Monday, May 12, 2008

Friday Night Lights - My Favorite People as of Season 1

OK people, this is important:
Here it is, my list of favorite characters from the first season of Friday Night Lights, in order.

1. Landry. Wins by a huge margin. This guy just keeps getting better and better. First off, we find out that not only is he good at math and at being the friend of Matt, he is the frontman for the brutally heavy local Christian hardcore band Crucifictorious. Then, things start to kind of pick up with Tyra, the girl considered by many to be the biggest babe on the show. He is pretty awkward, but it's awesome because the guy has integrity out the wazoo. Also, for some reason he is the ref for the Powderpuff football game, and he gives Coach Taylor a yellow card or something.

2. Matt Saracen. I mean, I know this is kind of obvious, but you can't help but LOVE the kid. Takes care of his grandma, his dad is in Iraq, he works at the DQ-type place, and gets pushed around by Julie (who is actually the one character on the show who keeps getting worse and worse). Julie was pretty awesome at first, but she has just had some bad ideas towards the end of the season. Let me list them:

  • It was her idea to have sex with Matt (they didn't do it though). Matt would never have thought to go there in a million years.
  • Mouthing off to her parents.
  • Ditching her nerdy friends.
  • Doing slutty dance routines to bad music.
  • Just generally being a little too precious about stuff.
Anyway, enough about her. Matt Saracen. "He's a good kid." You know who always says that? Read on:

3. Coach Taylor. This may be obvious, but it's kind of not obvious too. He screams at high school kids for a living - He's a football coach. He dresses like someone I would normally want to punch. But the man has a huge heart and total integrity. The dude is trying to do what is right and get his daughter the hell out of Dillon Texas before she becomes "one of them." But what makes him so endearing is that he is utterly and completely hopeless without his wife:

4. Mrs. Taylor, guidance counselor. I think her first name is Tammy. She is amazing. I wouldn't normally like a woman of her style, but man, she is really awesome. Her "don't have sex" speech to Julie is about the most heartfelt mother-to-daughter talk I have ever seen on television, or real life, I'm not sure. She sees it all, every day in that guidance counselor's office, and you can tell that she really actually wants to help. Her relationship with her husband is very real and very healthy. They fight, they prod at each other, and they make mistakes, but when they make it right they really make it right. Like her husband, she is a woman of mad integrity, and you gotta love her for it.

5. Tim Riggins. I know this is a controversial stance to take, but come on, the dude has made a serious comeback. First off, the guy has mojo. He gets with all of the hottest girls: Tyra, Lyla, AND the kid from next door's mom. And he has very real issues. His dad stole a video camera, for example. He is constantly drinking brewskies. He is obviously weak and accepts that. His lack of ambition is kind of refreshing, especially compared to hotheads like that Smash Williams. He's just so... I dunno. So Brokeback. You hate him so much of the time, that when he does something even misdirectedly good, it seems like the awesomest thing in the world.

6. Herc. Who is Herc, you ask? Herc is the wheelchair guy. The other wheelchair guy besides Jason Street. At first, I hated him, but then everything he said turned out to be true. This guy has a crystal ball for the lives of people in wheelchairs. Herc is spot-on about everything. He has no time for pity because he's out there being totally obnoxious and awesome. If I met him in real life he would probably roll his eyes at me and tell me to get the hell out of his way. And that's what I love about the guy. He isn't on the show that often, but when he is, it's a total party.

7. Tyra. She is... something else. She's pretty free with her love sometimes (dude from LA, and Smash Williams on his mamma's couch), but she pulls it off with flair. Sure, her mom is one of those irresponsible drinkin' moms and her sister is a stripper, but Tyra's "aggressive bitch" attitude is really starting to grow on me. And maybe the fact that Landry is into her makes me want to be into her too. Maybe it's how mean she is to Lyla Garrity. Maybe it was her stellar performance at the Powder Puff football game. Or maybe it was that she told Julie Taylor that she didn't have to have sex and that she was actually being kind of lame about it. She's a good girl, waitressing at Applebee's, workin' with what she's got, kinda being the female parallel to Tim Riggins, which is not a surprise seeing as how they went out for so long, although she constantly calls him out on being a loser, but I think she does it so that he will try harder.

There you have it. These are my picks. I hope (or do I?) that season 2 doesn't shake up these opinions too much! We shall see!

P. S. Honorable mentions go to Mrs. Williams and Waverly. Oh Waverly!!!!

In closing, you can go ahead and buy me this shirt in a size small. The price has been reduced, I have no idea why...

7 comments:

bex said...

ak! spoilers! i haven't even made it through season 1 yet. but i still think landry and the ms. coach still win as my favorites.

Anonymous said...

Landry is still my favorite after the second season! I adore him.

Anonymous said...

matt works at the alamo freeze.

sarah k. said...

I like your list. The one thing that bugs me about Coach Taylor is that his team is *always* down at halftime or late in the 4th quarter. Sure that creates the drama for the comeback, but it means he is lucky, not exactly a good coach.

Anonymous said...

if you don't have that shirt within a month, let me know

Royal said...

Psh....
Wait till you mean the Sandman in season 2. Thats all I got to say.

Kino said...

i just got one of those new netflix players, roku.com, and it's way awesome. they've got season one on tap, so i just got addicted. what is it about this show?!