I mean, I guess it's plausible JD changed so much. Was still really weird to hear him talk junk/grope julie in the first ep

Ditto to the others about this episode. I've loved this whole season and can't wait to see how it unfolds.

Maybe I'm way wrong, but I was getting the impression that Saracen was gonna break up with Julie after the talk with Riggins. It was almost like he finally got it in his head that he's being held back in Dillon and only stayed for a girl that's moving away. I know he's got his grandma so probably not moving, but should be moving on. Either that or they were gonna go elope, but that's season 2 material. Someone else have an opinion....I think it was gonna be a break-up...........

I didn't think so. She's pretty much the only good thing in his life right now, I don't see why he'd get rid of her. To the contrary I almost felt like he was down to move and follow her when she graduates which is corny but w/e.

Breaking up would still have made sense though so it can go either way.

I need to rewatch early seasons.

Saracen has been amazing the whole way through. He really pulls at the heart strings like none other on tv (that is coming to mind right now....that I've seen).

The scene where Coach throws him in the shower after getting drunk with Riggins is powerful. When he screams "everybody leaves me. what's wrong with me" it just hits hard. Coach plays it well, also. He's trying to do some tough love, and realizes that the kid is hurting, and he hurt him.

Yeah. I love it. So so good.

Coach Taylor might be my favorite character on television.

Antone know if there is a new episode on tonight? I don't have Direct TV and I don't want to be refreshing a website all night if its never going to be there

No new episode tonight.

Alan Sepinwall said next weeks episode is one of the best of the series with giving an Emmy worthy performance.

ty

and damn you for making the wait just that much longer anticipating a great episode

Just noticed this was available instantly on Netflix.

Worth getting into? (They have seasons 1-3)

Tom you'll be hooked after the first few eps, the first season is incredibly good

that's such an overstatement

The first few eps suck actually iirc and then it picks up and gets good when they make it more about coach and less about stupid, slutty young people.

Seriously the main plot of the first few eps: star quarterback is injured and unable to play thereby ending his relationship with the head cheerleader and putting a previously unknown and uncool backup quarterback in the game skyrocketing him to popularity!

Seriously, I'm not joking, that's the plot. All that was missing was a woman giving birth in an elevator.

Also, for the first ep at least, I recall they seem to have been filming in an earthquake.

So if anything the above quote should read:

I've turned 5-6 people onto the show and all of them liked the first 4 eps or whatever enough to continue watching. Granted, it's been awhile, but I remember them being really good.

I can't see how you can be "nauseated" by the first few eps and like the show. That makes absolutely no sense.

I'll add to my Queue and watch it once I'm done re-watching Jericho.

Knee: Sounds exactly like Varsity Blues. But then I loved that movie, so

nausea is enduced by the shaky cam and the sickeningly cliche main plot.

My perseverance is explained by 1- the fact that I download full season packs of shows and when I start, for some reason, I can't bring myself to quit. Also 2 - because it's not that hard to endure bad tv when it's playing in the background during a poker session.

But yea, the first few eps suck. When people complain about the ratings, I think they should keep that in mind -- Star QB goes down to be replaced by unknown -- was so the wrong way to start this series, they have no one to blame but themselves for people changing the channel before the show could prove itself to be more than Varsity Blues: The Series.

The show picks up, no doubt and the finale and lead up thereto of season 1 is awesome - but the first episode is cliche, over-directed trite.

LOL at comparing FNL to Varsity Blues. It's not even close in any way.

It was painfully obvious Street was getting hurt in the pilot, but that was integral to the shows development. Having him hurt later in the show completely negates Saracen as a character, not to mention the pilot is just them crushing some idiots and celebrating.

Calling the first few eps terrible is ridiculous and you are a giant nit. It makes zero sense that you enjoy the show if you think the beginning of the series is so mindblowingly terrible.

I always tell people that the first season of FNL is one of the best first seasons of any show that I've ever seen.

Really? Cause it seems to me you make a pretty great argument for it being terrible.

"Nothing of any consequence happens in the episode until the dramatic climax which you can see coming a mile away! How can you not like it?!"

Seriously that's what you said, don't believe me - read your post.

If that's a GOOD episode what in the world would they have had to do to make you think it was a bad one?

You guys understand that this show was based off a book that was made into two movies, Friday Night Lights and Varsity Blues, don't you?


To make fun of the plot in that regard seems kind of odd.

The pilot was pretty awful. I watched it when it premiered and didn't even give the 2nd episode a chance because it was ridiculously dumb. Didn't it have something absurd like Saracen scrambling from the red zone back to his own 20 then chucking up a pass 50 yds downfield and the receiver still had to run another 30 yds into the end zone? I mean the on-field play on a TV show doesn't have to be completely realistic but that is just embarrassingly LOL.

Glad I went back and gave it a 2nd chance later on whenever it got awesome reviews, I remember it being the nuts from episode two on.

I'm not saying its bad because its based on a book which was the source material for two movies.

I'm saying it's bad because it was bad.

Just some of the reasons its bad are listed in previous posts above. I think, as mentioned, mullen makes a very clear argument for the episode being objectively horrible.

Why he followed that argument by saying it's ridiculous to not like the ep remains a mystery.

it was obvious because of their focus on saracen and all the texas forever stuff. i also never said its ridiculous to not like the ep, so lol at that. i cant understand why someone would think the first few eps are absurdly terrible and then like the show later, that makes ZERO sense.

that doesn't make it bad at all and the episodes are still incredibly good. if you watched the pilot and thought "oh, how trite!" you're a huge nit and i dont see how you have any entertainment in life.

LOL all this discussion has prompted me to move the pilot to the top of my viewing list. After the football game I'll check it out and tell you what I think.

was there a saved by the bell reference in one of those rants?