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Striving to Be Better: Expectations and Deviations on Friday Night Lights

I'm just going to say it upfront: I'm hating Julie's storyline.

I always like to give Friday Night Lights the benefit of the doubt when it comes to storytelling (except, maybe, for the murder conspiracy storyline in Season Two), but the weakness of the current college plot for Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden) was all the more apparent this week when it was juxtaposed with the strength and grace of the storyline for Vince (Michael B. Jordan).

This week's episode of Friday Night Lights ("The Right Hand of the Father"), written by Patrick Massett and John Zinman and directed by David Boyd, attempted to balance the two plots, as well as a third about striving to be a better person in light of last week's disastrous party and the drunken behavior of Maura (Denise Williamson) but it didn't quite all come together for me in the end, due to the lackluster nature of that Julie subplot.

Which is a bit of a disappointment, as Jordan's Vince delivered some powerful and affecting scenes in which he attempted to balance the expectations placed on him by Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his father, newly released from prison, with his own bruised feelings and innate needs. Viewed within those contexts, the episode was a resounding success as it followed what could have been a familiar plot trajectory and instead made it is own, exploring whether we can change as human beings and how much change we're capable of achieving.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
This show finished months ago.l Why are you so behind?
5/01/2011
Jace Lacob said…
Anonymous,

I am not "so behind." I reviewed each of these episodes last year and earlier this year when they aired on DirecTV, but the show's final season is currently airing on NBC, and these reviews are being repurposed for those who don't have DirecTV or haven't picked up the final season DVD.
5/01/2011
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