Zach Gilford is revealed to be jumping on board ABC’s hour-long drama pilot “Matadors”. The “Friday Night Lights” actor is going to play the leading male named Alex Galloway, according to Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello.

[Spoiler alert!] The TV series revolves around two rival Chicago-based families, one in the DA’s office and another in a high-powered law firm. Zach’s character is Romeo of this modern-day “Romeo & Juliet” story.
The actress who will portray the Juliet is yet to be unveiled. Additionally, premiere date for the series is unclear.
Zach Gilford is tackling the role of Matt Saracen, the former backup quarterback of the Dillon High School Panthers, in NBC’s “Friday Night Lights”. He is set to make his final “FNL” appearance during the season 4 finale.
Facing the Lions, Coach Taylor said the word of the week was focus. He was wrong. The word of the week was choice. Everybody seemed to be facing impossible choices.
Bigger than right or wrong, yes or no, play or don’t play. In this penultimate episode of ‘Friday Night Lights,’ the problems were everywhere, but solutions — unfortunately — were hard to come by. More on the big game, toothpicks, apologies and Habitat for Humanities after the jump.
The anticipation for the game between the Panthers and the Lions has been building for weeks. Buddy’s obsessiveness should have been a tip-off that it was never going to be “just a football game.” After the field issues were supposedly settled, nastiness escalated from pranks to destruction and Eric got the fuzzy end of that lollipop.
The Lions will not have home field advantage, but considering they’ve rarely won a game this season at home or away, does it matter? It will be a miracle if they win. All the pep talks in the world won’t heal Luke’s bum hip, and how could anyone expect Vince’s head to be in the game with the death of Calvin haunting him.
Tami’s troubles have erupted into a potential game changer for the Taylors. If she doesn’t knuckle under and apologize for the Becky situation — and she shouldn’t have to because she didn’t do a damn thing wrong — her career will be over. If she loses her job, the Taylors may not remain in Dillon. How could they? She’d never get another job. This is a no-win situation for Tami. Eric knows it, too. The lawyer put it succinctly when he told she could always fight back a wrongful termination lawsuit, assuming she was fired. It would take years, but she could do it. Yeah, “There’s law and there’s life.” The Taylors need a life.
Vince was ready to flush his life away to avoid being a “little bitch” and to avenge Calvin’s death. What made him decide to get out the car and leave the gun behind? It might have been Jess’s pleading with him to stop or perhaps the memory of his mother asking him not to make her bury him. Whatever, he made the right choice. But when he returned home and embraced Jess, something made it seem that their relationship is more familial than romantic. And the debt is still unsettled. Vince is going to have to payback somehow.
Finally, there’s the Riggins. Both Billy and Tim. At the moment when happiness was finally in their hands, Tim with his land, Billy with his son, fate intervened in the form of the police. The chop shop came back to haunt them both. There may be a choice to be made that involves Tim taking the fall so that Billy can raise Steven and stay with Mindy. Making hard choices is in Tim’s DNA. He turned down Becky. He’ll do what he has to do for Billy and his nephew. Don’t you think?
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Watch promo video of Friday Night Lights Season 4 Episode 12
There were some major developments in this episode of Friday Night Lights, especially among the younger set. And if you think life is just peachy keen for kids in high school, they aren’t the ones attending East Dillon High. If you prefer the lighter, sweeter side of Friday Night Lights, this wasn’t your night. Sadness was at every turn, none moreso that Becky and Vince and their very tough decisions.

When Becky told Luke last week that she was having a baby, his reaction just spelled trouble. Who would have thought that his being honest with his parents would be a bad thing? Luke strives to be a good person, but he is clearly conflicted. He’s lying about taking pain medication and he had unprotected sex with a girl he barely knew. There is something disingenuous about him going to church and letting his parents guide him to live a righteous life, when he’s sinning right and left. Yes, he’s young, but he should know better.
It was somewhat surprising that Becky actually went through with the abortion. Whether you agree or disagree with her decision politically — and let’s not comment on that in this forum, please! — it was a tough choice and Becky only came to it after consulting “unofficially” with Tami. As the previews show, Tami’s good-hearted counsel might get her in a world of trouble. Becky is truly the voice of this show’s title, “I Can’t.” Be a mother, that is.
Like last week when Vince asked Coach for help finding a job, this week Vince was again standing up like a man when he approached Virgil. How heartbreaking is it that no matter how Vince tries to stick to the straight and narrow, the answers to his problems are too big. Virgil’s speech was comforting, but Vince’s mother needed rehab and Vince needs his mom. The scene at her hospital bed was a reminder that Vince is just a teenager. He’s not ready to be on his own. With no legit way out of that dilemma, Vince turned to his criminal friends and got the rehab money. So much for the football career.
I loved how Jess confronted her father about how he has been giving the family mixed messages. Fathers can be wrong and Virgil was wrong to show pride and support for Vince because he sees himself in the young man, but withhold it from Jess and Caleb. By showing up at the pee-wee football game, Virgil was admitting his mistake. It was a step in the right direction.
Watch “I Can’t” Episode Online
“Friday Night Lights” is losing a hunk factor with the departure of Taylor Kitsch. When the show returns for the fifth season later this year, fans would not spot the depicter of Tim Riggins as much as before. Exec Producer Jason Katims said the exit was prompted by Kitsch’s heavy schedule.

In an interview with E! Online, Katims said, “Taylor is shooting a movie [John Carter of Mars] and it doesn’t work out with his schedule to have him on as a series regular for FNL next season.” However, Katims said it is not the end of Riggins. “We are planning to have him come back toward the end of the season, and possibly do a couple along the way if we can work it out with production,” he added.
Since starring as Gambit in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine“, Kitsch has been flooded with feature movie opportunities and producers of “FNL” knew it won’t be long until he can’t juggle between committing to movie projects and being a regular on the series.
“Taylor is not only incredibly talented but a real guy,” Katims said. “Passionate, devoted, solid. We’ve loved having him on the show but we wanted to support him in this and give him a chance to shoot the movie, which will be good for his career.”
Friday Night Lights, which over the last season and a half has seen the departures of nearly all its original young cast, is about to endure another devastating blow. Popular heartthrob Taylor Kitsch, who plays bad boy Tim Riggins, will not be returning next season as a series regular, executive producer Jason Katims tells me exclusively.
Taylor found success on the big screen last year as Gambit alongside Hugh Jackman in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” and later this year will appear with Ryan Phillippe in the apartheid drama, “The Bang Bang Club.” He is also attached to the sci-fi fantasy film “John Carter of Mars,” which is set to start shooting this month. “Because this was a big opportunity for him, we wanted to let him do that,” says Katims. “We’ll stay in close contact with production and try to get him for as many episodes as possible.”
But the show made similar promises about former cast member Adrianne Palicki, who left last the series last season to star in a string of upcoming films that have so far ruled out any return appearances.
While the show’s other young characters, including Tyra, Lyla (Minka Kelly), Smash (Gaius Charles) and most recently, Matt (Zach Gilford), all left to pursue higher education, it was explained at the start of the current season, that college was not in Riggins’ future.
Instead, he has joined his brother in an illegal chop shop endeavor to raise extra cash to buy land. He has also entered into a romance with an under-aged girl. Either one of these scenarios could conceivably land Tim in jail, possibly taking the fall for his older brother, Billy, who is about to become a first time father. But Katims resisted commenting on the possibility of sending Riggins to the slammer, saying instead, ‘You’ll just have to watch.’” He also wouldn’t say if Aimee Teegarden, whose character, Julie, is college hunting, would return next season, as she too is being courted by film producers.
The series is currently airing on DirecTV through February and will rerun on NBC later this year. The NBC/DirecTV partnership guaranteed a fifth season, which Katims says he expects will be its last.
Dreams. Tami and Eric have big dreams for Julie as she prepares to go to college. Tim Riggins has been dreaming of what he would do some day with 25 acres of Texas real estate. Luke’s worried that his dream of getting a scholarship out of of Dillon is slipping away. And Buddy, well, he just wants to have football pride for the Lions like he did for his dream team, the Panthers. More on all that and more Friday Night Lights after the jump.
Julie and Tami go to Boston to visit Tami’s dream school, Boston College. This wasn’t in the show, but I have to wonder: how are the Taylors going to afford sending Julie to an out of state, private school? Even if they started her college fund when she was an infant, who could swing today’s tuition on the Taylors’ joint salaries? I’m just saying…
It may not matter because even after dazzling her admissions counselor with references to Truman Capote and Harper Lee, I get the distinct impression that Jules is going to wind up going to a closer-to-home Texas university. Still, I understood Tami’s point of view very well; youth is wasted on the young. Julie couldn’t see what a great opportunity was being handed to her. She was too busy resenting Tami’s encouragement.
Back home, Eric was prepping the East Dillon Lions for a chance at victory by beating the only other team in the league without a win. Sports radio dubbed it the toilet bowl. Of course after Eric gave the team an “I’m proud of you” speech, they discovered a commode on the field.
More problematic, however, was Luke’s health. Riggins hooked Luke up with a Dr. Feelgood. The fact that Luke ended up scoring the winning touchdown only makes it worse because Cafferty might be doing real damage to himself. But, yeah! The Lions finally won a game.
With a suit and tie, Tim pursued his dream of buying that 25 acres on the outskirts of town. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the money and after failing to land a job at a department store, Tim made a really bad decision. Any time he follows Billy’s lead, Tim’s in trouble. This chop-shop business will likely land both Riggins men, and their state championship rings, in prison.
I’d like to see Becky save Tim. I’d like to see Tim get the $85,000 for the 25 acres. I’d like to see a happy ending for Tim, but I don’t know how that’s going to happen. Do you?
Download Toilet Bowl Episode here
This episode dealt largely with Julie’s reaction to Matt leaving. She’s distraught, especially when she learns he’s called his mother and grandmother, but still hasn’t phoned her.
To distract herself, Julie joins a series of school clubs, including the Academic Smackdown, also making Landry join. Jess also happens to be in the club and she and Landry get a bit closer. He later calls Tyra, after she stands him up for a meeting at a rest stop, and says he realizes she has moved on.

This at least allows him to ask Jess out, as he tells her his life is no longer complicated and he’d love to go on a date with her. She doesn’t answer in the scene, but appears to be swayed by Landry’s charm.
Meanwhile, Tami’s success as the principal has allowed Dillon to earn a blue ribbon honor for academic success. She and a few staff members go out to celebrate, and a drunk Glenn kisses Tami on the way out of the bar. She quickly backs away, of course, and politely talks to him the next day about how that can’t happen again.
Also, Tinker helps Luke and his father re-build the fence around their cows. When Luke’s dad sees this kind gesture from a teammate, he appears to realize the value of football more. But just as he does, Luke injures himself trying to round cattle up. We’ll have to wait and see how serious it is.
Over at East Dillon, Coach Taylor earns Vince’s trust. After the police search Vince’s locker for a gun, but come up empty, Eric asks Vince if he owns one. The player is clearly lying when he says no, which prompts a visit from Eric to his apartment later in the episode. Vince explains how dangerous life on the streets is, but Eric counters with the argument that if Vince is caught, he goes to jail and then who looks after his mother? Later on, Vince stops by the Taylors and brings Coach his gun.
Elsewhere, Becky’s truck-driving father stops by for a visit. She gets her hopes up that he might move back someday, but Riggins knows otherwise. He overhears the irresponsible father talking on the phone with a woman in Seattle that is having his baby. Riggins confronts the man later about it, clearly taking out the frustrations of his own abandoned father, and punches him out. He also tells Becky about the Seattle family and tries to explain that it isn’t his fault.
Riggins proceeds to buy a dog for Becky and truly take on the role of second father. Upon driving the puppy home, he spots 25 acres of land for sale and seems intrigued. The episode ends with him looking out over it.
Friday Night Lights is a show that’s as much about subtle touches as it is about bone-crunching hits on the football field. This episode was all about pain, but not just the kind that requires a doctor’s touch. Julie felt it, as did Landry, Becky, Vince and Tim in their own ways.
For a change of pace, Tami wasn’t getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop, and for Coach Taylor, things were looking up even though the sheriff was snooping around the locker of one of his players. And if you’re wondering what happened after Matt left Dillon last week, read on.
The pain that Julie felt was the result of Matt’s abrupt departure. What made it even harder to take was that after three years, Matt had left and not bothered to call her. He contacted his family, but nothing for Julie. Throwing herself into Academic Smackdown turned out to be therapeutic. In fact, the question about Thomas Wolf’s novels seemed like a plant.
That’s right, I think Tami put that question into the contest just so Julie would realize “You Can’t Go Home Again” was all about her and Matt. And how perfect was it that Tami was there with the comforting shoulder for Julie to cry on when she realized it was over?
Becky had romanticized her trucker father’s visit — and his getting her a dog — because she didn’t want to face the fact that he had emotionally abandoned her. Tim learned the truth about his Seattle family, and because he’d been abandoned by his own father, Tim couldn’t let Becky keep fooling herself. He forced her to hear and see reality and then, guilt-ridden, went back to get the dog from the pound. And when Becky’s father came after Tim for ratting him out, Tim was more than happy to beat the crap out of the asshole. Every punch could just as easily been for his own father.
Tim Riggins has so much more going for himself than brother Billy. That last scene in the 25 acre lot was fraught with subtext; will Tim be buying the land or will he be sucked into another harebrained scheme with Billy? You’d like to think he learned something after the last criminal escapade that nearly got Tim thrown in jail.
At least Landry cleared his head about Tyra. That one-sided phone call was all he needed to answer his questions … and steer him back in Jess’s direction. I don’t think it’s the prospect of being the subject of a song that made Jess say yes to a date.
Vince stepped up and repaid Eric’s faith in him by giving him the bag. With Luke’s injury likely to have a major effect on the team, I can see Vince taking on more of a leadership role in the weeks ahead. And how great was it that Tinker worked on the fence with Luke’s dad? See what I mean about subtlety? That was a great touch.
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