Clear Eyes and Full Hearts

Human emotion is a complex, yet beautiful thing. There's something about the unpredictability of life that makes it worth living. How emotion makes a person react in a completely different way than the guy across the room. When you find a great movie or TV show, you know it's great because of the way it makes you feel. It's when character become more than just a character that we feel for them, why we tear up when they are having their most emotional moments. There are five things that make me feel the most extreme of emotions: love, movies, the Cubs, loss, and TV. Call it sad, call it whatever you like, but watching the television version of "Friday Night Lights" makes me feel some of the most genuine of human emotions. Maybe you've seen it, or maybe NBC's ineptitude of promotion and scheduled has caused you to miss it. Either way, I'm going to share my insights on the greatness of the show. Shows like "The Wire," "Mad Men," or "The Shield" may be better in production values and overall quality, "Friday Night LIghts" preys on emotion better. So here they are, the 7 Best Moments of TV's "Friday Night Lights".

7. A QB with No Support
Episode: Season 2, Episode 14
The Situation: Starting QB Matt Saracen's dad is in the army and has just gotten sent back to Iraq. Matt has been left to balance school, football, and taking care of his grandma, who has the early signs of dementia. Matt gets really drunk but then has to take his mom to the hospital, where his Coach has to pick him up.
The Emotion: Matt's had everyone leave him; his coach, both his parents, his girlfriend. When a kid continuously gets let down, he starts to think it's fault. In this scene, after Coach Taylor takes him home and throws him in the shower, Matt Saracen might deliver his best line of the series: "What's wrong with me?" Even his Coach gets a little choked up when he hears this. No kid deserves to have to take care of his mentally ill grandma, go to school, and lead a football team. So when Matt breaks down, it's not completely unexpected. But when you see the kid drunk, laying in the shower, wondering what he did to deserve all of what he's gone through, it can't do much but tug at your heartstrings. Because, you know what? The answer is "Nothing."
Hulu Link: NBC doesn't support YouTube, so I'll link you to Hulu. The clip starts at about the 34 minute mark, so just click ahead.
Poon Clip


6. New QB Gets Hit
Episode: Season 3, Episode 11
The Moment: Freshmen phenom QB J.D. McCoy has just played a subpar playoff game to which he ignored his obsessed Dad's advice. J.D.'s tell off his Dad, who's already fuming, and his Dad proceeds to beat the crap out of him, while Coach Taylor tries to intervene.
The Emotion: J.D.'s got "that" Dad who took little league way too seriously and pushed his kid way too hard to succeed. Basically, he's restricted fun, girls, and anything and everything enjoyable. So when J.D. has a subpar game and his Dad confronts him, yelling at him like he just lost the Super Bowl, it's understandable the kid would lash out. But then his Dad beats the crap out of him. A very powerful moment that gives the viewer perspective as to just how far his Dad's obsession with his son's success or living his success through him. Child abuse is always uncomfortable but "FNL" does a great job at making seem real--maybe even too real.
Hulu Link: Here's the entire clip.
Watch this, fool.

5. I'm Not On a Boat
Episode: Season 2, Episode 5
The Moment: Paralyzed ex-QB Jason Street is on a boat with his best friend Tim Riggins and ex-girlfriend Lyla, with whom Riggins had an affair with when they were still dating and Jason was in the hospital. He's gone to Mexico to get an extremely experimental stem cell surgery that could kill him but his friends won't let him do it. Jason proceeds to drop himself into the ocean.
The Emotion: Although I haven't identified much with his character, Jason Street plummeting to what he wants to be his death, then realizing he wants to live is a profound moment of self-realization. There isn't a moment that betters captures the depleted spirit of a young man who's been paralyzed doing the thing he's the best at in this world. The scene shows the brilliant friendship that is captured time and time again between Riggins and Street. Riggins is, no doubt, a big fuckup throughout the entire series. But he knows and cares enough about his friend to tell him that what he's doing is desperate and dumb and that there's more to life than just walking. As Shawshank taught us all, a life without hope isn't much of a life. It makes you wonder just how much better you have it than some people, no matter what happens.
Hulu Clip: Skip to the 25 minute mark for pure awesomeness.
Click and Enjoy

4. Umm, I Can't Move.
Episode: Pilot, Season 1, Episode 1
The Moment: Jason Street, star QB of the Dillon Panthers, tries to make a tackle, which ends in about the worst way possible: he gets paralyzed.
The Emotion: A whole crowd, silent. A whole team, stunned. There are moments that occur in sports that render the game meaningless. This is one of those moments. A players life, hanging in the balance. I always feel this way after a line drive off a pitcher's head. It's one of the most disgusting and unnatural things that could happen during any game. But with a whole town looking on and their best player laying motionless on the field, the silence is deafening. What can you say? Even though there's a great moment with the backup QB coming in and leading the team to a win right after, the paralyzed QB just lying there is a moment that certainly is as powerful as it gets when it comes to sports.
Hulu Clip: Skip ahead to about the 33:30 minute mark
As Ugly As it Gets

3. What a Takedown!
Episode: Season 2, Episode 11
The Moment: After a team is displaced and shares a practice field with the team and then they play each other the next week. At the end of the game, the Dillon Panthers are about to score the winning touchdown when the opposing coach, who's seemed like an asshole for the entire story arc, tackles him. Dillon's declared the winners but as the coaches confront each other, the opposing coach reveals his wife's got brain cancer.
The Emotion: A cheap reveal? Maybe. But the image of the coach tackling a player about to score is everlasting. It's the last thing you ever expect to see at any sporting event. But telling Coach Taylor his wife has 3 month's to live? It certainly explains all his actions from the prior douchness that the audience has experienced from him, but it's a moment that shows that those people on the sidelines are real people with real problems. Does it excuse his behavior? Not at all. But it certainly makes it understandable. Because when you love something more than anything in the world and that's about to be taken away from you, how would you react? Coach Taylor's reaction says everything, as it often does throughout the entire run of "Friday Night Lights."
Hulu Link: Skip ahead to about 31:20 for the scene.
Pretty Good Form On that Tackle

2. I'm the Smash and the Smash Got In!
Episode: Season 3, Episode 4
The Moment: After star RB Smash Williams suffers a bad knee injury at the end of Season 2, he works hard at rehabbing and getting into shape as Coach Taylor pushes him, so that he can get into college. The scene is Smash getting the call and celebrating with his family as Coach Taylor comes to his door, in which he finds out. The scene is one of the only TV scenes I've ever cried during and I don't care if the whole blogosphere knows it. The rest of the blogosphere are just a bunch of sarcastic, sex-addicted assholes anyway.
The Emotion: If you've watched the series, you know how demoralized Smash was after his knee injury. All the scenes with him and Coach Taylor in Season 3 provide my favorite and most emotional story arc of the entire series by far. After little hope and little support, Smash gets back into shape and gets a workout with Texas A&M and gets in thanks to how hard Coach Taylor has pushed him. This kid is nothing without football and everyone, including him, knows it. And you would just have to be a Nazi not to cheer the kid on. Yeah, he's made mistakes. But I stole a stoplight when I was 17 and almost got arrested, yet people still seem to want me to succeed for some reason.
Hulu Clip: Hulu does not have this episode, but I found it on a different site. Skip to the 42 minute mark.
The Smash


1. State
Episode: Season 3, Episode 12
The Moment: In the state championship, the Panthers rally with a huge, inspired 2nd half comeback to tie the game. Then the opposing team, who are probably better overall, gets in position for a game winning field goal and makes it to win the game with no time left. Coach Taylor then gives a very emotional, powerful speech to his losing team.
The Emotion: What makes this the best moment in the series is the fact that in every other show, the Panthers would win. But in this one, you get to see the losing locker room. The speech the coach has to make to the losing team. What happens when a bunch of 16-18 year olds have to experience the ultimate loss in their sporting careers? What does a coach say? It's so emotional, so unbelievable moving to hear Coach Taylor tell the players that they are champions, that they'll always remember that game. The best character in the show, Coach Taylor, delivers its finest moment. Because when an underdog fights as hard as it can against a much better team and comes up just short, by about the thinnest of margins. It's a moment as beautiful as a sunset, yet as sad as leaving someone behind. "Friday Night Lights" was never a show about football; it is a show about the relationships of a football obsessed Texas town. And this moment captured the great relationship, through everything, that this coach has had with his players. Even in a loss, they're winners. And you know what? So are we for having seen it.
Hulu Clip: Watch the entire episode if you can, otherwise skip to the 37 minute mark.
Watch the Greatness

There you have it. For those regular blog readers that don't watch FNL, I'm sorry but I'm really not. I love the show and it deserved a blog. I'll get another blog up by or during the weekend though hopefully. But anyways, I don't have much to say in this conclusion except that I'm concluding this blog immediately. BTW, Friday Night Lights just got picked up for 2 more seasons and most of the episodes are on Hulu.com if the non-watchers want to join the good guys. Until next time, I'll see ya lata mates.