Friday Night Lights Awards+Series Wrap Up (Final post)
Jul 26, 2014 20:07:40 GMT -5
Superb Owl 🦉 likes this
Post by Pear on Jul 26, 2014 20:07:40 GMT -5
BEST LINE: Coach Taylor has to present the award for "Best Line" to Tim Riggins for "So, how about Saracen sleeping with the Coach's daughter?" The award comes with an order of raw squab.
BEST COACH SPEECH: That one from the pilot. The entire sequence--Jason getting injured, the team in the hospital, the speech--was really something special, and although I really liked the pilot up until that point, the ending was what hooked me.
FAVORITE DIRECTOR: Michael Waxman accepts the award and Jeffrey Reiner takes it away, so we put up "Underdogs" and "Always" side by side. Instead of picking the winner, we start tearing up as we watch the field goal or Riggins leaving his cleats on the field or the final montage of the series.
*Billy Riggins leads the East Dillon Lions onto the stage for a performance of "War Chant", which is followed up by a Crucifictorious performance*
BEST USE OF MUSIC: "Devil Town", the perfect song for this show.
DICK: Joe McCoy.
BEST FOOTBALL GAME: "Mud Bowl" takes this one. It's some of the most thrilling TV I've seen, and the whole episode in general is one of my favorites. As the award is being accepted, cows swarm onto the stage to convey their appreciation.
WHO WAS THIS CHARACTER? AWARD: Santiago! He is nowhere to be found, though.
MOST UNFAIRLY DISPARAGED CHARACTER: Julie Taylor. I did not like her at all in season two, but aside from that, she was a great representation of a teenager: she could be a brat, but she also seemed like a really cool person to hang out with. The way her storyline came full circle in the finale was brilliant. This now brings me to the next two awards...
BEST COACH/JULIE AND MRS. COACH/JULIE MOMENT: The ping pong game(s) for the former, the talk in "I Think We Should Have Sex" for the latter.
MOST SURPRISINGLY ENDEARING CHARACTERS: Billy and Mindy. The award title's a bit misleading because I never disliked them or anything; it's just that never would I have expected that they would become two of my favorite characters.
BEST PERFORMANCE: Zach Gilford for "The Son". Was there really any question?
UNDER-APPRECIATED ACTRESS: Liz Mekel, aka Mama Smash.
BEST SHOT: Eric and Tami on the field at the end of season 3.
LOOKING GOOD IN BLUE AND RED: Coach Taylor
-End of the pilot+end of "Eyes Wide Open"+end of "Wind Sprints". I mean, seriously, just one of those moments would be enough to hook me, but when you put Jason's injury alongside Matt and Coach on the field alongside the wind sprints sequence? Best opening three episodes of any show? For me, yes.
-Anytime people horse around on the field.
-Matt and Julie's first date, and this definitely includes the Members Only jacket scene.
-The Julie-Tami talk in "I Think We Should Have Sex" (there's another great one in "The Giving Tree")
Courtesy of khoff from the AV Club: When Matt and Julie first started dating, Coach told Julie that teenage boys are always thinking about either sex or food. Then, several episodes later, when Julie has talked Matt into having sex and he can see she's having second thoughts, he says something like "We don't have to do it. We could get something to eat instead."
-Mud Bowl.
-The "Devil Town" montage in the season one finale, plus road trip and the slow clap.
-"Everybody leaves me! What's wrong with me?" The Coach-Matt scene in "Leave No One Behind", which was preceded by Tim and Matt hanging out. That's always fun.
-Billy giving Tim the frozen peas.
-Jason singing to his daughter.
-The Jason Street and Smash (watching the team head out without him back in season 2 was devastating, as well) goodbyes from season 3.
-Coach and Matt running routes in the street.
-Riggins leaving his cleats on the field.
-Final shot of season 3.
-Tyra reading her college essay.
-Luke apologizing to Tami on the field.
-The entirety of "The Son".
-Tim turning himself in.
-The guys talking on the balcony as Coach listens.
-Tim's parole hearing.
-The Coach-Mrs. Coach-Julie-Matt dinner, plus the final montage of the series.
FAVORITE CHARACTER: I can't pick. Don't make me pick.
FAVORITE EPISODES: Not going to rank them, but the top ten would include, in no particular order, "Pilot", "Mud Bowl", "State", "Hello Goodbye", "Underdogs", "The Son", "Kingdom", "Always", "Tomorrow Blues", and one other that I can't decide because there are so many good ones. I've always really liked "Nevermind", so maybe that. Of course, that'd leave out stuff like "Don't Go", "The March", "East of Dillon" (which I've always found to be really impressive, considering it's basically a re-pilot) etc. etc. See how difficult this is?
FINAL THOUGHTS: Alright, folks, it's time to wrap this up. Friday Night Lights is truly a special show, and I could ramble on endlessly about it. It was a portrait of a small town, an exploration of a loving marriage, an intimate look at people living their lives in Dillon. It was thrilling, moving, and downright beautiful, and as much as it could convey heartbreak and disappointment, its best trait was its ability to let pure joy rain down upon its characters. More so than anything, it had faith in the people it was portraying, whether someone wanted to leave, stay, love, or live.
I raise my glass to it. Texas Forever.
In the words of Peter Berg, “Every story has an end, and we’ve really accomplished something. And we think it’s time for Friday Night Lights to go ahead and say goodbye. This was something special.”
*I probably missed quite a few moments, episodes, etc., so if you have any, share away. Thank you so much for reading, everyone. I'll miss covering this show. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
LINKS!
Here's that three part oral history of the show (and where that Berg quote came from). If you haven't read it yet, you really should; it only makes you fall in love with the show all over again, and you gain more insight into the creative process, the bonds formed by the cast, the worry about cancellation, etc.
grantland.com/features/clear-eyes-full-hearts-lose/
If you don't read it, at least read this:
Nan Bernstein (producer): For the wrap party, we went to a honky-tonk place in Austin called Midnight Rodeo. We brought a lot of people in who had worked on the show but had never met each other — writers, casting people, assistants who worked in L.A. and never come to Austin.
Katims: At the end of the night, somebody came up to me and said, “We want to go to the field.” I was like, “What?” It was like two in the morning.
Hudgins: We played a touch football game with everyone who wanted to play — actors, crew. We busted out some of the old uniforms and put them on.
Plemons: It was so perfect. You didn’t think about it at the time, but it was just so perfect.
Chandler: I was back home in Los Angeles and we wanted to put a gate up in our yard. The fella came over and said, “Mr. Chandler, how do you want me to build this?” I said, “I’m not going to tell you how to build this gate. You just look around at what’s here, and you build the best gate you can. Be as creative as you want. Take your time, and just give me a good gate.” That gate’s probably going to stand for 400 years.
-A quick conversation with Katims, followed up by a wonderful video featuring the cast members talking about their experiences on the show:
tvline.com/2011/07/16/friday-night-lights-series-finale-post-mortem/
-A conversation with the cast:
www.tvguide.com/News/Friday-Night-Lights-1028933.aspx
-Ranking the cast members' post-FNL careers. Some of these will make you sad:
www.vulture.com/2013/02/power-ranking-friday-night-lights-cast-careers.html
And, before we go: Tami Taylor y'all video, y'all.
