HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall Reviews 5.06 “Swerve”

I take back my rant of concern a couple a weeks ago. Episodes 5 and 6 not only have FNLs back on track, but taking unexpected twists and turns that we fans LOVE … and next week’s promo promises more of the same.

Season 5 was slow to get going, but man oh man is it on track for the many award nominations this show sooooooooo deserves. (This one is especially for you, Rose.)

Oops — I was referring to the NYMag write-up, not this one.

One thing I would like to add, and maybe get your thoughts on this Dolphin, is that I’m liking how the Julie character is being dealt with. In season 1, the Julie character had an intelligence (she seemed truly witty and sassy in the early episodes) that she has not displayed in later seasons. As my husband and I were watching them, we both growled and winced at the annoying brat her character has become, and were perplexed that Coach and Tami never saw their daughter for what she is… It sounds that like in this episode, there is a reckoning which rocks Coach to the bone, so kudos for that.

Alan’s article raised the specter of Coach loosing the firmament beneath his feet — that if football doesn’t build character, if he isn’t the molder of men, what is his life about? In my mind that question links back to Riggins and his time in jail. Riggins is the proof of Coach’s philosophy but no one, least of all Coach, seems to realize it. I just hope that somehow this idea is linked into the story, i.e., that Coach sees and understands what Tim did and why (especially since he never knew why Tim went off to Mexico — his love and caring for his best friend Street — and Tim just mutely accepted all the punishment Coach threw his way… Had Coach known why Tim left for Mexico, he would not have been as angry, but the episodes were key in establishing Riggins’ character). I still think that the relationship of Coach and Riggins is one of the 3 or 4 key anchors of the show — Coach and Tami, the Taylors and their daughter, Coach and Buddy and Coach and Riggins (essentially, the son he never had).

Any thoughts Dolphin?

We’ve finished Season 4, and now are in for a long wait for for Season 5… *sigh*.

Julie has always bothered me because I just expected better from the Taylors… I really like the Julie we saw in the pilot, and and a few times through Season 1, but come Season 2, it seemed as if she had a complete personality transplant. The confidence and sense of self that she had was all gone; yes, it allowed for interesting explorations of the Taylor family, but I am not sure that was the only (or best) way to achieve that.

Frankly, I never “got” the rekindled relationship with Matt; after Matt’s affair with Carlotta, he was in a different league entirely, and his subsequent relationship with Julie felt very forced. She was in over her head — being able to meet or truly understand Matt’s emotional needs — especially after his father died — required a level of maturity that the character just doesn’t have (that said, Jess would have been more than capable of stepping up to the plate… ). Coach and Tami were able to offer real support, Tim too, but it just felt to me that her immaturity after this last blow was the death knell for their relationship, and in fact, it was, although it was never explored that way. I never saw Matt & julie as the “perfect couple”, and until this last episode — which sounds very promising — have found Julie to be disappointing and boring as a character.

And I agree that reading about the episode is no comparison with actually seeing it unfold, which is why I have no qualms about knowing what is going to happen ahead of time.

Yes, Riggins… He is my favourite character, and I don’t think I am alone in this, so there are lots of us waiting for resolution on that situation…

He has much of the skill and qualities of a good coach; he would seem to be Coach Taylor’s natural inheritor in that respect. But without higher education, and with a criminal record, that seems to be off the table… His character raises a lot of issues about education — for example, why does everyone believe that college is the way to go? There is little to offer in terms of learning a trade — as opposed to Europe — and yet trades are well-paying. Plumbers and mechanics are better paid than a lot of white collar jobs, and don’t require a university degree, but there has been no discussion of that.

I’m actually re-watching the pilot because I have a miserable cold and am taking a sick day, and because I wanted to catch the caretaker comment. Just saw it. You’re right of course — Tim *IS* the caretaker — note he didn’t say “I’m gonna be the caretaker”, but said instead “I’m the caretaker … whether you like it or not”. And that’s just it; he takes care of everyone else, but no one, except for a time Lyla, ever takes care of him.

Thanks for pointing out that moment in the pilot; I hadn’t focussed on it before.

(Aaargh… it’s such an amazing pilot, but for the scenes of winter in Texas, which is all wrong for the start of football season.).

I don’t know if you ever saw that interview with Taylor Kitsch in the New York Times magazine a year or two ago, but I watched it before I ever saw FNL, and had to guffaw at the Times proclaiming him to possibly be the next sex-god of the silver screen. His interview made me cringe, and didn’t impress me at all — as a Canadian, he seemed at first glance to be an injured hockey player trying to turn actor (just the way he slouched there, and the things he said were dead give-aways). Frankly, he didn’t strike me as too bright. But then I saw him in FNL, and he blew me away; I have to take back the “dumb jock” impression I had. He’s done amazing things with this character, mostly by underplaying him. His subtlety is masterful, and a bit surprising. So hats off to Taylor Kitsch who has made Tim Riggins such a compelling and layered character.

http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/03/08/style/t/index.html#pageName=08coverw

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/03/01/style/1194838174488/screen-test-men-s-cover-story.html?scp=11&sq=screen%20test&st=cse

(Gauis Charles was brilliant and beautiful in this one…)

Glad you like them Dolphin

Personally, I think Taylor Kitsch was undone by the hairdo they gave him — slicking his hair back like that makes it look like a mullet, even though it isn’t one… it just screams “hockey player”… 8-0 (hmm, is that the right emoticon?)

What I personally love so much about FNL is the textural quality of it… the play of light, the feel of fabric, the raw beauty of the everyday which we rarely note… That’s why the winter scenes bother me so much… I don’t know if you noticed, but in episode 3 (I think) those winter scenes show up again… The Taylors are driving to school on a sunny day… then all of a sudden, it is grey and overcast and the subdivision they pass has leafless winter trees. And then it is a nice sunny late summer day again. It bugs me so much I want to personally splice it out! It is uncharacteristically sloppy of the otherwise brilliant film editors.

(not quite as sick today, but have just made it back to my couch and FNL dvd… )

Oh Dolphin, I was back on the couch again today… This is an awful cold–my sinuses hurt so much they made my teeth hurt, and my eyes wouldn’t stop running. Today I am up to disc 3 of Season 1, revisiting that brilliant first year of FNL.