RtC: "Friday Night Lights" (2006-2011)

Adapted from a book and a movie, Friday Night Lights was a TV-show unlike anything you've ever seen before. How a show could start its airing by a voice on the radio talking about the local high school football-team, to become a show with more heart than any other... It's quite a ride, including a writer strike threatening its existence, a strange collaboration to air it twice around and some misguiding marketing, just to mention a few of its behind the show problems.

I love FNL, I love Dillon and I love quite a few of the characters on this show. With those simple facts I'll move on to the whys, the greatness and the heart and soul of a community.

FNL isn't about football, and because it isn't about football it lost out on a lot of fans in its original marketing as a show about football. FNL is about life. Its drama the way drama should be; with a core to draw from, but spreading its wings to include an ensemble cast taking on real life problems. While they do get melodramatic some times, they mostly get away with it because of their big god-damn thumping hearts.

FNL is also produced and shot interestingly. They offered their actors a lot of freedom with their lines, cues and movement, while still being scripted, and then shot it with three cameras in a one-take mind. On one side some might say it doesn't really look that great because of this, as there's almost never that perfect lightning of all characters that other shows strives to get. But the rewards are awesome for those who take the real life feel and dialogue/scene-realism over the esthetics. It just feels a lot more raw and powerful.

Developed to TV by the feature film director Peter Berg (who happens to be second cousin of the book's author Buzz Bissinger) and heavily influenced by Jason Katims (Roswell) as writer, executive producer and show-runner.

And then there's the casting. It's an amazing ensemble for a TV-show, and whether it's leading star Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) or small time support Billy Riggins (Derek Phillips) on screen, it sure feels like the characters and not actors. I guess I've mentioned something like this before, but Kyle Chandler did, week in and week out, shine as Coach Taylor; making Brad Pitt's performance in feature film success Moneyball look kind of shabby. I should also mention Connie Britton as Tami Taylor, Adrianne Palicki as Tyra Collette and Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins. These four are probably the stand-out performers overall, even if I personally got a soft spot for Aimee Teegarden as Julie Taylor as well. It shouldn't be forgotten that nevertheless this is an ensemble performance more than anything.

Season one is the only one with a full length season, running 22 episodes, and it's by far the strongest one as a result. In fact; when it comes to drama you're hard pressed to find a better first season than this. How a town can be defined so quickly and its characters taking on such a diverse set of problems is inspiring. Is it really possible to fall in love with a town so obsessed with high school football? Sooner or later you might find out Dillon is a hard town to shake, whether you saw it coming or not.

Season two got butchered by the writing strike, and as a result ended cliffhangerly with only 15 of the ordered 22 episodes produced and aired. For a while the show was in real danger of being cut after that, but somehow it managed to come back in half-season format for three more seasons. Overall the second season might be my least favorite one, and it wasn't just because of the way it got cut. It had more problems than just that, but it picked itself up and managed to come back with even more momentum.

I'm not going to go into detail about each season, but rather pray you check it out for yourself. If you like drama, this is the show for you. Or if you like coming of age stories, there's quite a few of them here. Even if it's really not a football show, but a show around the team's players, coaches and boosters, you should still check it out if you like football or even any other sport... It's just that good, you don't need to like many of its elements to fall completely in love with the heart of it all.

Sure... It's also flawed and it had the potential to be even bigger, even better and so on and so forth. Still. You really have to search high and wide to find a show with more heart than this golden piece of Texas. And that's also why the overall comes out better than the sum of its pieces...

★★★★★ Season 1
★★★☆☆ Season 2
★★★★☆ Season 3
★★★★☆ Season 4
★★★☆☆ Season 5


★★★★★ Overall Quality


★★★★★ Revisit Value

FNL is one of those rare shows I've followed from the beginning, and loved it a little bit more for each week. You can't put a quality- or value-stamp on that, but there's no doubt it's something special the few times a show manages to be something like this for you. When you can't wait to watch what happens next week. When the time between seasons is agonizingly long. When you revisit the show's aired seasons before the beginning of each new season. FNL has been that show for me for years, and coming back to it is like revisiting old friends. I can't believe more people didn't follow this each and every step, but it's not too late. There's still a lot of quality entertainment to be had, even if you came late to the party. Friday Night Lights is highly recommended, and I'll miss it deeply.

I also like to mention there's rumors of a feature film to come, and I'm really looking forward to the day Berg and co again take on something new in this journey.

"The Walking Dead" (2010 ->)

There's been a lot of hype and discussion regarding The Walking Dead, so I figured it was about time I checked out what all the fuzz was about. I actually did most of the catch-up last week, but with only one episode left of season two I awaited watching the season finale to write this post.

Season one was good, despite my personal reluctance to take the character of Rick too seriously. He had more than a few strange moments early on when he should be more than aware of dangers and such, but failed miserably to act or react accordingly. Anyway. Overall the story moved on quite well, introduced us to the characters involved and their current situation. With only 6 episodes they didn't have time to take too many unnecessary twists in wrong directions, and it all held a lot of promise.

Season two does the opposite. It has all the promise and possibilities of greatness, and sadly it's little else than a soapy drama. And to add insult to injury; without letting the interesting characters getting any serious airtime. Without dropping into details or spoilers, there's at least some things happening in the late stages of the season which promises renewed greatness in seasons to come. Hopefully they'll get back more focused with the new show-runner taking solid control of a franchise with so much potential already wasted. There's also a couple of great touches in the finale making us curious about things to come.

I for one am also getting increasingly interested in the comics this is based on, as I find it hard to believe they ruined as much on bad storyline-decisions. I doubt they could be as successful if they did. In other words there's already about 100 comic books out there with The Walking Dead tag on it, and I'll have to consider snatching up a few to really get my moneys worth of the franchise's potential.


★★★☆☆ Season 1
★★☆☆☆ Season 2


★★★☆☆ Overall Quality (thus far)


Season two have been agonizingly slow, and a weak two stars season from me, but I'm still hanging on... mostly thanks to the huge potential and the teasers of things to come. Along with the strong three stars from season one that just about makes up for a very weak third star on the overalls thus far. But have no doubt about it; there's a lot of untapped potential within this show. Hopefully they'll deliver in the seasons to come.

"Community" (2009 ->)

Dan Harmon's Community is uneven. It tries so many different approaches, and it fails quite often. It makes it bold. It also makes quite a few episodes fillers, waiting for those touches of genius. Thankfully there's quite the payday when they hit. Because when they do hit, they are probably one of the very best comedies out there these days.

I watched three quarter of the first season back when this show arrived, but from the very funny beginning that season went downhill; and I walked away indefinitely. The past week I've played catch-up, watching it from the beginning to the mid-season break it's on now. I very much agree with my first impression of season 1; it started brilliantly, but became little else than passing time as it passed midway. At least this time I didn't throw in the towel.

Season 2 began pretty much as the first ended. It wasn't very funny, mostly just okay pastime. Somewhere along the way they began hitting home runs again on more regular basis, and it was once again great. The final double episode of the season is some of the best comedy I've seen in a while. For instance; I can't remember the last time The Big Bang Theory was that funny, and that's the show I've been following in the half hour comedy bracket.

Season 3 have been a huge disappointment thus far, and they better step it up as they come out of winter break this week. The final Christmas episode was however a glimpse of brilliance, but up until that one I was mostly bored with what they've delivered.

I'm fairly harsh on my stars for this show, but I got to punish their many missed steps along the way. Still. Keep in mind those episodes working well, is of the five star kind... And Community are in all three season close to grab that next star. That speaks volumes of the kind of comedy it is when they hit.

★★★☆☆ Season 1
★★★☆☆ Season 2
★☆☆☆☆ Season 3 (midway)



★★★☆☆ Overall Quality (thus far)

"John Doe" (2002-2003)

John Doe follows a man who knows everything, except who he is, where he comes from and why he's got all these facts stuck in his head. Created by Mike Thompson and Brandon Camp (and neither have really done anything else worth mentioning), starring Dominic Purcell as John Doe and supported by Jayne Brook, John Marshall Jones, William Forsythe and Sprague Grayden.

While there's a arch story about John Doe searching for his past, and a Phoenix organization, it really never intrigued me at all. The only thing left is a procedural with some human growth, but mostly with uninteresting characters. It's not much different than MacGyver when you break it down, and from me that's not a compliment. They could have done a lot better if they managed to evolve some characters more, and these support's storylines as well. The only one they are close to achieve that with is Sprague Grayden's Karen, but both Jayne Brook and John Marshall Jones' characters should have taken further steps.

I haven't got any problem understanding why Fox pulled the plug on this one, as they also did both Fastlane and, more annoying than anything else, Firefly that season. Those sports-choices made that season really didn't help scripted TV on Fox, having at least these three one hour shows axed.

★★☆☆☆ Overall Quality

This show also shot them self in the foot by killing off the only character with some flavor. I don't mind killing off characters to make the hero or heroine have some growth, grief or whatever, and I think they actually do it too rarely in TV, but here they managed to kill off what little interest I had left by taking away the one character whom actually carried some weight beside the protagonist. They didn't even manage to tie it in with some interesting development or change, and that's just weak.

"Roswell" (1999-2002)

Jason Katims' Roswell is basically about three teenage aliens who has lived in Roswell, New Mexico (yes, I admit it sounds like it takes cliched to the next level) the past decade, and the changes to their lives as one of them uses his alien healing power to save a teenage girl. Dawson's Creek, meet X-files.

It has to be said straight out the gate; there's a huge difference in quality between the first season and the two following. Even if the premise sounds naive, the first season manage to squeeze out a heart few shows ever are able to come close to. They don't manage to follow up, but there's so few show of the standard of this first season. You owe it to yourself to check it out anyway.

Shiri Appleby ('Liz', the saved girl), Jason Behr (alien), Katherine Heigl (alien), Brendan Fehr (alien), Majandra Delfino (Liz' best friend), Colin Hanks (Liz' friend), Nick Wechsler (Liz' boyfriend) and William Sadler (sheriff) are the main cast, and it's of greater overall quality than most teenage shows attract. Not all of them get writing that can provide greatness, but I got to admit Shiri has a certain quality to her Liz I find especially interesting.

Three aliens searching for answers about where they came from, two normal teenage girls who knows their secret, a boy and a girl... Not everything is top notch. The SciFi-arch will for instance probably not exactly blow your mind, but I got to return to the heart part. That can't be taken from the effort easily, and it's more than enough to deliver a 22 episode season of TV well worth remembering... And if you're anything like me you'd like to know how it all plays out, and endure the following two seasons as well. They do offer some greatness there as well, once in a blue moon at least...

★★★★☆ Season 1
★★☆☆☆ Season 2
★★☆☆☆ Season 3


★★★☆☆ Overall Quality

"Chuck" (2008-2012)

I revisited the entire show last month on the back of it ending earlier this year, and I'm the first to admit I find Chuck (Zachary Levi) as much of a schnook as some does when they first meet this character in the show. My interest is more on the character of Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), and only a third of the story-line as it actually comes very close to an idea I've had myself for quite a while (no doubt on the back of my interest in the spy-genre going back to all those Robert Ludlum books I once read, and some credit for inspiring should probably be given the show Alias).

Chuck is created by Josh Schwartz (The O.C., Gossip Girl) and McG (Fastlane & also part of the The O.C.-crew), taking on the life of a geek thrown into the spy-life by SciFi-tech. The show is based on three parts; the spy-missions, the Chuck-relations (family, friends & girlfriends) and the Buy-More (day-to-day & employees).

To me the Buy-More part quickly ran out of steam, but how efficient it was the first season is the main reason that season scores higher than the rest. For the spy stuff this is light entertainment; flawed and often ridiculous. Still. Some of the archs works decently enough, and I can almost forgive repetitiveness and easy solutions for the cheap and unclouded entertainment it offers. To me it's the relationship-part that keep me going, and Sarah in particular.

She's a seasoned spy and one of CIA's top assets, thrown into babysitting Chuck along with NSA's top man Casey (Alec Baldwin). Unlike Casey, Sarah gets to evolve a lot throughout the show; torn between her past as con-artist, her career as spy and her potential future. Yvonne get to take on more nuanced changes than Zachary or Alec, even if I personally would've taken it even further to really get out the potential. It's still more than interesting enough, and my main reason to grab hold of this show on blu-ray to revisit again in the future.

★★★★☆ Season 1
★★★☆☆ Season 2
★★★☆☆ Season 3
★★★☆☆ Season 4
★★★☆☆ Season 5


★★★☆☆ Overall Quality

I enjoyed the fact that when they finally succumbed to the relationship of Chuck and Sarah in season 3-4, they didn't start throwing gasoline on it with silly break-ups and such. They rather embraced it and used it to throw in relationship adjustments and growth with issues from normal relationships and how they affect their lifestyles as spies. It might not be a drama-winner, but it gives the show a better touch of realism (in parts) and make us care more about them than soapy drama ever would. I wish more shows would go that way, as it's not the first time I've honored a show for choosing such a path.

However. I could do without the same mistakes being done over and over again by the characters, but then again it's not that easy to keep a fresh writing going for multiple seasons. I guess I got to cut them some slack...

For the fifth season they came close to ruining it all with their glasses, Morgan and Buy-More, but are saved by turning to their strongest asset in Sarah and Chuck facing a very different problem. It's not perfectly executed, but they touch on some larger issues that earns them credit enough in my book to salvage the third star once again.

"Wonderfalls" (2004)

"Wonderfalls" is something like "Dead Like Me" meets "Joan of Arcadia", with a twist of Canadian comedy I can't place from the top of my head. From the creative minds of Todd Holland ("Malcolm in the Middle") and Bryan Fuller ("Deead Like Me"), and accompanied by Joss Whedon's usual partner in crime, Tim Minear, as Executive Producer.

It's a great premise and a fresh take from the opening. Caroline Dhavernas is a great lead and her character is easily loveable. Sadly the rest of the cast isn't as easily endured, quite possibly with the exception of Tracie Thoms as her best friend. Sadler and Finneran are talented enough, but their characters aren't well rounded. The remaining cast are annoying at best, but miscast more likely.

The first few episodes still holds a very high level of quality; the humor is great and the writing doesn't suck at all. The later half of the 13 episodes made aren't as lucky. The writing spirals down into cliched territory, the love-angle is at best weak (while I found it horrible in every way; bad cast, cliched, uninteresting etc), they mostly lost the good touches of humor and the storyline didn't evolve. What started as a show with great potential, soon turned into a no-brainer for axing by the end. This one I can't blame Fox for, as the creative minds and writers made a mess of it.

Still. I find it strange the lead, Caroline Dhavernas, didn't get involved more into TV-series in the following years. She without a doubt have the talent needed, and it took seven years for her to get involved in another show (another one season show, ABC's "Off the Map"). She did quite a few movies in the meanwhile, but she has such great TV-abilities it's a damn shame some of her best years was wasted...

★★☆☆☆ Overall Quality