Friday Night Lights, Season 5
Entry 25:
Slate originally published its TV Club on the final season of Friday Night Lights during its run on DirecTV. We're reprinting the entries to coincide with the series' run on NBC.
Emily, I can't let your "Huh" paragraph about the episode pass without a response! You're so wrong when you say the violence was peripheral and that the episode was really about sweet male cuddling.
The entire subtext of this episode—the fundamental theme that shapes it—is that the Lions bring violence—unfair, dirty, nasty violence—to the field, and they love it. Coach Taylor, a rationalist priss, can't live with it. All the other boys and men are thrilled about it. The violence and the resulting victory fuel the poker game, the party, the branding, and, most critically for Vince and Hastings, the "bros before hos" choice of male companionship over female—which, as I am sure you know, is the choice of violence over civilization.
—David
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David Plotz is the Editor of Slate. He's the author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank and Good Book. He appears on Slate's Political Gabfest.