Texas Forever.
Despite the fact that the last episode of Friday Night Lights aired in 2011, the superb drama continues to inspire a level of devotion and love that’s unparalleled. Hell, even when it was on TV, the studio was close to cancelling the show but much like the determination of a Tim Riggins tackle, FNL refused to go away.
We all know that ‘clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose’ and since the euphoric final scenes of East Dillon Lions winning state, the cast of FNL have all enjoyed successful careers. At present, Michael B. Jordan is being hailed as the best villain in the MCU while Taylor Kitsch, Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Minka Kelly, Zach Gilford, Adrianne Palicki and many more of the FNL alumni are still extremely busy.
On that note, you could argue that Jesse Plemons (Landry) has been the real MVP of the show because he has consistently delivered superb performances in a variety of different projects. Fargo, Black Mirror, Breaking Bad and The Post are just some of his memorable roles but in his new film, Game Night, Plemons is reunited with Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler).
While promoting his new film, Plemons was asked about the most controversial and heavily criticised story arc from Friday Night Lights, the murder plotline that centered around Landry and Tyra.
Given how amazing the first season of FNL is, the tone and subject matter in Season 2 really didn’t fit – don’t get us started on Julie during those episodes – but that murder plot still jars.
In case you need a reminder, at the end of Season 1, Tyra was sexually assaulted and nearly raped by a stranger as she waited for Landry to show up for their study date.
During the Season 2 opener, the same man tries to attack Tyra again but Landry shows up and fatally strikes him over the head with a pipe. Tyra and Landry then decide to dump the body in the river.
Regarding this plotline, Plemons is still conflicted but he did say that the cast was aware of this tonal shift. In fact, they even went out of their way to stop the studio from interfering with the show.
In an interview with Yahoo, he said:
“I mean, I’m kind of conflicted by it because it also provided me with an opportunity to do something totally different than I did Season 1. It was obviously some network influence there in Season 2. Along with the murder storyline, there were, all of the sudden, more shower scenes. And [direction to] go hang out by the Gatorade coolers. . . . It was obvious at the time they were trying to amp up the action. Give the people what they thought they wanted. We just sabotaged all those scenes so they couldn’t use them, pretty much.”
As for the FNL reunion between Plemons and Chandler, Game Night is released on March 2nd and it’s earning some very good reviews.
