Lights out?
Writers' strike could end Friday Night
By BARRETT HOOPER
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS with Connie Britton, Taylor Kitsch, Kyle Chandler and Jesse Plemons. Airs Fridays at 9 pm on NBC. Rating: NNNN
Won't be long before the writers' strike reduces this column to reviews of Deal Or No Deal, The Hour and reruns of Married With Children.
We've already seen the first significant casualty with the decision to postpone the January start of 24 until the mess is settled, so that Jack Bauer can save the world uninterrupted. I suggest we stick reps from both sides in a room with Bauer and a cattle prod and be done with it. (A second option would be to stick them in a car with Kiefer Sutherland after a night on the town.)
Which brings me to Friday Night Lights, about the drama surrounding a small-town Texas football team. It's one of the best shows on TV that's not on HBO, but with its lacklustre ratings, a strike-interrupted season could send it to the showers permanently.
Too bad, since this season has seen the emergence of two of the most compelling characters on TV. Last season, rookie QB Matt Saracen and hotshot receiver "Smash" Williams earned all the attention, and certainly their rivalry has heated up the on-field drama.
But so much of this show is about what happens away from the game. And this season, Coach Taylor's stressed-out wife, Tami (Connie Britton), and perpetually hungover player Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) have provided the show's forward momentum.
I don't know of any actress on TV who is as willing as Britton to look like crap. Tami Taylor is a puffy, bleary-eyed, postpartum mom dealing with a newborn, an often absent husband and a brat of a teenage daughter, and Britton is as gritty as she is ground down in the role.
As for Kitsch, he takes a clichéd part - the team's hillbilly fuckup - and makes him into a smart, sensitive and entirely three-dimensional hillbilly fuckup. Combine Judd Nelson's Bender and Emilio Estevez's Andy from The Breakfast Club and that's close to who Kitsch's Riggins has become this season.
Hopefully, Friday Night Lights recovers from any strike interruption more quickly than the NFL did back when the players walked out in 87.
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