A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

EITHER WAY, THE SUN'S GOING TO COME UP THE NEXT MORNING: As FNL's third season, not as great as the first but better than the second and miles better than 95% of what you can catch on prime-time network television, draws to its season and likely series finale, I find myself incapable of objectively evaluating the show. I hope it is a sign of how thoroughly the actors inhabit the characters and not just of my dislike of change, but I don't want to let these kids go. At this point in its run, it's hard for FNL to do anything suprising -- and that's part of the show's thesis, too, how life in a town where nothing ever seems to change is lived from one small surprise to the next -- but the greatest joys of the show have never been in jolting plot twists. They've been in watching characters grow, react to each other, break apart and connect in new combinations. I almost regret that there was a football game last night to intrude upon that, or that we spent any time at all on the plight of JD, a character who presumably would be the centerpiece of any fourth season, but who right now just seems to be getting in the way of tying things up for our seniors. Even if this season rarely reached the highs of Season 1, I am going to be very sad at 10:00 next Wednesday.