Pictures are snapped every day with a rapidity that makes you wonder: “Will I ever really look at this?” The answer may be yes, but oftentimes, it’s the other way around; yet, that doesn’t prevent us from pulling out the phone at every chance we get and attempting to capture a fleeting moment in our lives. For, we’re a species that craves the feeling of a tangible object, a physical representation of the memories that perpetually accumulate over the years.
Dear Coach Taylor,
I wish I could give you all the money you need for your team, you wonderful man. I don’t know why everyone isn’t already throwing him or herself at your feet, trying to kiss that amazing personality, whether or not they think of you as their dad or their boyfriend or both. Have you ever thought about a job at the Landing Strip? Wear just your cap and your jacket of fatherly goodness, emblazoned with the lives you’ve touched and a “Tami Taylor is always right” sticker that never comes off. She’s always got your back, and you’ve always got hers. Compromise. It’s a beautiful thing, even when you’re lying about that damn personal check.
“Act as if you belong here.”
Prison deprives you of a “normal” life, and while sometimes, you may deserve the punishment, for innocent people who’ve lost years for something they didn’t do, it’s especially devastating to look back and realize that they were failed by the law, that there were things they didn’t get to do because of a flawed system. Daniel isn’t someone who holds any deep-seated grudges, but there’s been a gradual build of frustration within him, an, as I put it last week, accumulation of weights piled onto his shoulders.
Everything looks different! It’s East Dillon and West Dillon as we open the fourth season of Friday Night Lights, and although there are a number of major contrivances–it really seems as if East Dillon springs up from nowhere–it’s clear that the show’s going to use this new status quo to explore different characters, different schools, and various racial and class tensions. Season 1 placed Coach Taylor into a new and sometimes hostile environment, but season 4 places him in a situation in which he has no foundation to build upon. The pieces aren’t in place; he has to find them and put them together.
It’s time to see things from the dog’s perspective. In “Forward”, we operate under the assumption that Wilfred truly is is own entity, that he has his own way of looking at things, that his way of looking at things isn’t just a twist on Ryan’s views. As a result, it’s a nice and refreshing take on things, but it also signifies a desire to bide time on the part of the writers.
“Yankee” was about people operating in the same location as each other, but operating in seemingly disconnected manners; we saw characters out searching for answers, scattered, with feelings of isolation creeping in at every turn. “Ghost of a Flea” begins to move these characters toward each other again, and the more fluid nature of the episode serves as a significant improvement over the premiere.
*I wrote reviews of episodes 8-13 a while back, so I’m just going ahead to season 4 after this review. In case you’re looking for 8-13, here are some links:
Episode 8: “New York, New York”
https://polarbearstv.com/2013/10/20/friday-night-lights-new-york-new-york-review-3×08/
Episode 9: “Game of the Week”
https://polarbearstv.com/2013/10/22/friday-night-lights-game-of-the-week-review-3×09/
Episode 10: “The Giving Tree”
https://polarbearstv.com/2013/10/26/friday-night-lights-the-giving-tree-review-3×10/
Episode 11: “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”
https://polarbearstv.com/2013/10/31/friday-night-lights-a-hard-rains-gonna-fall-review-3×11/
Episode 12: “Underdogs”
https://polarbearstv.com/2013/11/03/friday-night-lights-underdogs-review-3×12/
Episode 13: “Tomorrow Blues”
https://polarbearstv.com/2013/11/12/friday-night-lights-tomorrow-blues-review-3×13/
“There’s nothing wrong with being a fucking nerd.”
Nathan Fielder’s deadpan is a thing of beauty. The mock seriousness he brings to every interaction is one of the main reasons for the awkward tension that results and the genuine reactions that slip out, and in “Pet Store/Maid Service”, we continue to see that technique being utilized. However, there are two stand out moments–or sequence of moments–that portray a Nathan Fielder we haven’t really seen before.
“I think I’m the only friend you have left.”
Pain is a fundamental aspect of the 24 universe, whether it be physical pain due to an ass-kicking by Jack Bauer or the very real and deep emotional scars that are ever present in our characters’ psyches. From the opening sequence of Live Another Day, we see the guilt and the stress and the exhaustion across Jack’s face, and we know that the years have not been kind to him.
“Work…it’s where I belong.”
A script is a means by which we can find some semblance of structure, of stability, of requirements and guidelines, and we oftentimes will retreat behind what we perceive to be a life script, something that takes into consideration the values of society, mixes it up with our comfort zones, and dictates what we should do and what we should feel. Because of this, the identities that arise and the problems resulting from the identities we display to the world are simply false fronts.
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