How good does it feel to be back? When we last left Coach Eric Taylor, he was standing in a empty field where his East Dillon Lions would eventually play — and thankfully NBC and DirecTV struck a deal so we could see that story told. For a recap of the Season Four premiere of Friday Night Lights, a discussion of the episode and a quick rundown of the new characters you met, head past the jump.

I’ll get to the new characters later in this post, in case you had a hard time keeping track, but a quick eight-word review: Good to you have back, Friday Night Lights. Really good stuff. Really, just an excellent way to start the season.

The episode starts, as other seasons have, jumping ahead some period of time. In this case, we get all the way into September. Tim Riggins is in school, Tami Taylor is sharing uncomfortable meetings with the new ruling class at West Dillon (formerly just Dillon), Saracen is delivering pizzas and Coach Taylor — and Landry — are adjusting to life at East Dillon.

Everyone is adjusting to change, and really, a lot of the episode is about how people are coping, or failing to do so. Tami thinks she can put up with the McCoy/Aikman combination of booster and coach, something Buddy Garrity clearly can’t stomach, either. Despite her nod-and-smile approach, she messes with the coin toss as a way to tweak them.

Saracen is trying to deal with his decision to stay in town with his grandmother, but delivering pizzas and dealing with harsh critiques at a technical college isn’t helping things. On top of that, it’s clear his grandmother hasn’t exactly improved in her dementia since we last saw her.

To read the rest of this review go to: SportingNews.com

Friday Night Lights: Back from the Brink

By James Poniewozik Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Friday Night Lights fixture Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons), right, is a familiar face at Coach Taylor’s new school

High school dramas, like high school itself, have a ticking clock built in. Time passes, graduation looms, characters outgrow their acne years. Beverly Hills 90210 was fun while it lasted, but eventually Luke Perry and Gabrielle Carteris appeared to be starring in an AARP ad.

Last year, in its third season, the high school football drama Friday Night Lights (loosely based on the book and movie) sent several characters on to college and the wider world, with farewells that stayed true to the show’s small-town-Texas realism. In the outstanding finale, coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) was ousted through school politics after the Dillon Panthers’ heartbreaking loss in the state championships.

One reason Season 3 could offer that closure was that it seemed unlikely there would be a Season 4. But the low-rated, high-quality FNL has returned on DirecTV’s 101 Network (Wednesdays, 9 p.m. E.T.), thanks to a continuation of its cost-sharing deal with the satellite company. (The season will air on NBC sometime next year.)

To read the rest of this article click the source below.

SOURCE: TIME.com

“Y’all look like a bunch of dumb-asses out there!”

Coach Taylor is at his wit’s end. After a few triumphant seasons as head coach of the Dillon Panthers football team, he finds himself trying to rally together a brand-new team at a brand-new school, East Dillon High, after the town is redistricted. The field is brown and dusty. The players have never played football before. (Um, wouldn’t a few of the good players have ended up at the new school?) Some of the players have criminal records. Others are unaccustomed to being yelled at, or unwilling to run grueling drills in the withering Texas heat.

Although Taylor (Kyle Chandler) may be facing a losing battle for the first time in his career, in its fourth season, “Friday Night Lights” (premieres 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, on DirecTV, airing next year on NBC) is just as thoughtful and restrained as it’s ever been, with its focus firmly planted on the small-town disappointments of ordinary people.

Thankfully, one of the show’s best characters, Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), who received a scholarship to arts school in Chicago, chose to stay in Dillon to take care of his grandmother. “You’re the only person who’s never left me,” he told her at the end of last season. “I’m not gonna leave you.” Despite his talents, Matt takes a job delivering pizzas, and naturally lands on the front doorstep of Dillon star quarterback J.D. McCoy (Jeremy Sumpter), the guy who was gunning for his spot for so long. J.D. has slowly but surely transformed from a naive, alienated rich kid to a certified dick (we knew he’d get there eventually!).

Coach Eric Taylor of “Friday Night Lights” (8 p.m. Central Wednesday, DirecTV’s 101 Network; three and a half stars) has had his share of ups and downs, but Season 4 of the show finds him as down as he has ever been, professionally speaking.

Even when things weren’t going well for the Dillon Panthers, the high school football team he led with sternness and compassion, Taylor (Kyle Chandler) still had excellent facilities and an extensive staff at his disposal. Money wasn’t really a problem for the Panthers, a perennial powerhouse in Texas football.

Of course, “Friday Night Lights” has always been about much more than football: This fine ensemble drama has used sports as a vehicle for telling nuanced stories about race, class and family. Though the Panthers, occasionally get their moments in the sun, Dillon is usually a place of reduced expectations and limited options.

So it comes as no surprise that the new season of “FNL” sees Taylor going through the kind of involuntary retrenching that many Americans are experiencing. The nice stadium, the lavish equipment budget and the extensive staff are gone. Thanks to redistricting and some maneuvering by his detractors, this season Taylor is coaching the East Dillon Lions, a poorly equipped and unskilled squad.

You can judge Taylor’s contentment level by how much he stalks around with his jaw clenched, and there’s a lot of sideline stomping as the season begins. But as usual, Kyle Chandler makes the charismatic Taylor’s frustration compelling. And the question of the season, as always, isn’t limited to whether Taylor can make the team competitive. It’s also about whether he can turn undisciplined boys into men. Dramatically speaking, it’s all to the good that the coach has his work cut out for him.

To read the rest of this article click the source below.

SOURCE: ChicagoTribune.com