i really want to check out this show but i missed the boat at the beginning of the season and never found the chance to jump on it from the beginning.
The PROBLEM with shows like that (and even Arrested Development to an extent) is that I'm really hesitant to jump in mid-season after missing the first however many episodes (This is where OnDemand comes in for me...).
Hopefully I can catch a dvd of it and they renew it for a second season, because outside of illegally downloading it or being lucky enough to catch a night they are repeating a bunch of the episodes, im outta luck.
I dug the show at the beginning of the season when it was centered on football. The paralyzed QB, Smash on steroids, and then the soph QB taking care of his Grandma(which was taken almost directly from the real life book). I liked those story lines.
But I think the season kind of dragged when the emphasis on football dropped. It just seemed to me midway-end of the season the chronological flow to the central story stopped, and you'd get just random "social issue" episodes. The show lost me when it ran the racism episode (to obvious co-incide with black history month) and following episodes had little football and just delved into teen soap territory.
Well, maybe a better way to put it was that it was altered.
The beginning of the season seemed to focus on 1 football game a week. Granted you cant have 22 episodes with a game (HS season is only 14 games long if the team goes all the way to the state finals), but the chronology just got messed up. The most glaring example was the player walk out episode. In the previous episodes, Smash and Aash Davis character had been broken up. Then all the sudden they were back together just for that 1 episode. What happened? I'm pretty sure I hadnt missed any episodes up to that point to explain what went on there.
Also, the coach let Smash back on the team even though he did steroids, then the next week or so the players have a walk out, then the coach lets them just come back and play in the game. Are we to believe this all happened in the midst of a couple weeks in the season?
Its as if the writers totally forgot that Smash had taken steroids, had begged to be let back on the team 1 week. Then two weeks later they have him leading the walk out.
Very little realism, continuity or logical flow to the story as the season progressed. Maybe 22 episodes was too much to try to drag out 1 football season?
Judging from the ratings, cant say I'm the only one that lost interest. Doubt it gets picked up for next year.
There was continuity throughout as the team marched through the playoffs. If you're finding trouble there, I honestly think you're not paying attention as well as you think you are.
I think you're also confusing what your expectations for how a coach should act with continuity problems. The show didn't forget about Smash's transgressions. It just had Taylor deal with them in a more nuanced - and I think, realistic - way than throwing the book at him and forgetting about him. Taylor a) clearly doesn't want to kick Smash off the team and b) clearly sympathized with Smash's position on the walkout, because the remarks that caused it were that offensive.
It also seems as if you've never heard of a boyfriend and girlfriend having problems and then getting back together. Since you haven't noticed, Smash's relationship was complicated. But they were together going into the walkout episode, not just for that episode, and they formed a deeper bond in that episode - only to have it complicated by her bipolar problems.
I will concede that this team had more than its fair share of big-event or even soap-opera moments in a four-month span of time, but these chronology and logic problems that you are suggesting, you really are just inventing. I really think you have a good number of your facts just wrong. Here's one more for you, with regards to your last paragraph: Last night's episode had a million more viewers than the previous week. The show has not attracted many fans, but those who it has attracted are not abandoning it.
I stuck with the show early in the season and it really grew on me. At first I thought it was too much like the movie version, with Varsity Blues thrown in. However as the season progressed, I thought it moved away from that. I think Kyle Chandler's acting is nothing short of phenomenal. I think the twists and turns with the storylines of the preachers daughter, the Gerritys, and Jason Street are nothing like how the season started and much more believable than this team winning the championship.
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FNL might be the best-executed show I've seen on a network this season. The writing and casting on down through editing is very solid.
The people running that show could turn most anything into a watchable program. Too bad they couldn't produce Studio 60 as well.
The PROBLEM with shows like that (and even Arrested Development to an extent) is that I'm really hesitant to jump in mid-season after missing the first however many episodes (This is where OnDemand comes in for me...).
Hopefully I can catch a dvd of it and they renew it for a second season, because outside of illegally downloading it or being lucky enough to catch a night they are repeating a bunch of the episodes, im outta luck.
But I think the season kind of dragged when the emphasis on football dropped. It just seemed to me midway-end of the season the chronological flow to the central story stopped, and you'd get just random "social issue" episodes. The show lost me when it ran the racism episode (to obvious co-incide with black history month) and following episodes had little football and just delved into teen soap territory.
That's just factually incorrect.
The beginning of the season seemed to focus on 1 football game a week. Granted you cant have 22 episodes with a game (HS season is only 14 games long if the team goes all the way to the state finals), but the chronology just got messed up. The most glaring example was the player walk out episode. In the previous episodes, Smash and Aash Davis character had been broken up. Then all the sudden they were back together just for that 1 episode. What happened? I'm pretty sure I hadnt missed any episodes up to that point to explain what went on there.
Also, the coach let Smash back on the team even though he did steroids, then the next week or so the players have a walk out, then the coach lets them just come back and play in the game. Are we to believe this all happened in the midst of a couple weeks in the season?
Its as if the writers totally forgot that Smash had taken steroids, had begged to be let back on the team 1 week. Then two weeks later they have him leading the walk out.
Very little realism, continuity or logical flow to the story as the season progressed. Maybe 22 episodes was too much to try to drag out 1 football season?
Judging from the ratings, cant say I'm the only one that lost interest. Doubt it gets picked up for next year.
I think you're also confusing what your expectations for how a coach should act with continuity problems. The show didn't forget about Smash's transgressions. It just had Taylor deal with them in a more nuanced - and I think, realistic - way than throwing the book at him and forgetting about him. Taylor a) clearly doesn't want to kick Smash off the team and b) clearly sympathized with Smash's position on the walkout, because the remarks that caused it were that offensive.
It also seems as if you've never heard of a boyfriend and girlfriend having problems and then getting back together. Since you haven't noticed, Smash's relationship was complicated. But they were together going into the walkout episode, not just for that episode, and they formed a deeper bond in that episode - only to have it complicated by her bipolar problems.
I will concede that this team had more than its fair share of big-event or even soap-opera moments in a four-month span of time, but these chronology and logic problems that you are suggesting, you really are just inventing. I really think you have a good number of your facts just wrong. Here's one more for you, with regards to your last paragraph: Last night's episode had a million more viewers than the previous week. The show has not attracted many fans, but those who it has attracted are not abandoning it.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.