There are times when the television audience responds exactly as it should. Viewers during the first three weeks of the 2006-07 season soundly rejected the CBS crime drama Smith, one of the most toxic excuses for an entertainment program ever. It seems folks didn’t much care for a series in which smart and sexy daredevil thieves destroyed public property, murdered hard working people and casually tortured innocent bystanders who interfered in any way with their exciting lifestyle. What on earth was CBS thinking? Happily, Smith last week became the first official cancellation of the season.
And then there are those audience responses that prompt anyone who cares about quality television to scream at the wall. The series premiere of NBC’s Friday Night Lights last Tuesday barely registered with viewers. Get with it, people. That’s no way to treat the best new drama of the 2006-07 season!
Also last Tuesday, the third season premiere of Veronica Mars (on The CW) did only about as well as its unremarkable second season premiere last year (on UPN) despite the fact that, creatively, the episode was about 100 percent better than any episode last season. Smarten up, everyone. That’s no way to treat a show that is one of the best returning dramas of the 2006-07 season (nor one that stars Kristen Bell, who last month was named Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in the first annual MediaVillage TV Fan Awards)!
It is darn near impossible not to be moved by the story being told in Friday Night Lights, even if one’s interests do not extend to sports. This show, about a high school football team in a small Texas town, is a drama about hope, aspiration, heroism, human frailty and grace under pressure. While the young men on the team put huge pressure on themselves to excel, many seeing success in athletics as their only chance to move on to bigger and better things in life, the townspeople also place great weight on their every game. Wedged between the two camps is strong, sensitive Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), the new coach who must work twice as hard to motivate the team after an accident leaves star quarterback Jason Street paralyzed.
“Jason Street is the only reason I got this job,” an almost-defeated Taylor tells his sexy, soft-spoken wife Tami (Connie Britton). “I am screwed.” Shaken by Jason’s accident, heavily criticized by townspeople for whom the team’s success means everything, Taylor nevertheless remains strong and supportive. In tonight’s episode, there is a touching scene in which he begins to work with unassuming Matt Saracen, the backup quarterback unexpectedly thrust into the limelight after Jason’s tragedy. But watch and wait for the powerful scene in which Taylor visits Jason in the hospital. Have a box of tissues nearby.
Lights, incidentally, boasts stand-out work from three young newcomers: Scott Porter as Jason, Zach Gilford as Matt and Taylor Kitsch as Tim, a running back with a drinking problem who cannot cope with best friend Jason’s accident.
You won’t need tissues for tonight’s episode of Veronica Mars. Instead, you might want to enjoy it with a bowl of popcorn. The subject matter is serious, as Veronica continues her search for the campus rapist who last week “roofied and raped” Mac’s roommate Parker, but there is much pleasure to be had in Bell‘s winning performance. After landing a job with the school newspaper, Veronica goes undercover as a possible pledge at the suspicious Zeta Theta Beta sorority, which favors a dress code described as “’50s vacuum mom.” Veronica thinks people at the house are somehow connected to the rapist. It will come as no surprise to regular viewers of this sublime show that nothing is what it seems. Meanwhile, Wallace and Logan are involved on different sides of a prisoner of war exercise and work feverishly to outsmart each other. The loser has to run across campus naked. There is also closure to the shocking story of Kendall’s murder at the end of last week’s show.
Lights and Mars simply do not deserve to be located among this season’s losers. That list is growing fast. Before they killed Smith, viewers made clear to Fox that they will no longer tolerate crappy sitcoms, leading to the swift removal from the network’s schedule of Happy Hour. Fox is threatening to bring it back later in the season.
The television audience also rejected Fox’ increasingly pointless serial Vanished, prompting the network not to cancel the show, but to kill off its glum lead character, add a new character played by TV hunk Eddie Cibrian (Invasion) and shove the show off to Fridays at 8 p.m., a time slot that has killed virtually every drama Fox has ever run there. (Other than The X-Files, Fox’ track record with scripted programming on Friday nights has been thoroughly dismal.)
And then there is NBC’s Kidnapped, a terrific serialized drama about the abduction of a teenage boy from a wealthy family on the Upper East Side of New York City, which suffered terribly in the Nielsen ratings during its first three weeks in its Wednesday 10 p.m. time period. NBC says the problem is the show, and has moved Kidnapped to Saturday at 9 p.m., where it will play out the remaining ten episodes of its 13-episode order and, in a word, die. But smart TV fans know better. The problem with Kidnapped these past weeks wasn’t the show, it was its incompatible lead-in, The Biggest Loser. Watching fat people grunt, groan, sweat, cry and vomit on that low-rent reality effort did little to pull together an audience for the smart, sophisticated, complex drama that followed.
Time period selection is important. It may be too late to save Kidnapped, but here’s hoping NBC takes better care of Friday Night Lights. Would a move to Monday at 8 p.m., where it could grow without any significant competition, be that much to ask for?
