Friday Night Lights S3.E3 How the Other Half Lives: 
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While Friday Night Lights continues to have a pretty good season, something that is on the top of every Friday Night Light’s fans mind is whether this will be the final season of the show. I am definently not a television ratings expert but there are things pointing towards the series being picked up for another season but there are even more pointing towards the series being over after this season. The good news is that Direct TV took some of the cost of the show in order to air it before it aired on NBC. It is unknown how much of the bill they took though. Rumors are also saying that Direct TV would like to bring back Friday Night Lights for another season. That is good news but it doesn’t mean a whole lot if NBC doesn’t want it back. I am guessing that NBC is probably footing close to or more than half the bill of creating new episodes for Friday Night Lights. With the ratings Friday Night Lights is getting it doesn’t look good for NBC wanting Friday Night Lights back. At this point I think the only way Friday Night Lights gets another season if Direct TV either pays most of the cost or agrees to pay more of the cost for a fourth season. Other than that I can’t imagine NBC deciding to renew Friday Night Lights unless it makes a lot of money from online downloads.
Enough talk about Friday Night Lights getting picked up for a fourth season or not, let’s get onto last night’s episode which I thought was pretty good. (If you saw the entire third season on Direct TV I would prefer if you didn’t give any spoilers in the comments.)
The Quarterback Controversy: The QB controversy from the previous two episodes continues this week when everyone tries to get Coach Taylor to bench Matt in favor of JD (the QB phenom). Coach Taylor stands behind Matt even after JD’s family agrees to throw a party for the community. Matt has a good game on Friday but when he fumbles the football to end the game (in a loss), Coach Taylor has to start thinking about making a change at QB. When he returns home he finds for sale signs on his front lawn essentially telling him that the town wants him to be fired and leave Dillon.
I am kind of torn on this storyline. I actually find it pretty interesting. The problem is that I like Matt and wish he wouldn’t be benched even though I think it will happen sooner rather than later. While I admire that Coach Taylor is sticking behind his QB (Matt), I really can’t blame him if he makes a change since his job is on the line after all.
Matt and Julie: While this wasn’t a big storyline this week, I bring it up because I think they are going to hook up pretty soon. Since I have always liked Matt and Julie together I can’t say I will be disappointed if it happens. I think it could also bring up some interesting storylines if Matt and Julie start dating again and Coach Taylor ends up benching Matt.
The Reformed Tim Riggins?: Lyla continues to try and get Tim to turn his life around. She helps him study for his tests and also tries to keep him out of trouble. Tim returns to his old ways and ends up standing Lyla up on their date. Instead of going out with Lyla, Tim helps his brother steal some copper pipes in order to make some quick money. Tim apologizes to Lyla for missing their date and says he is trying to improve. While I think Friday Night Lights would be smart to help Tim get his life together, I don’t know why the show keeps making him get his life together a little bit and then have him keep throwing it away by doing something stupid. The show needs to either start letting Tim turn his life around or they really need to just drop the storyline all together. I know it must be hard to turn your life around but this storyline has singlehandely been pretty much Tim Riggins only storyline in season one, two and now three. He should have shown at least some progress by now.
Smash Weighs his Options: As Smash prepares for his tryout with a college team, he finds out that his mother is taking a second job in order to help him pay his way through college. Smash doesn’t want his mother to have to work two jobs so when he is offered a promotion at his current job he thinks about taking it. When he tells his mother she refuses to let him take the job. She tells him that she is willing to take two jobs to help him through college if it helps him improve his life. I don’t know where Smash’s storyline is going (especially since he is not a regular this season) but I really like his storyline so far. I have always liked redemption storylines where someone defies all the odds. I think this storyline is leading to Smash Williams turning things around and still having the football career he always dreamed of.
Quotes:
Billy: “You are so whipped it’s rediculous.”
Julie: “You are really adorable when you rant.”
Your Take: What were your thoughts on How the Other Half Lives? What are your thoughts on this possibly being the last season of Friday Night Lights? Do you think Friday Night Lights can somehow sneak out another season despite some pretty poor ratings on NBC?
Photo Credit: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.
