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The season four finale of Friday Night Lights airs, for the second time, on Friday at 8PM. For those unaware, DirecTV runs the season in the fall and NBC runs the season when they have no other programming, and because they are legally obligated to.

I haven’t missed an episode this season but the steady disinterest grows. I wondered why. I enjoy the show. The first season is well-done, the second season is a trainwreck but the show rebounded with a strong season three; however, the interest began waning around the time that Jason Street managed to snag a job as a sports agent in the most unrealistic way possible. The strongest aspect of the show remained strong: football. Football has been nothing more than a plot device this season. The writers might’ve lost interest in the football aspect of the show. The football element is handled so poorly that the East Dillion Lions season is even more unrealistic than the Jason Street storyline from season three. The show wanted to semi-reboot the story and bring in new characters. The writers succeeded in creating and introducing well-developed, interesting characters. Unfortunately, the storylines have been a tad too cliche; however, the storylines haven’t been the most original, and they’ve used familiar family drama tropes.

In the penultimate episodes, entitled “Laboring,” the show returned to its strongest element: football. Coach Taylor was forced out of his job at West Dillion and became coach of East Dillion as a result of re-districting. In “Laboring,” the two schools prepare to play on Thanksgiving and the buildup to the game is not pleasant for the Taylor family. In addition to getting vulgar and obscene calls, Coach’s field is destroyed and the town wants Tami out of her job. The episode re-introduced the life-and-death experience of football in West Texas.

With the exception of the Luke Cafferty plotline, the East vs. West story received zero attention. Instead, the writers gave us C stories like Saracen working with a hard-to-work-with-genius-Artist-who-eventually-opens-Matt’s-eyes-to-what-he-wants. When the show introduced the character Big Mary, an ex-Dillion football player who wants nothing to do with East Dillion boosters or football in general, we never learn why he became bitter about the sport he used to love and play. One day, Big Mary changes his mind and becomes an advocate of the team and a mentor to Vince. The development isn’t earned because this part of Big Mary’s character is never explained. The storyline had potential.

On a recent BS Report, Buzz Bissinger talked about his experience living in Texas while writing the book. Bissinger spoke about life after football for these players. The players aren’t celebrated. They’ve been tossed aside for the new group of players who will bring glory to West Texas. The first season of the show dealt with this story but Big Mary could’ve been a voice for one of those players. He wasn’t. I know that the show doesn’t deal with the book these days; however, the show missed their chance.

The fourth season had various crime storylines. FNL never handled stories about crime well. Tim and Billy Riggins found themselves in crime because they wanted to earn large sums of cash quickly. The cops arrest them both. Vince, one of the new characters, became the East Dillion QB but he has a checkered past. Naturally, the character faces temptation from his thuggish group of friends. Vince’s primary story will not be defeating the Dillion Panthers. His primary story will be: am I going to get murdered? This is because his best friend was killed, and he didn’t want to take part in the revenge. The storyline is compelling. Vince’s journey throughout the season is interesting; however, this is a football show, or at least it used to be. I’m most interested in the football stuff. Unfortunately, the show isn’t.

With the finale looming, and the final season looming in the fall, I wonder how the fourth season will conclude. The story of season four has been Coach as a transplant. He wanted to build the Lions into a respectable team and he has, and he also wanted to re-build the East Dillion community as evidenced when he turned the lights back on at Carroll Park. Whether or not he has re-built the community remains iffy. His wife probably won’t remain Principal of West Dillion. Julie will most likely receive permission from her parents to leave Dillion for training with Habitat For Humanity. The Riggins Brothers could flee Dillion once they know how much jail-time they’ll be facing. Vince could very well die if the writers really want to act like this show is The Wire.

Signs point towards an ending in which the Taylors pack up their belongings and move away from Dillion. I think such development would be terrific. FNL, at its heart, is about Eric and Tami Taylor. Many of the original core group of characters have been written off. Why not leave Dillion entirely? The town treats Coach like Philadelphia treats Andy Reid, and COACH WON A CHAMPIONSHIP.

I’m probably wrong. I hope the football game is the central story of the finale. I hope football is used as powerfully, as hopefully as it was in past seasons.

Is it too much to ask for a show about football to be about football?

THE QUOTES

Once again, I thought of a new running feature in The Foot. Will the feature last or will it be forgotten like the Great Character feature? I do not know. I read a lot of Associated Press game stories for MLB, NHL and NBA. I enjoy reading quotes from the athletes. My favorite quotes come from NHL players but no NHL quotes will see this space until October. The title says it all. This will be quotes I find funny, insightful or thought-provoking and most quotes will be pulled from AP game stories.

COREY HART, ON J.A. HAPP BEFORE HOUSTON’S 5-0 WIN (FROM MLB.COM):

“We faced him last year right before Cliff Lee,” Hart said a few hours before the game, “and most of us thought [Happ] was better.”

Several scouts say J.A. Happ is “Cliff Lee Lite.”  Prof and Cuz think he’s a career third or fourth pitcher in the rotation. We shall see. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.

JERED WEAVER, ON CLIFF LEE, AFTER LA’S 4-1 WIN (FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS):

“He got me in Texas, and it was fun to match up with him again,” Weaver said. “Obviously, when you go up against a guy like Lee, you know it’s going to be a battle. I mean, the guy is pretty impressive and fun to watch. He’s a proven guy. It’s a weird deal to see him hop around to all these different teams. You don’t understand why they don’t lock somebody like that up.”

Weaver sounds like a Phillies fans spokesperson.

CLIFF LEE, ON COMPLETE GAMES, AFTER THROWING ONE IN A LOSING EFFORT YESTERDAY (FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS):

“Getting deep in games and giving the team a chance to win, that’s a starting pitcher’s job,” Lee said. “All I can do is throw strikes and make the other team swing the bat. I can’t control if we score runs or make plays. They found some holes and got some hits.”

Ever the diplomat is Cliff Lee and I know Nolan Ryan (he who cares not for pitch counts) loves that attitude.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK

A week after LOST ended, I created a list of possible series I’d review. Obviously, I haven’t written about any of those series on a weekly basis. So, I might as well write about each of those series right now. Before you head for the hills thinking that 6,000 words are waiting for you, fear not, that is not my intention. The 6,000 word posts will return in due time. Just not tonight. JUST NOT TONIGHT.

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FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: The fourth season concluded months ago on DirecTV but NBC has not yet burned off the episodes in the ultimate death time slot: Fridays, during the summer, at 8PM. The show is ending next season. Peter Berg and Jason Katims were sneaky about the fourth season. For non-FNL people and fans of Scrubs, just think Scrubs: Med School. Friday Night Lights has rebooted. Rebooting is not new in television world. Rebooting is essentially a spin-off. The key word is essentially. Most of the high schoolers from season one are long gone in the fourth season. Saracen has a six episode arc that ends in confusing fashion. His departure is one of the more oddly written plot points in the series. In episode five, he mourns and buries his father after he had been killed in Iraq. At the end of season three, he wants to leave for Art School in Chicago but feels he cannot because of his grandmother; however, in season four, this is retconned to make Matt’s decision all about Julie. Saracen gets a large settlement from the army and decides to leave. There are zero goodbyes shown. The second to last image of Saracen is the man sitting outside of his house, looking at his mother and grandmother. The next image is of Saracen driving on an open road out of Dillion and Texas. The heart of the season has been Coach taking over the East Dillion football program. The transition had some rough patches like how East Dillion seems entirely unfamilair with the success of the West Dillion Panthers and the history of Coach Taylor. The show had the task of introducing and integrating new characters into a familiar world and they handled the task very well. None of the characters are new versions of old characters. Each have their defining characteristics. Some are cliche. Others are not.

For all of the praise the show gets, and it’s deserved, Friday Night Lights uses some very familiar tropes of their genre. This season, there’s been an abortion storyline. The character Vince, with a criminal past, is torn between providing for his drug-addict mother through illegal means and turning his life around with Coach as his no.1 cheerleader. There was an episode about a girl’s distant father who, it turns out, as a different family in Seattle. This same girl was the center of the abortion storyline and she also is in love with Riggins. Riggins, of course, has slept with her mother. I won’t even dive into the crime stuff because the show has always been terrible at telling crime stories.

All of this leads me to a grade of the season thus far. Only two episodes remain on NBC. That grade is…

B

TRUE BLOOD: Nazi-werewolves who are addicted to vampire blood. Need I say more? The third season has been better than the nonsense of season two. True Blood, to its credit, knows what it is and embraces it. The show is even campier, more violent and more twisted than ever. I’m awaiting patiently for the arrival of the cute blond girl that Jason saw in the woods. She appeared in episode three but barely. Sookie continues to be the best character of the show.

It’s unfair to give a grade after just three episodes but I will…

B

ENTOURAGE: Season 7 has, thus far, been the same old Entourage. And it has only been two episodes. Ari remains one of the greatest characters ever created. Drama remains the second best character on the show. E still sucks. There hasn’t been enough Sloane. Turtle is Turtle. I have no idea if the season is going anywhere. Right now, I doubt it because season six went nowhere and the biggest source of drama on the show is that Vince got a haircut which doesn’t raise my hopes about the quality of the season. But I’ve accepted what the show is. With that said, it is fun criticizing it. I also should mention Tucker Gates, LOST Directing Alum, directed the second episode of the season. It did not have the scope of Ab Aeterno and Across The Sea nor was it anything like how The Substitute was shot.

Grade: N/A

MAD MEN: Season 4 begins July 25. I will be caught up by then. Will there be reviews? Not sure. But I’ll give grades for seasons one and two. I am only two episodes into season three.

Season 1 Grade: A+

Season 2 Grade: A

DEXTER: I will provide zero Dexter coverage. You can all blame Showtime for that. Or me for refusing to watch the show on friends’ netflix accounts.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: I’ve seen bits and pieces of the show since watching the pilot episode. Season 2 doesn’t begin until September. Will it be reviewed? No.

THE REAL WORLD/ROAD RULES CHALLENGE: The season wrapped a month ago. It was awesome. Can’t wait for The Gauntlet 4.

Grade: A+

Feel free to comment on one of these shows or all of them.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK