I'd Rather Be...

Sailing with Zac Efron

There Aren't Enough Tissues In The World

As the fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights started last night, I realized that I am in no way prepared for how much it's going to hurt to say goodbye to these characters forever.  On this show more than any other I've ever watched, the characters seem like people to me.  People I could know.  People I do know.  As they leave the show and then the show leaves the airwaves, I am losing these people that I have come to care about. 

Before you roll your eyes and tell me that I need to learn the difference between reality and fiction, let me say for the record that I know these are all actors playing parts.  I don't expect that Connie Britton is much like Tami Taylor or that Taylor Kitsch has anything in common with Tim Riggins, but for those 42 minutes a week, they aren't Connie and Taylor, they're Tami and Tim.  At least for 12 more weeks. 

Last night Julie and Landry both went off to college bringing us some wonderfully touching goodbye scenes.  In particular I loved Eric and Julie in the garage and Landry and Grandma Saracen.  Landry, like with most of the characters who've left before him, lifts out of the narrative pretty cleanly, while Julie's story remains anchored to Dillon by virtue of her parents being the heart and soul of the show.  She's off to college but we'll be visiting her there along the way. 

Here parents, meanwhile, will continue to fight the good fight in Dillon.  Coach still has his work cut out for him, moulding the young Lions men and creating a football program that the school, the students, the players and their families can be proud of.  To that end, he's recruited his two star players, Vince and Luke, to recruit the new kid in town - basketball playing hippie Hastings - to join the Lions as a wide receiver.  Luke is not good at recruiting and Vince knows he probably isn't either so he gets Jess to help them out in her capacity as a football loving hot girl.  Naturally that does the trick. 

Speaking of Jess, her dad is off opening three franchises and she's left to take care of her three little brothers on her own.  Or, rather, with the help of her boyfriend Vince who does a great job of helping the oldest boy see that acting out isn't the answer, becoming the man of the house is. 

Tami is just starting her new job as the counselor at East Dillon and realizes that she's inherited a much bigger task than she anticipated as the faculty's antipathy and ambivalence are matched only by that of the parents.  The Tami we met 5 years ago might have managed to stay positive under such circumstances but she's been through a lot in recent years that has worn down her optimism.  Worst of all, she's having a really hard time letting go of Julie.  The strong, confident, in-control woman that we've come to know is showing signs that she's straining under the weight of her world. 

Finally, Tim's time in prison has taken a toll on him.  He has none of the swagger and charisma he used to have.  He's got 3 months left on his sentence (with good behavior) and Billy is visiting him often and Tim wishes he wouldn't.  He also asks Billy to tell Becky not to come so often.  Speaking of Becky, she's having a rough go of it while her mom works a job on a casino boat that keeps her away from home for long stretches.  That means her dad and his new wife and daughter are there to look after her.  Since her dad drives trucks, he's also gone a lot of the time so Becks is stuck with her awful step mother.  When she can't take it any more, she goes to Billy for a place to stay, remembering that Tim said they'd be her family now and would be there for her for whatever she needed.  Billy welcomes her in - owing as he does, everything to his little brother who spared him prison - but Mindy doesn't look pleased.  Oh, and Billy is feeling a bit lost now that he's fucked up so spectacularly and caused such pain to someone he loved.  He asks coach for a job so that he can learn from Coach how to be a better man.  This is maybe the first time Billy's ever had a plan that wasn't incredibly stupid. 

Oh yeah, and also the Lions win their first game of the season. 

The Great Good Wife

Are you watching The Good Wife?  Because you REALLY should be!  It is some of the most well-written, well-acted, well-paced drama that TV has to offer and while it's A-plot is always story-of-the-week, it's almost always really good and even when it isn't, the B- and C-plots (the serialized portion of the show) are OUTSTANDING! 

Last night in particular, the A-plot wove itself seamlessly into the fabric of the existing B- and C-plots when a massage therapist walked into the Lockhart, Gardner and Bond, asking for Alicia, with a fantastic story about how the high profile Democrat, who's about to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in women's rights, has sexually assaulted her.  All three partners are stirred up and both investigators are sent scrambling and it turns out that Carey is the one who referred her to Alicia because he knows this isn't the first time the scumbag has done it.  Will meets with Scumbag's lawyer who is an even larger and grosser scumbag than his client, the two get into a pretty hilarious fist fight, and Will comes back to the office ready to side with Diane on her stance that they not take on this particular client.

But wait!  Scumbag's lawyer tells Eli that Scumbag will endorse Peter's candidacy if Peter gets Alicia to walk away from the case.  Eli is as giddy as a school girl because Scumbag is seen as a damn saint to women everywhere (and black women in particular as the majority of his work is done in the third world countries of Africa) and that would easily negate the threat posed by Wendy Scott-Carr's candidacy, but Peter can see the strings attached to this from a mile away.  He declines the offer, much to Eli's heart's chagrin.  Unfortunately, Scumbag and his lawyer are dirtier than even Peter could have imagined, and they endorse him anyway so that if Alicia pursues it, her husband is linked to a sexual predator.  Peter is desperate for redemption so he still does nothing and lets his wife make her own decisions on this regardless of their effects on his political career.  Nice try, Peter, but I already love Will more than you and acting in a stand-up manner is not going to change my mind.  You know why?  Josh Charles is SO HOT in a tux and even hotter in a tux with the tie undone and the collar unbuttoned.  Oh also, Will is a better man than you. 

Anyway, Kalinda independently verifies what Carey told the LG&B folks about the previous victim and they are totally ready to take on this case until Diane gets a call from Mrs. Scumbag who clearly knows that the accusations against her husband are true but doesn't much care and thus begs Diane to ignore it.  Diane, being all awesome and shit, tells Mrs. Scumbag to suck it and then goes to sign the girl on as a client but the girl has gotten cold feet and left. 

A friend said she thought that made the entire episode much ado about nothing but I disagree.  My theory, based partially on the fact that Kelly Bishop was the (uncredited I believe) voice of Mrs. Scumbag and no way do you waste your time hiring her for 2 minutes of voice work if you don't plan on having her back, is that this Scumbag storyline will come back around and the towel they still have full of Scumbag's DNA will be the gun from the first act that goes off in the third. 

Oh, we also learned a bit more about how shady Blake (aka Jason Street) is when he ransacked the victim's apartment and stole cash from her.  It's unfortunate that his character is so despicable because Scott Porter has never been sexier. 

I'd Rather Be...

Contemplating a dip with Taylor Kitsch.

Actually, I'd rather be doing anything at all with Taylor Kitsch.

As long as we're on the subject of my erstwhile Tim Riggins, I'll mention that last week I read report that he's signed on to co-star in a movie with Alexander Skarsgard where the two will play a pair of naval officer brothers both assigned to the same battleship. The bad news is that the movie in question is Battleship which is being adapted from the board game of the same name. The good news is that Peter Berg is directing. The better news is that if Taylor is playing a naval officer, he's probably going to have to cut his hair and I've been dying to see how hot he'd be with short locks!

I'd Rather Be...

On a gondola ride in Venice with Matthew Goode.

I'd Rather Be...

Sharing a cell with Matthew Bomer.

I'd Rather Be...

Playing pool with Zach Roerig.

I'll leave it up to you to decide whether that's intended to be a euphemism.

I'd Rather Be...

I am currently reading a book that's set in Venice, Italy. A few minutes ago I had to send my friend some map info for Paris and Charles de Gaulle Aiport.

I'd really rather be traveling around Europe right now.

Especially since Venice and Paris were two of my favorite cities I visited the last time!

(Photo credits: all me, baby!)