For a complex show, "Friday Night Lights" has always been unambiguous. It takes place in a city, Dillon, Texas, that has its own rules and hierarchies, and the show makes as much sense as a naturalistic look at rural life as a functioning moral universe.
Over its three seasons, efforts have been made to unseat football coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his wife, school Principal Tami Taylor (Connie Britton), from their perches, but they've always been unsuccessful: Other shows might sympathize with the bad guy, but "Friday Night Lights" has no room for that. That is, until the arrival of the McCoy family last season -- freshman quarterback phenom J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), domineering father Joe (D.W. Moffett) and manipulative mother Katie (Janine Turner).
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, October 29, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 44 words Type of Material: Correction
'Friday Night Lights': In Sunday Calendar's Monitor column about the season premiere of "Friday Night Lights," the character Becky, played by Madison Burge, was incorrectly identified as Jess, played by Jurnee Smollett. Also, the last name of actress Aimee Teegarden was misspelled as Teagarden.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, November 01, 2009 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part D Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 44 words Type of Material: Correction
'Friday Night Lights': In last Sunday's The Monitor column about the season premiere of "Friday Night Lights," the character Becky, played by Madison Burge, was incorrectly identified as Jess, played by Jurnee Smollett. Also, the name of actress Aimee Teegarden was misspelled as Teagarden.
Armed with money, determination and J.D.'s laser arm, the McCoys began to slowly alter the power structure in Dillon. Together, they were ruthless and entitled. Worse, what the McCoys brought to Dillon wasn't just evil but insincerity.
Coach Taylor, of course, couldn't be bought, which has led to his exile at the beginning of this show's fourth season -- the premiere episode airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday on Direct TV's 101 Network -- to East Dillon High School, a newly opened school that's a product of redistricting. (East Dillon is seemingly blacker and browner and poorer than the rest of the town. Landry [Jesse Plemons] jokes to a friend, "I've got a piece on me at all times.")
Needless to say, Taylor's old Dillon program kept all the most promising football talent, leaving Taylor with a bone-dry field, a raccoon in the locker room and a collection of haphazard talents with which to piece together some semblance of a team. It verges on "Stand and Deliver" territory or at least "The Bad News Bears" with mild racial overtones.
Dillon, once idyllic, is now a battlefield. Not just between the Taylors and the McCoys or between Dillon and East Dillon but also between yesterday and today. At the end of last season, several key characters -- Jason Street (Scott Porter), Smash Williams (Gaius Charles), Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki), Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) -- managed to escape Dillon's gravitational pull, making their way to college or employment. What's left are stragglers and arrivistes and the stubborn.
