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Friday Night Lights, Season 3

Week 4: I'll Take the Brooding Drunk Over the Sweet-Talking Pill-Popper

Posted Monday, Feb. 9, 2009, at 5:56 PM ET

Meghan, I agree with your wild-card theory. I've always thought the show doesn't touch a nerve because it's too straightforwardly sentimental. Or, at least, it's a strange hybrid of sentimental and sophisticated. The themes are not so different from middlebrow dreck like, say, Touched by an Angel—honor, heart, the power of inspiration, staying optimistic in the face of bad odds. The show is hardly ever knowing. Hannah Montana is also a TV teenager, but she would be an alien dropped into this version of America. And when the show goes dark, it's on Oprah's themes—missing fathers, serious illness, divorce. Yet, there is something about the show that transmits "art" and makes it inaccessible. It's not tidy, for example, either in its camerawork or the way it closes its themes. It insists on complicating its heroes and villains, as we've discussed, which is why we like it.

I demurely disagree about Cash, however. He's an archetype, but one that Brokeback Mountain has ruined for me forever. To me, Cash just screams male stripper—the name alone conjures up visions of dollars tucked in briefs. I did not fail to notice that the episode pretty much ditched Tim Riggins, as if there were only room for one male hottie at a time. And I'll take the brooding drunk over the sweet-talking pill-popper any day.

On an unrelated note, anyone notice how much actual cash is floating around Dillon? Lets start a running list of the items the good citizens of a real Dillon could probably never afford. I'll start:

  1. Lyla's wardrobe
  2. Julie's wardrobe
  3. Tami's fabulous hair
  4. The McCoy house, located in Dillon's fashionable McMansion district
  5. Landry's 15" Mac laptop (with wifi hookup)
  6. Landry's electric guitar and amp

Week 4: I'll Take the Brooding Drunk Over the Sweet-Talking Pill-Popper

Posted Monday, Feb. 9, 2009, at 5:56 PM ET
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Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor. Meghan O'Rourke is Slate's culture critic and the author of Halflife, a collection of poetry. Hanna Rosin is the author of God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission To Save the Nation and a contributing editor at the Atlantic. She can be reached at . Emily, Hanna, and Meghan are helping Slate launch a new women's Web site this spring, Double X. David Plotz is Slate's editor.
Stills from Friday Night Lights © 2008 NBC Universal Inc. All rights reserved.
Stills in:
Entry 10 and Entry 15 by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 18 by Mitchell Haaseth/NBC Photo.
Entries 22 and 23: Stills of Jesse Plemons as Landry Clarke and Stephanie Hunt as Devin Corrigan by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 31: Still of Minka Kelly as Lyla Garrity by Mitchell Haaseth.
Entry 32: Still of Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins and Scott Porter as Jason Street by Virginia Sherwood/NBC Photo.
Entry 33: Still of Adrianne Palicki as Tyra Collette and Zach Roerig as Cash by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 36: Derek Phillips as Billy Riggins by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 37: Kim Dickens as Shelby Saracen by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 38: Adrianne Palicki as Tyra Collette and Zach Roerig as Cash by Bill Records/NBC Photo. Entry 43: Still of Brad Leland as Buddy Garrity and Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 44: Still of D.W. Moffett as Joe McCoy Sr. by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 45: Still of Jesse Plemons and Tyra Collette by
Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 46: Still of Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins and Adrianne Palicki as Tyra Collette by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 48: Still by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 49: Still of Connie Britton as Tami Taylor by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 50: Still of Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor and Connie Britton as Tami Taylor by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 52: Still from
Friday Night Lights by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
Entry 55: Still from
Friday Night Lights by Bill Records/NBC Photo.
On the Slate home page: Zach Gilford as Matt Saracen by Michael Muller/NBC Photo.
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