculous jealously over the new girl provided some much needed comedic relief, especially since Landry was enjoying it so much. Also awesome? Matt and Tim’s reaction to Jean’s mixed tape. The quiet smiles and gentle ribbing as Landry finally became the recipient of some courting, rather than the dumbling fool, were great to see.

Not as great as Tami’s look when Tyra easily put the chips on top of the fridge though. It felt like the first time in ages I’ve actually laughed out loud (not in disbelief) at FNL. Unfortunately the volleyball storyline felt like a tired retread of last year’s Powderpuff game, with some bad volleyball scenes. Seriously, I know the show is on a budget, but they couldn’t have hired Adrianne Palicki a coach or something? The writers haven’t forgotten that Tyra owes Tami for last year(this is the second time Tami’s cashed in on it this year, the first being Pantherama), but they’ve given us no scenes to show that that relationship has continued. It seems like this plot would give the perfect excuse for Tyra to get some much needed Mrs. T therapy, however, with Julie’s snide remark that Tami was “one for seven,” it’s obvious that the real reason for the renewed Tyra/Tami interaction was to facilitate yet another fight between Julie and her mother. Julie’s had one note all year, and it’s beyond annoying thirteen episodes in.

Now, Buddy’s the exact opposite. Brad Leland continues to win every scene he’s in, this time as he gave Jason a job and the confidence he needed to make the sale. The look on Buddy’s face when Jason told him that he closed the deal with the looky lu? Too great to describe. As nice as it was to see Jason again, it’s obvious the writers don’t have a clue what to do with him He’s outgrown Dillon, no doubt, but he’s still there. However, catching a glimpse into Jason and Herc’s hilarious domestic squabbles and guy love? Enough to make me forget that the character serves no purpose as of late.

Humble Pie was a step up from last week, but it feels like FNL is stuck. With only two episodes remaining in season two (and perhaps the entire series), they don’t have very long to get out of it.

*Photo courtesy of NBC.