Darkest before the dawn? Friday Night Lights will finish its first season without knowing whether it's also THE END
04/10/07 04:38 PM
By ED BARK
This could be ball game for Friday Night Lights.
As of this writing, though, Wednesday's "State" episode is still the season -- not the series -- finale. NBC will decide the show's fate within a month's time, leaving the fictional Dillon Panthers lining up to either kick a long game-winning field goal or have it blocked.
April 11th's hour of reckoning (7 p.m. central, 8 eastern) finds the team at Texas Stadium in Irving for a climactic championship game. At the same time, first-year Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) hasn't been able to hide the fact that he's accepted a job at Austin's Texas Methodist University. A prying reporter gets him to admit as much on the eve of the big game.
"I don't like the press. I never have," he later tells his team. "It should've been done different. I apologize it wasn't."
The guy's a Bill Parcells starter kit in that respect, but a lot more telegenic. Chandler has been a standout all season as the firm but fair Taylor, who now must face the stud quarterback he cut loose because of insubordination.
Filmed in Austin and recently honored with a prestigious Peabody Award, Friday Night Lights repeatedly has been thrown for big losses in the Nielsen ratings. It enters this last game ranked 126th in total viewers (6.02 million per episode) and 108th with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds (2.96 million).
Still, NBC has stuck by the show through thin and thin. So there's still a shot, even if it might be a "Hail Mary" pass of epic proportions.
Sadly, Wednesday's season-ender is off its game in the football action department. Let's just say it's contrived and even a bit hokey.
Performances remain first-rate, though, with Connie Britton also excelling as Coach Taylor's wife, Tami, while the student contingent is led by Adrianne Palicki (as tarty Tyra Collette), Scott Porter (injured QB Jason Street), Zach Gilford (sensitive replacement QB Matt Saracen) and Gaius Charles (running back "Smash" Williams).
The episode ends open-ended, although a state champ is crowned. Friday Night Lights' small but devoted band of loyalists now will have to sweat it out. That goes for the actors and producers, too.
Guess it's best to end on the Panthers' locker room rallying cry. "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose."
And as a postscript: "Do you believe in miracles?"
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