THE LONGEST YARD: Fans of politicians, cops, doctors, planewrecked purgatorians, slayers, and teen detectives may each champion their own shows as the best network TV drama in (recent or unlimited) history, but none, in cobbling together a longer list, would exclude the brilliant Friday Night Lights. For those who have DirecTV, FNL ends tonight. (For those who don't have DirecTV, it may end in several months, or it may have ended, as a TV show rather than a DVD, already.) It is strange that a show about ordinary people doing exceptional things all the time (to crib from OK Go) gets away with so little concern for continuity or plot credibility (not just That Thing Of Which We Will Not Speak, but also little things like Tami's roller-coaster career arc or the Brigadoonish life of East Dillon High or the end of every football game), but it does it with keen observation of its characters' unstable orbits around each other and with generally superlative acting. Sepinwall has a list of his favorite moments. It's a good nostalgia-inducing list (despite the omission of my own favorite scene), even though FNL for me is more about the accretion of small moments than the delivery of big ones.
Also, I can't believe he shot Smash! Right?
Incidentally, transference won't be 100% efficient here, but I remind you that on any other day, the return of Justified should be the most-anticipated television event of the evening. Raylan Givens wants you to know that Han shot first (if you watched the SuperBowl, you already know whether he wonders if you feel lucky).
