Are Matt and Julie’s romantic days over, or at least numbered, on Friday Night Lights? Not according to cast member Aimee Teegarden, who said that even Zach Gilford’s reduced role on Friday Night Lights this season can keep Matt and Julie apart.
“It’s all about Matt and Julie,” she professed, “it’s forever-after love.”
Swoon. Check out EW’s interview with the talented teen post-jump …
I wanted to take a chance before we finish up to pose a question, if that doesn’t step too much on Connor’s toes as our moderator. Bissinger focused on six Permian players in his narrative of the 1988 season, among them the shy but talented quarterback Mike Winchell, the tragic running back Boobie Miles, the stereotypical good ol’ boy Don Billingsley, and the team captain and tight end Brian Chavez. Did anyone have a favorite character, one they related to?
In my reading, I kept coming back to Chavez. In a tale full of stark absolutes, where so much was as black and white as the Permian uniforms - Permian good, rivals bad; winning above everything; girls playing dumb or being ignored - Chavez embodied nuance. Unlike some of his teammates, who traded on their status as football players to skate through class, Chavez was at the top of his class academically. Unlike Winchell, who dreamed of getting a Division I scholarship but at the same time couldn’t picture life outside of West Texas, Chavez aimed high and made it to Harvard.
To me, he was among the more complex characters we were presented. While he put football in its proper perspective, studying hard and seeing the sport as a means to an end but not the end itself, he still couldn’t entirely escape the grip of Mojo. The epilogue tells us he quit the freshman football team at Harvard because the competition wasn’t up to snuff (he later returned), and hearing a snippet of a song used in a Permian highlight film brought him to tears.
If Bissinger’s book had been a novel, critics would probably cite Chavez as the most developed character, the most fleshed out. But it’s easy to be drawn in by the others? Did anyone fall for Winchell? Was anyone intrigued by the partier turned preacher Ivory Christian? I’d love to hear.
NBC announced in the spring that they would be premiering Friday Night Lights on DirecTV’s Channel 101 in the fall, with the episodes playing on NBC in the winter. If you are a DirecTV customer you can watch your favorite show sooner! Here is the first trailer focusing on Kyle Chandler.
