NBC may be making ill-advised calls on new series renewals like Knight Rider, but the network does still have two shows that saved themselves from disastrous second seasons only to rally right from the starting gun on season three.
Heroes
Season one of NBC’s thinly-veiled X-Men ripoff delivered thrills we weren’t expecting. We picked up watching season one simply because it was before Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, but ended up watching Heroes once Aaron Sorkin’s self-absorbed SNL drama turned to crap in our hands.
The series caught our and the nation’s attention by sloganizing their plot line; “Save The Cheerleader, Save The World” was simple enough to hook new viewers. What we discovered was not only a series about super-powered beings, but a character drama that mixed the best WTF moments from JJ Abrams and added in some good old fashion Marvel mutant rhetoric.
Then, season two came along with the title “Generations” and began to bore the pants off of us by repeating (near-verbatim) the plot lines of season one. Peter inexplicably lost his memory and had to start from square one, Sylar was down for the count for the entire damn season, the new Heroes were annoying and Claire was sidelined with a love subplot that used most of the series’ budget for romantic shots of making out near the Hollywood sign.
Even series creator Tim Kring saw that they had turned the wrong corner and vowed not to repeat the same mistakes again. The season was cut short by the Writer’s Strike, thankfully before most of the audience realized that it was an all-crap-all-the-time season, resulting in a ratings poweress that guaranteed Kring and company would get another shot. The second season was NBC’s top series in adults 18-49,the top Monday series on any network in adults 18–49, and the top scripted series on any network in adults 18-34.
Now, post strike, Heroes is back. Though the overall thrust of the show is still in the balance, the half of Volume Three “Villains” that has already aired has gone over the top trying to prove to fans that Heroes still has the magic. In the third season premiere, auxiliary plot lines were jettisoned, the virus that was going to be the center of the second season has never been mentioned again (though it seems it would be the perfect “cure” that Suresh is seeking this season) and Kring/family have upped the good ole fashioned superhero fights. The romantic subplots are gone and the most powerful characters are in play. This is what Heroes should be.
The Future: Still uncertain, though we do know the second half of season three will be comprised of Volume Four, “Fugitives.” Ratings stay high enough that we will actually get to see Volume Four, so the current high the show is on is Kring’s party to wreck should he so choose.
Loose Ends: Didn’t Peter have a red-haired Irish girlfriend he left in a now non-existent future? Does he not love her anymore, or are we just supposed to forget that ever happened? We’re totally fine forgetting, but you could bring her back as a psychologically-scarred villain who has seen the future change from one bleak doomsday scenario to another.
Friday Night Lights
We’ve expounded many times on how the first season of Friday Night Lights transcended network television. The perpetually ratings-challenged show has been bumped back and forth through NBC’s schedule, making it difficult to track, but critics continue to heap praise on the high-school football show that is rarely about high-school football.
Season one followed a single football season in the careers of the featured team, the fictional Dillon Panthers. Their star quarterback was paralyzed in the first game and the team had to pull itself together as we followed the second string quarterback Matt, the occasionally steroid-abusing Smash, the coach and his family the Taylors and paralyzed quarterback himself, Jason Street.
The first season told a series of smaller stories within the overall arc of that one season. Racism, small-town politics, classism, athletics, all themes covered by season one, but the true power of the show was with its ambitious goal: painting a portrait of the small western town. Characters were introduced organically and each one showed how football effected the entire town of Dillon, Texas. This was the theme that made the original non-fiction book a success, and it’s what set Friday Night Lights the series apart from Friday Night Lights the move. The series was just bigger, but they gave all the characters the breathing room they needed. That’s why AFI identified it as “culturally signigicant” and the series won a Peabody Award, an Emmy Award, and a Television Critics Association Award.
Season two was determined to trash FNL’s reputation. Not only did NBC stick the series on Friday night (fitting for the title, but generally where you put series you want to kill), but the showrunners did a good job killing things we liked right from the beginning. Smash was a joke, running around to colleges and occasionally having to flee only wearing his underwear. Minka Kelly’s Lyla became a born again Christian, getting rid of both her in-your-face bitchiness and her sex-pot sojourns. Tim Riggins got mixed up with a meth dealer, Tami Taylor (the coach’s wife) had a baby and spent the entire season making the series’ most interesting character into an unsympathetic bitch. But, beyond those things, two unforgivables marred the second season: 1) Football was not the focus, meaning the town was not the focus, meaning the season had no aim or message, and 2) Tyra and Landry, a couple with little more than a side-plot and a shocking 4th act attempted rape in season one became the focus with their own ridiculous murder plot. A MURDER PLOT? What happened to the realism we loved? What happened to Middle America looking and acting like Middle America (albeit no town in Middle America has residents this attractive)?
Season two was such a shit show on so many levels that for a long time, Friday Night Lights hung in the balance. It took DirecTV stepping in to ensure that the show wouldn’t fizzle out and a deal was set between NBC and the dish network. An abbreviated season three is currently being broadcast on DirecTV and will be re-broadcast on NBC this winter.
And FNL IS BACK! Season three has been delivering on everything we loved about the first season. Much like Heroes, the Writer’s Strike cut season two short, but the show came out better for it. The season three premiere covered a lot of ground in the cold open, all of them directly negating the things that didn’t work in season two. Smash hurt his knee and his dreams of football don’t fit in the real world. Lyla isn’t a Christian anymore and is even dating bad-boy Tim Riggens, who has managed to stay away from the Meth (though he may be a thief now). Tami Taylor is now the principal of Dillon High and her priorities are in direct opposition to the football team’s. And our two biggest gripes? Totally taken care of. First, the show has returned to its one-week/one-story format, ensuring that the drama breaks during that week’s football game. Second, Landry and Tyra have broken up, never discussing their shared murder, and have been put back into supporting roles where they belong.
You best tune into the third season when it airs on NBC, because it’s back and it’s amazing.
The Future: If NBC doesn’t screw FNL out of a usable time-slot, the show’s third season can really draw in serious TV viewers who have been spending too much time off the broadcast networks and on pay-cable like HBO and Showtime. Yes, it’s that good. We just need to watch it.
Loose Ends: We still haven’t heard from Jason Street, who managed to impregnate a waitress from his wheelchair in season two. Scott Porter, who plays Jason Street, is not part of the regular cast and IS signed on to do a few guest spots in season three. But if all we need to see is Street being happy, get it over with. The show is about football and the town, not has-beens or will-bes.
You can watch new Heroes episodes on HULU and the third season of FNL on Sidereel or SurfTheChannel.
