Turn on Friday Night Lights

NBC’s Friday Night Lights was one of the best new shows last season. And tonight marks the last pre-strike episode of the show, perhaps the last ep of the season, and possible the series finale. Since the ratings were not that great—even with brand new episodes airing against less than stellar strike-fare—season three seems unlikely. (I am still hopeful, as those rose-colored glasses block out a lot of drudge.)

If you haven’t caught this prime-time football drama that’s more about the people affected by the game in small-town Dillon, Texas, than football itself, you are missing out. Friday Night Lights, filmed in TX, is shot more like a feature film than a TV program. The acting is superb—if the plot lines tend to be a bit melodramatic. And even the most fanatical, annoying character at the beginning of the show’s run (Buddy Garrity, I’m talking about you) has become endearing. Meanwhile, the most stable—Matt Saracen—has totally lost it after being tested one too many times. Lucky for Matt, Coach is watching out for him.

Check out FNL before the lights go out for good.

Old TV Friends in New Places

I am so relieved that my "friends" from other shows got new jobs. Just today it was announced that Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) was cast on Heroes. Guess I'm going to have to start watching that one.

Kristen is the third Veronica Mars cast member to secure work for the upcoming season--Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) will be seen on CBS's Moonlight and we already got a sneak peak at Piz (Chris Lowell) on ABC's Private Practice.

The prize for the show with the most actor relocations goes to The Nine. Detective Nick Cavanaugh (Tim Daly) is joining Piz on Private Practice. Lizzie (Jessica Collins) and Felicia (Dana Davis) are joining Ronnie on Heroes. (Btw, Davis did a 2-ep stint on Mars in its second season). Bank manager Malcolm (Chi McBride) will be Pushing Daisies on ABC. And Franny (Camile Guaty) is moving to NBC's Las Vegas.

Come midseason, Lucas (Owain Yeoman) is in the pilot of Fox's The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Kathryn (Kim Raver) will joining NBC's Lipstick Jungle, while dearly departed Eva Rios (Lourdes Benedicto) will be on ABC's Cashmere Mafia.

Although Egan Foote (John Billingsley) doesn't have a permanent new home, we've seen him on a variety of TV guest spots, as well as the big screen. I'm not so concerned. Egan seems to always land on his feet.

The only other main character not jumping into a show for the new season is Dr. Jeremy Cates (Scott Wolf). But, dry those tears. Wolf signed a development deal with ABC over the summer. We'll be seeing him--and his dimples--again real soon.