Sisterly Conversations on: my love for Friday Night Lights

i had two possible topics that i was going to write about for this entry, but then i got some inspiration from the previous entry about fall television. now, i'm a pretty terrible judge of what is and isn't going to be good television while a show is in its infancy. one of the shows i'm currently keeping tabs on is The Mob Doctor on FOX. it's basically what it sounds like: a show about a female cardiologist/surgeon at a prestigious hospital in chicago who moonlights as a doctor for the mob in order to pay off her younger brother's debt. i know what you're probably thinking: "of course you're a terrible judge of tv shows! that show sounds bad based on the premise alone!" and it kind of is. but the only reason i'm watching it is because of the actor who plays dr. devlin's main squeeze, fellow doctor brett robinson: zach gilford. now you may know zach from ABC's short lived medical drama about doctors practicing in a clinic in the south american jungle, Off The Map (also cancelled. also watched by me........i told you i was bad), but you SHOULD instead know him as Matt Saracen, one of the main characters in NBC/DirectTv's cancelled-before-its-time drama "Friday Night Lights".

now i will admit: i did not watch friday night lights at all during its original five year run. it was only after it was cancelled that i decided to give it a shot. i had heard all good things about it and found season 1 on dvd at half price books for cheap. and let me tell you.........best investment i've ever made.

most FNL haters probably have avoided the show because "it's about football". and it is. but i am here to tell you that it is about so much more than that. it's about family and friendship and love and life in a way that is so authentic and totally believable. i mean, no one gets shot in a shooting rampage or gets their leg amputated or gets hit by a bus or has hallucinations involving their dead lover or gets in a car accident and spends the next episode having an out of body experience and singing to themselves about it (*cough cough* grey's anatomy *cough*). everything is so much more subtle and simpler than that.

a lot of the actors/actresses aren't really that mind-blowingly awesome in other stuff i've seen them in. i mean, no one is dying to hand Taylor Kitsch an Oscar for his role in Battleship, but when he sat in the Panthers' film room watching the hit that paralyzed his best friend over and over again and inevitably having a mini breakdown, i totally believed it. and i cried a little bit along with him.

i guess that's what impresses me so much about FNL: the number of times i've gotten choked up or shed actual tears while watching. sadly, it's a pretty underrated show so there aren't many youtube clips available, but i was able to find three that i'm pretty obsessed with and have decided to share them with you. 

oh and surprise: they all star zach gilford.

coach taylor giving matt some tough love in season 2 after he gets drunk at a strip club and his grandma gets rushed to the emergency room while he's out shirking his responsibilities.

this is kind of spoiler-y so don't watch or keep reading if you don't want to know. this entire episode (season 4's "The Son") where matt's dad dies in Iraq had me pretty emotional the whole time. this final scene (the blood on the handle at the end!!), the one where matt breaks down at the dinner table and tells the taylor family "i hate him. i don't like hating people." and the scene where he breaks into the funeral home drunk and demands to see his father's body and his subsequent reaction were the highlights and probably the best pieces of television i've ever seen. those can be seen here, set to one of my favorite pieces of music.

anyways, there's a lot more i wish i could say about FNL, and so many more incredible moments involving all the characters, but it's hard to put the greatness into words. instead, i'll just let this video do the talking for me.

also, i wish tami taylor was my second mom.