Friday Night Lights and Lost 2/28/07

Some of my fellow bloggers will be happy to note that I'm writing about Friday Night Lights this week as well as Lost.

I'll start with Friday Night Lights because I have less to say on that show. I'm beginning to see why so many people recommended it to me. It is a very well-written, well-acted show.

I actually feel like I'm catching up on who all these characters are and what the main storylines are, which is pretty impressive for only watching two episodes of a show with a rather large cast. I'm still confused by some things, though, but that will take time, and the watching of some repeats to get a handle on.

Of course, I can just ask my fellow bloggers for help, too, so that's what I'll do.

First, why is Buddy so upset that Coach might leave Dillon? I understand that people in a small town tend to get invested in their local sports, but he seems to be way too invested in Coach's life, especially considering how his life is in a shambles as Coach rightfully pointed out. Plus, I found it to be very disturbing that he was snooping about why Coach went out to dinner.

What is up with Lyla? I get that she'd be a little threatened by a girl cozying up to Street, since they are engaged, but this tattoo parlor girl didn't seem all that threatening to me. I can understand Lyla's emotions being a little bit heightened after what happened to with her parents, but still, it seems a bit odd for her to go off on Street.

I'm also confused by Waverly. Has she been on for the run of the series so far? If she has, did we know she was on mood altering drugs? Even not knowing the show all that well, I could tell that something was off with her right from the beginning when she snuck into Smash's room. (That was Smash, right? I'm still working on associated characters with names.)

I think that's all I'm confused about. I must say that I really like the whole Taylor family relationship. I especially enjoyed the scene where Coach and his wife (sorry, blanking on names again) were driving to the house and saw Buddy on the porch. The dialogue seemed so real, not like typical TV dialogue. Plus, I can totally understand the wife's reaction. I've had the reaction myself many a time.

Overall, a very good episode, and I'm tempted to keep tuning in.

Now, on to Lost. I have to say that I absolutely loved this episode. True, I'm slightly biased because Hurley is my favorite character, but still this episode was very good.

There was one thing I didn't like about it, though. It seemed a bit disjointed to me, which is unusual for Lost. The whole subplot with Kate going to see Rousseau just didn't seem to belong with the rest of the episode. It's almost like whoever wrote the show found it to be a little short and had to fill in the episode with something.

Don't get me wrong, I completely see where that arc is going. I knew right away that Kate was going to see Rousseau because of Alex. And I think it's a brilliant move on her part. However, it just didn't fit with the rest of the episode.

Besides that, I loved the rest of the episode. Hurley's flashback explained a lot about him. I can understand why he's so desperate to do something productive.

Sawyer was incredibly funny in this episode, too. "Hey, you found yourselves a hippie car!" I laughed out loud with that one. I also giggled when he called Hurley Snuffy. I don't know why I giggled, but I did. Plus, I've said this before, but I love a good pop culture reference.

Speaking of the hippie car, when I saw it, I was still reminded of the bright yellow VW bus in Little Miss Sunshine, even down to how the car didn't work right away. I was half expecting the horn to go a little haywire.

I also thought it was a great touch to open the episode with Hurley talking to Libby. I'm glad that someone on the writing staff is remembering the dead. I'm just hoping that the mention of her name will lead to seeing her in a flashback of someone's. I'm still miffed that they killed her off. She's another character I wanted to learn more about.

I was slightly apprehensive towards the end of the episode. I actually had a slight inkling that they were going to kill Hurley off. It sort of felt like Hurley had worked out all his issues, and we know that that typically means that the character who has the flashback is going to die. I, for one, would have completely tuned out of Lost if they had killed Hurley off. I wouldn't be able to forgive them for that, so I was pretty happy that he made it through the episode relatively unscathed.

Speaking of killing people off, I think my jaw dropped to the floor when the meteor crashed into the Chicken Shack, killing Tricia Tanaka. I knew Hurley had bad luck, but I totally wasn't expecting that. Good job, writers, at keeping me o my toes!

Of course, to conclude, I'll list some questions I'm thinking about after watching this episode.

- Why was there a hippie car in the jungle? How did it get on the island? And why would the Dharma people use it if there are no roads on the island?
- Will Charlie stop moping now that he's cheated death again? Has he really cheated death?
- Will Rousseau help Kate, Locke, and Sayid? What will she do if/when she finds her daughter?
- Is Hurley's curse broken because he found hope?
- Will we ever hear about the numbers again, and will we learn their significance?

It was definitely a great episode of Lost, and it made up for the somewhat disappointing episode last week. I'm very interested to see what will happen next week. I'll be tuning in, that's for sure!