"Answer me this, Timmy. What happened to Texas forever, huh? What happened to livin' large, what happened to that eternal bond that you used to love to throw around when I was still healthy and headed towards the NFL, huh?" -Jason Street
» "'State' became the 'Holy Grail,' its pursuit the singular obsession of the town."
Last Days of Summer - 9:00 p.m. on NBC
The critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights returns for its second season tonight on NBC. For those unfamiliar with the H.G. Bissinger masterpiece that spawned the series (and 2004 film), FNL tells the tale of a small Texas town economically devastated by the oil bust.
Marginalized to the fringes of society, the town developed a pathological obsession with high school football. In an attempt to compensate for what wasn't there, 'State' became the 'Holy Grail,' its pursuit the singular preoccupation of town.
The story is very much an indictment of the way the culture immortalizes kids, only to discard them when they've outlived their usefulness (i.e. can't help win football games); sending them into the real world with a warped sense of reality that leaves them completely unprepared.
More than any new drama last season, NBC's remake came out of the gate in a league of its own, perfectly capturing the essence of Bissinger's story. But towards the middle of last season, a monumental shift in the thematic content occurred. Network executives imposed their will upon the ratings-challenged show, morphing it from a relevant drama ripe with social commentary to a bland teenage drama using high school football as its gimmick.
It's been heartbreaking to watch the the storylines shift from the assistant coach expressing a racial bias very prevalent in America (blacks can't play quarterback) to a budding romance between Tyra and Landry bred from an attempted rape.
As much as the writers may deny (Alan Sepinwall reports they did), don't buy into it. Network executives starting calling the plays a long time ago.
FINAL GRADE: B-
