Bloodline

Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) is John Rayburn, the #1 (but not oldest) son of the Rayburn clan. Linda "Good God, I was annoying on ER" Cardellini is Meg, his sister. They have two brothers, Danny and Kevin. The show is set in south Florida, with the Rayburns being the wealthy owners of some kind of resort hotel down there. On the surface, they're the All-American family. But things are not quite what they seem. "We're not bad people. We just did a bad thing", John says. And the show spends just about all of the 13 episodes of season 1 getting around to that bad thing. This is a reaaaaaaaaaaallllly slooooooooow burn of a show. Lots and lots and lots of build. Lots of hint at past issues in the family that are sloooooowly revealed. Lots of meaningful glances, sentences with double meanings and so on. That's mixed with a sometimes confusing structure that mixes dreams, flashbacks, looks forward, and so on in a way that sometimes isn't real clear. And all of that adds up to a show that might just lose a lot of its audience along the way. The pacing is pretty glacial but it does pay off eventually (you can argue whether that payoff is worth it or not). The cast, which also includes Sissy Spacek as the Rayburn mom and MTV alum Jacinda Barrett as John's wife, is stellar. I was entertained but this isn't quite the home run I'd hoped for. And the big reveal at the end of season 1 to set up season 2 was pretty laughably obvious, which was a letdown. Still, I liked it and I want another season. 7/10.

Friday Night Lights (TV)

Where to start with this one? How about this: This show, criminally unappreciated by nearly everyone (me included!) when it aired, is in the running for greatest TV show ever. EVER. Yes, you read that right. I dismissed it as a high testosterone, over-the-top, take on the book of the same name. Apparently, lots of others did, too. Hooooo boy, was I wrong.

Friday Night Lights instead is a nuanced, deep look at life in small town Dillon, TX where, like just about everywhere in Texas, high school football is king. Kyle Chandler is the charismatic head coach, Eric Taylor. Connie Britton is his strong wife, Tami. Their relationship as presented here is one of the best in the history of TV. They are an incredibly REAL couple. Do they always get along? Of course not. But their love for each other, their devotion to each other and their family, never wavers. There's none of the usual TV cliches - the idiot dad who can do no right, the sassy mom always insulting dad, the fighting over nothing, no cheating on each other, no threats of divorce, no drunkenness or dysfunctional behavior, none of that stuff. No, their relationship is what you would expect from stable, mature, well-grounded people who get along, who love each other, and who are real.

Then you've got a whole cast of football players, led by Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins and Zach Gilford as Matt Saracen. Riggins is the prototypical star football player who gets all the girls and gets hammered on weekends (and weekdays). He's got a rough life, living with only his brother, and there's a deeper level to him than what is first seen. Saracen is the backup QB given a shot at stardom when the star gets injured. He isn't ready, he's terrified, he's in over his head and he's dealing with all kinds of stuff at home, too. Gilford here is incredible as Saracen, hitting all the right notes emotionally and really pulling you into his character and his struggles. Amazing stuff. It is absolutely a crime that Gilford didn't win any awards for his work here.

Lots of other great complementary characters, too. Brad Leland as Buddy Garrity is fantastic. Garrity is a tremendous character, one with tremendous growth throughout the course of the show. Not to good is Minka Kelly as Lyla Garrity, Buddy's daughter. Kelly is not a good actress and her character on the show does her no favors. She's strictly eye candy with all the (lack of) depth that that implies. Much better is Adrianne Palicki as Tyra, the tough-talking girlfriend of Riggins. Rounding out the mainstays is Jesse Plemons as Landry, in the role that got him onto Breaking Bad.

The cast overall is fantastic. The characters are INCREDIBLE. The writing is fabulous. The dialogue, the storylines*, the emotions, the environment, the whole thing just feels so authentic and true-to-life. All of these people are ones you can imagine actually meeting. And the first season of this show might just be the best season of television ever shown in the US. It really is THAT good.

Having said all that, this show is not perfect. Several of the actors look a little too old for their characters. There are timeline continuity and age-changing issues with the characters. But these are minor quibbles. Seriously. Folks, GO WATCH THIS SHOW IMMEDIATELY. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. 10/10, my highest possible recommendation!

* - OK, you probably will hear some stuff about season 2 being terrible. It's not. It definitely feels like something of an alternate universe compared to seasons 1,3,4 & 5. The producers demanded more drama and "action" and that's what you get in season 2. Realism and authenticity are sacrificed and the show definitely loses its way a bit. But STICK WITH IT. For one thing, season 2 isn't bad at all outside of one horribly stupid storyline. For another, the last 3 seasons are GREAT.