The press grills Coach Taylor about the upcoming season while the teachers grill his wife, the new principal, about the budget and the necessary cutbacks, while Buddy and the football team have the best of everything.
Let's be honest: Season 3 is a Hail Mary pass for Friday Night Lights, one of those real good TV shows that always seems to have been playing from a touchdown or two behind. Still, win or lose, the show has got game.
I could probably watch an hour of Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler bantering every week, but Friday Night Lights offers much more. The cast members who started out good have only gotten better.
It creates a feeling, a mood, an atmosphere. When the show works, the plots recede to the background as "FNL" immerses you in the day-to-day lives of these characters.
As always, it's not the storylines that stood out on this show, but the moments -- the many times Friday Night Lights captures interactions between these characters that feel 100% genuine, even if you've seen versions of these stories before.
If this is game over for Lights, the series goes out with its legacy intact, no matter what Nielsen says. For three seasons, the cast of little-known twentysomethings played their respective students with exceptional clarity, charm and authenticity.
