Friday Night Lights just might be the best show on television that you aren’t watching, but it isn’t too late to start. Season 4 premiered on Wednesday on DirecTV (hang tight NBC viewers, it’ll be back in February, similar to last year), and the series is heading in a very different direction now that East Dillon High School has reopened and the town of Dillon has been divided into two school districts. This spelled bad news for Coach Taylor’s (Kyle Chandler) tenure as head coach of the Dillon Panthers after losing at State championship, as he was moved to coach the new East Dillon Lions while his wife, Tami (Connie Britton), remained principal of Dillon High.
As for the rest of the main players, Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) ultimately decides to stay in Dillon with his grandmother rather than go to art school in Chicago while Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) surprised everyone by heading off to college on a football scholarship. Well, Saracen is miserable at his local art school but is still dating Coach Taylor’s daughter, Julie (Aimee Teegarden); and Riggins walks out of class, drives home while tossing his school books out the window, and after an awkward confrontation where his brother kicks him out, sleepswith a cocktail waitress named Cheryl (Alicia Witt). One thing you can always count on in this show, is that Riggins will always drink beer and have an entertaining storyline. As for Saracen, he’s now delivering pizzas and putting up with current Panthers star quarterback JD McCoy (Jeremy Sumpter) giving him crap about losing State for them. Last season I felt bad for JD, all the pressure placed on him, this season, wow…what a dick.
Panthers and former Panthers aside, Coach Taylor has his work cut out for him turning the underfunded, misfit East Dillon Lions into a legitimate football team, and it looks like it’s going to be a long season. Landry Clark (Jesse Plemons) is among few (more…)