“I’m gonna miss this.”
Coach Taylor I couldn’t have said it better myself. Last night the final season of Friday Night Lights premiered and it was called “Expectations” and it was excellent. I laughed, I cried, I cheered, it was everything that I wanted the premier to be and soo much more. It saddens me knowing that, now, there are only twelve episodes left of this amazing show. This show has never let me down and when it ends my heart will break but for now, I am just happy it is here for the time being.
The episode started off in August as it usually does and Coach was hard at work trying to whip his boys into shape for the upcoming season. The Lions were no longer considered a huge laughing stock after their defeat of the West Dillon Panthers (who by the way were not seen at all in the premier.) The Lions however still need a lot of work before they can disown that “loser” title they still have. To combat this, Coach Taylor finds out about a basketball star at East Dillon named Hastings Ruckle (played by Grey Damon, known to some for being the douchy quarterback hooked on V on True Blood. I must say I think I like him better on FNL then I did on True Blood. Not to mention he is REALLY hot!) Coach Taylor can’t convince him enough to join the team because Hastings thinks that Football represents everything that is wrong in American society. Then Taylor tells him, and I have to admit, it was kinda perfect, “Well you live in Texas now. You LOVE football…you just don’t know it yet.”
Eventually Coach recruits Vince and Luke (the amazing Matt Lauria) to get Hastings to join the team, which leads them to throw a party at Luke’s house. Hastings is only recruited after Jess works some of her “girl charm.” It works because he joins the team and somehow, the Lions win their first game, which was against the reigning State Champions. I don’t know how this is going to play out this season, but it looks to me that the Lion’s might be major underdogs this season. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
Jess and Vince were pretty amazing last night too. Now that Matt and Julie are apart (hopefully temporary), there is a new high school couple that is here to warm our hearts. Jess’s father has started a franchise and has left Jess and her mother to take care of the children. It’s painfully obvious that Jess and her siblings are not too happy about the situation. However this leads to some pretty beautiful scenes with Vince helping her out and talking to her brother who is upset about the fact that his father has left. I really love how much Vince has grown up since we met him last season. I really can’t wait to see what happens with these two this season.
I was happy to see a scene with Tim in this episode. Poor guy looks like he’s completely lost himself. That scene with him and Billy at the prison nearly had me in tears, I like seeing the confident Tim, the one who doesn’t have a care in the world, not the Tim we saw last night. 3 months till he gets out of prison, which probably means he’ll be out right around the end of the season, which is probably when we’ll see him again. I can’t wait!
Julie and Landry are off to college. Their scenes together were really quite special. I really enjoyed seeing Landry go over to see Grandma Saracen. That was really sweet. I am glad that they mentioned that Matt was doing well and I was also happy that Landry told her that he meant a lot to him. I also thought it was pretty hilarious when Landry and Julie ended up at the Strip Club. That was pretty epic. I am defiantly going to miss that kid.
I saved the best for last, the heart wrenching scenes with the Taylor family. Every scene with them pretty much brought me to tears. From the scene with Julie and Tami in the beginning to the scene where Coach is staring at the table where Tami, Julie, and Gracie are eating breakfast and he just states “I’m going to miss this.” Yes Coach, I am going to miss this too. I also loved the scene with Coach and Julie playing ping pong together the night before she headed off to college. And then the last scene, with the whole family surrounding Julie at her car before she drove off to college. It was very beautiful and Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton nailed it so perfectly. It will be interesting to see how they handle not having Julie around for awhile.
The first episode was excellent and I am really excited about this season. It looks like its going to be a tough one though for the Taylors. Coach and Tami have their work cut out for them at East Dillon but I think it will be worth it in the end.
Till next time: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t lose!
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Little note here: I have already seen the entire 5th season of Friday Night Light’s when it aired in late 2010 on Direct TV. However, since it is now on NBC I am now going to repost those reviews I wrote. Thanks!
Primetime with Caroline 