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3/29/2007 10:59:00 AM

Friday Night Lights: Episode 20, Peyton on SNL

Tim Riggins
Tim Riggins off-the-field- life has heated up on Friday Night Lights.
Courtesy NBC
Right off the bat, Riggins is already knee-deep in an affair with his neighbor. First, she didn’t want him to clean her gutters. Now she wants just that, so to speak. And she’s pretty adamant about keeping the whole thing secret from that snot-nosed little kid of hers -- the one whose forehead grows larger with every episode. What happens when he finds out? What happens when Bo knows?

Explosion, thick black smoke and then we cut to a commercial -- what the hell? Maybe Bo found out?

OK, so it's a potentially toxic train crash, which ranks somewhere near "monkey attack" on the probability scale. Something had to happen to shake things up, I guess. But how about this terrible exposition from Street's dad, just in case we didn;t get it: "That's (in reference to the explosion) near the school, isn't it?" Am I the only one to notice some over-simplification lately? Last week, Coach Taylor's all secretive on the phone with you-know-who and the suspense is killing us. He enters a room where his wife and daughter are waiting anxiously, thinking he's decided whether or not to take the TMU job. We all know what's going on. Normally, this would be a perfectly understated FNL moment with minimal dialogue, just some tense glances. But Mrs. Taylor basically asks, "So, what did you tell TMU about the job that would take you away from Dillon and which is creating suspense throughout this episode -- are you worried, audience?" Kinda lazy, don't you think?

Awww, Smash wants to make his relationship with Waverly work "on the real." Isn't that sweet. Oh, and Lyla's buddied up with Waverly now. Also cute. And lame. But wait! Waverly's bi-polar and she's playing with guns and she's off her meds? Now I like where this is going. We've already seen Lyla snap (let's not forget her demolition derby in the Garrity auto lot -- the writers already seem to have forgotten it). Perhaps we could see Waverly as Annie Oakley, too? Plus Lyla and Street are going to break up, which I saw coming 19 episodes ago. That's a lot to squeeze into just two more shows.

Back to the semifinals and something here feels familiar. Coach: "We're gonna build a football field, Saracen: quit asking questions." I get it. Let's play a football game on a farm and it will be just like when we were kids -- when all that mattered was the fun of it and we went out in the backyard and used sticks to draw up plays in the cow poop. That speech was old when Al Pacino gave it in Any Given Sunday.

On to the game and we're getting tons of football action. More than I've seen all year, actually. And here's what I'm noticing: The football is really pretty godawful -- unrealistic and slow. Most games we just get two or three really long, really sloppy plays that unfold mostly due to poor tackling. Same thing here, only it drags on longer than normal and it's muddy, which doesn't make it any better. If we get a Season 2 of FNL, let's make football one of the things we practice over the offseason. OK, Peter Berg?

Pretty solid episode overall. Better than last week, and better than three weeks off, for sure. There are way too many plotlines to settle up in the two remaining episodes this season, and it wouldn't be in FNL's nature to neatly wrap everything up, so I think we can look forward to some major offseason cliffhangers in two weeks. Oh, and extra special kudos tonight to Tyra for having the forethought to push in the cigarette lighter and wait for it to warm before jamming it down that damn dirty rapist's eye socket. Quick thinking.

FIRST IMPRESSION: Saturday Night Live, with host Peyton Manning



Don't you just hate it when you're all jazzed up about watching a show, and then you miss it because you've ended up spending six hours in the emergency room of a midtown New York City hospital populated with snoring bums, runny noses and barfy god-knows-what-she-hads. Sheesh. That's how my Saturday night went down. I'll live. But that meant I had to spend an afternoon trying to get my hands on a recording of this week's SNL, which isn't half as easy it should be. NBC.com only posts a few clips. The full episode didn't go up on iTunes until Wednesday morning. It shouldn't be this hard, right? (I ultimately had to pick up a DVD at the NBC office in Rockefeller Center. Not exactly a solution for everyone.) The way I see it, NBC is losing viewers if this stuff doesn't go straight to the Web after airing. Without Web streaming, I wouldn't have gotten hooked on The Office, Heroes and Friday Night Lights, and then where would I -- and NBC -- be?

So, I got to watch Peyton do his host thing and now I'm just plain confused. I can't think of another sports figure I've wanted to hate as much as Peyton (I'm a Bears fan), but the guy is doing his best to keep me teetering on the edge. Is he funny? I still don't think I can tell. But he's seemingly willing to a) make fun of himself and b) say whatever he's told to by writers that he knows are way funnier than he is. What more can you ask of the guy, really?

I didn't find the United Way commercial half as humorous as the rest of America did, but there's a great reference to Carmelo Anthony’s "snitch" video in there, and I appreciate Peyton's willingness to take shots at those who have it coming -- including himself. High-fives to the writers for getting in a skit about pulling a "Peyton." And I love that he fessed up to being in "half of America’'s television commercials," and that he let the Bronx Beat girls take cracks at his giant head and his monster-sized hands: "They're like friggin' tennis rackets."

That's pretty much your perfect host right there, at least in terms of athletes. Just do what you're told and try not to mess up lines like, "I just thought about going out there for the second half and a little bit of pee came out" and "I'd much rather head home, bake some Snickerdoodles with a few of my bros, and then practice French kissing with my French kissing puppet." I really didn't expect much from Peyton. I wasn't quite sure he could even handle "Ladies and gentlemen, Carrie Underwood!" I was hoping he couldn't. But then he gave us "I think I saw his butt ----," and "I walked around with a piece of sliced ham in my pocket the past few days just to have my own secret." Masterful, really.

An afterthought: What was Dan Aykroyd doing in the crowd? Am I the only one who felt like some context would have been nice? It's like CBS panning to someone famous but random -- let's say Stephen Tobolowsky, just because I like him -- in the stands of a Purdue-Virginia Tech game, and then not explaining it. Is he a Peyton fan? Was he just passing by? He's a Chicago guy, so maybe he was there to throw tomatoes?
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Comments:

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Posted: 2:28 PM, March 29, 2007   by Anonymous
After being disappointed with FNL for the first 1/3rd of the season and giving it up for dead, I have been surprised with the overall story arch and plot developments. I actually thought the football action sequences were more true to reality than I thought they would be. You are right there are too many balls in the air for there to be a cohesive end to season 1.
I saw FNL the movie this weekend and it was interesting to see some carry over of the supporting cast from the movie to the series, Mrs. Taylor & Mr. Garrity notably.
I sure hope NBC renews the FNL for next year, besides BET's rerunning of The Wire and some Office episodes its the cream of the t.v. crop
Posted: 5:35 PM, March 29, 2007   by Anonymous
You rip everything about the show, and then say, "Pretty solid episode overall"? Make up your mind.
Posted: 6:09 PM, March 29, 2007   by Anonymous
yes. only friendly happy thoughts next time, please.
Posted: 11:29 PM, March 29, 2007   by Anonymous
You make some of the most stupid, random gripes about this show which deserves nothing but praise.
Posted: 11:22 AM, March 30, 2007   by Anonymous
agreed: the finale should be spectacular
Posted: 12:58 PM, March 30, 2007   by Anonymous
another disgruntled Bears fan... You da Man Peyt!!
Posted: 2:13 PM, March 31, 2007   by justin
It is funny. I live down here around central Texas, where the show is filmed. A year ago, around the Hutto/Taylor area, there was a train wreck, which shut down a local freeway for about a day, and then there was also some type of toxic chemical dump, which shut down a city square for about a day. I know that in a show these things sound contrived, but the fact that they had happened (not to the same extent) makes me laugh about this article. That being said, FNL has been a great show this second half, and I appreciate your articles. I also hate the Payton, and yet it was tough not laughing with and at him last Sat. night.
Posted: 4:21 PM, April 14, 2007   by John
"What was Dan Aykroyd doing in the crowd? Am I the only one who felt like some context would have been nice?".... Yes, I think you are the only one who felt a little context is needed; He's Dan Aykroyd, original SNL cast member! There's your context.
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