That being the case, it was wonderful to see Season 3 return the show to greatness. With Season 2 cut short by the writers' strike, before we'd even seen the football season end, showrunner Jason Katims made the tricky decision to simply leap ahead to the next school year and football season. In general, it was the right move, especially given the truncated number of episodes the show had this year. That doesn't mean it's all smooth sailing though, as there were some major plotlines from Season 2 that were not even mentioned, which initially was hard not to think about – For instance, Santiago was not only a member of the Panthers in Season 2, but he also was living with Buddy Garrity, yet he's nowhere to be seen in Season 3 or even talked about.
Those issues are quickly easy to overlook though, because the show was so clearly refocused and once more delivering the kind of strong material fans had come to expect from the first season. The season began with Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) having failed to lead the Panthers to another State championship the year before, meaning the pressure was on for him, in a town where many clearly had a "What have you done for me lately?" outlook. Meanwhile, quarterback Matt Saracen's position is threatened by the arrival of Freshman J.D. McCoy (Jeremy Sumpter), an amazing natural talent, who comes from a rich family – complete with a father (D.W. Moffett) who is the definition of overbearing.
Two former series regulars, Scott Porter ("Jason Street") and Gaius Charles ("'Smash' Williams") returned for four episodes each to wrap up their storylines – and both farewells were given the appropriate amount of weight, as both had been integral characters. And in both cases, the situations were incredibly emotional and effective, as they said goodbye to the people they loved.
Landry (Jesse Plemons) and Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) came into Season 3 as the characters most tarnished by the previous year and the horrible murder/cover up storyline they were involved in. That being the case, it was frustrating to see Tyra put into what was easily the weakest story arc of Season 3, which involved her getting involved with a rodeo cowboy with dubious intentions. Thankfully though, the last few episodes gave her much better material – along with some of the best interactions she'd had with Landry since Season 1. Palicki and Plemons were excellent here, rising to the occasion as their characters finally returned to the people we'd initially cared about – though I'll never buy Landry having joined the team in Season 2!
The question of what the future held for these characters was a major one this year, as Tyra, Matt, Tim (Taylor Kitsch) and Lyla (Minka Kelly) all were seniors and had to make major decisions on what they wanted to do with their lives - and what had to be done to accomplish those goals. This led to terrific material for all of them, as Lyla and Tim explored life as a genuine couple for the first time and whether their obvious love for each other could survive their notable differences and diverging paths in life. The always lovable Matt also had some very strong material dealing with his estranged mother, Shelby (Kim Dickens), returning to his life – and how that affected both Matt and his beloved grandmother.
As always, it's not the storylines that stood out on this show, but the moments – the many times Friday Night Lights captures interactions between these characters that feel 100% genuine, even if you've seen versions of these stories before. Episodes like "It Ain't Easy Being J.D. McCoy" --- where we started to realize exactly what kind of home J.D. was coming from -- and "The Giving Tree" -- in which Eric and Julie (Aimee Teegardenm) have a big conflict over the fact that she's not a little girl anymore -- were textbook Friday Night Lights - which is to say they were powerful and touching. And as always, the core of the show remained Eric and Tami (Connie Britton), who continue to be one of the best portrayals of a married couple ever seen on TV. Tami's new job as Dillon's principal caused plenty of conflict for her and Eric, and watching how they dealt with these issues made for some great scenes and plenty of now-requisite fantastic acting from Chandler and Britton.
Katims made some interesting decisions at the end of the season, having the football season end in the penultimate episode, the excellent "Underdogs," before picking up the story several months later in the finale, "Tomorrow Blues." Friday Night Lights has miraculously (and wonderfully) been picked up for an additional two seasons now, thanks to NBC's deal with DirecTV, but that wasn't a sure thing when the finale was shot. "Tomorrow Blues" therefore deserves a lot of praise for feeling like it could both be the season finale or the series finale, as the graduating seniors make their (apparently) final choices on what to do next – though in one notable case, I didn't agree or quite buy what one of them did. Meanwhile, some very compelling and intriguing elements are introduced for the next season, putting Coach Taylor into a new situation that should make for more great episodes from this very special series.
