MovieChat Forums > Friday Night Lights (2006) Discussion > Some things I found a bit too contrived

Some things I found a bit too contrived

posted 8 years ago by Bernnard_Black
4 replies | jump to latest

Overall, I enjoy the show; kind of a guilty pleasure, but I'd read the book and thought I'd give it a shot.

I think they captured the feel of the small town football fanaticism that can exist in places like that. But there were a few things that I just didn't get, or really buy in to.

1: Firing coach Taylor. Here's a guy who won the state title his first year and is so highly respected that he was offered a job as a college coach. He gave that up to coach high school, and continued to do well. And during the championship game, he put in the "new" kid, who totally flubbed the game. It wasn't until he put in his vet QB that they scored any points, and they damn near won. So they FIRE this guy? Because one booster (albiet a rich one) wanted it that way? Not buying it. Too contrived, and didn't go with the spirit of the rest of the show. A better way of handling it would have been the district forcing him to move to East Dillon somehow.

2: Tami Taylor, principal. So she's never been one. Just a GC. And she's made the principal over the VP? Not likely, and a school with that reputation would have had candidates lined up out the door for the job. I get they wanted to do it to add tension to her character and relationship with her husband, but c'mon. No experience, and her husband is the head coach of the football team (a huge conflict of interest in a town like that)? Nope. No way.

3: The redistricting story. This was just handled badly. They said in the show that East Dillon had been closed. If that's the case, then all the high school kids in that town would have gone to Dillon; they didn't. They didn't know each other. Add to that that East Dillon had a principal and teachers working there before the coach came on, and you wonder how the hell the writers could make such a glaring error. The whole thing with the mailbox made no sense because of that; if the school was closed, why would they need it? The entire town goes to one school, right? They'd have to. Just made no sense.

4: Matt's father. Okay, so Matt says after his dad died that he had left to go join the army after Matt was born because he didn't like being a father, or having to keep an eye on his mother. But they also say that he's been in for 20 years. That timing doesn't add up, given Matt's age. Also, his rank when he comes home is sergeant, or E5. But when he dies a year or so later, he's suddenly a first sergeant, or E8. Never mind the whole "come home on leave, decide to stay and get a job, change mind, return to Iraq" thing. Whoever wrote those episodes didn't do much research into how the military works.

Whores will have their trinkets.

[–] faulknerster 8 years ago

It's one of the best shows ever. So, it's hardly a "guilty pleasure". It has flaws like any other long running show, especially one as ambitious as this one. There are bigger contrivances in this show than most the ones you mentioned, particularly the firing of Coach Taylor, which wasn't very contrived at all and Matt's father's ranking just seems nit-picky. It was only one episode. How about how contrived and running on empty almost the entire second season was? Beyond that second season most of story contrivances weren't too ridiculous or numerous and the execution of character and drama and atmosphere remained mostly on point, which is what makes the show special.

[–] kem7696 8 years ago

1: Firing coach Taylor. Here's a guy who won the state title his first year and is so highly respected that he was offered a job as a college coach. He gave that up to coach high school, and continued to do well. And during the championship game, he put in the "new" kid, who totally flubbed the game. It wasn't until he put in his vet QB that they scored any points, and they damn near won. So they FIRE this guy? Because one booster (albiet a rich one) wanted it that way? Not buying it. Too contrived, and didn't go with the spirit of the rest of the show. A better way of handling it would have been the district forcing him to move to East Dillon somehow.

Sometimes money talks.

3: The redistricting story. This was just handled badly. They said in the show that East Dillon had been closed. If that's the case, then all the high school kids in that town would have gone to Dillon; they didn't. They didn't know each other. Add to that that East Dillon had a principal and teachers working there before the coach came on, and you wonder how the hell the writers could make such a glaring error. The whole thing with the mailbox made no sense because of that; if the school was closed, why would they need it? The entire town goes to one school, right? They'd have to. Just made no sense.

I didnt think the other school had been closed, I thought they said the football program had been closed at East Dillon. I could be wrong but thats what I remembered being said.

[–] daveyh (641) 5 years ago

The annoying thing with the whole redistricting thing is that they could easily have run most of the Season 4 & 5 story without needing to contrive it.
In Season 2 when they have to share their facilities with that other school (Laribee/Lariby, something like that), the team are called the Lions, they play in red, they're obviously from a nearby town, the next town over I think, so how hard would it be for Eric to have gotten the job coaching that team after McCoy fires him. He could have still lived in Dillon, the big rivalry would have still been with the Panthers, in fact the Luke mailbox thing would have made more sense if he technically lived just within the border of the other town.
OK, you wouldn't have had him building a team/program from scratch, but frankly an already existing and established team winning state after 2 seasons would have been a lot more plausible than East Dillon winning it just 15 months after having to forfeit their first game.

[–] Lily Magnum (267) 5 years ago

I agree with the OP. The show got a lot of stuff about small towns and high school sports right, but there were too many inconsistencies (like the constantly changing ages of the kids and backstory for Eric) and contrivances for it to be one of my all time favorites. Poor writing is why I listed Eric Taylor as my fourth favorite role of Kyle's over on his board. I felt like the finale should have had Coach getting a head coaching position at a small college in Texas. I mean the tagline for the show was #TexasForever!