FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS!! OBAN!! EARLY EDITION!! TIM & ERIC!! TREK!! SG1!! AVATAR!! HercVault!! -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

Published on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 12:09am

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS!! OBAN!! EARLY EDITION!! TIM & ERIC!! TREK!! SG1!! AVATAR!! HercVault!!

I am – Hercules!!

Friday Night Lights is the latest high school soap from quality writer-producer Jason Katims, who started his TV career on “My So-Called Life” then went on to “Roswell” and “Boston Public.”

There wasn’t as much gridiron action in FNL’s second season, which hits DVD shelves today. This was ginchy by me; those winning touchdowns at the end of most episodes last season were getting a tad predictable.

Some of the storylines you missed if you stopped watching the Friday-night episodes of “Friday Night Lights”:

* Lyla Garrity, who really did stay off the cheerleading squad, went chaste as she got really into Jesus. Really into Jesus. Started sticking her tongue in an evangelist named Christian.

* Pop Buddy Garrity, after getting booted from his home, started bunking with a Mexican ex-con.

* Troubled longhair Tim Riggins spent the season bouncing from home to home as his interest in Lyla reignited.

* QB1 Matt Saracen, left behind by fickle coach’s daughter Julie Taylor, found himself living beneath the same roof as his grandma’s hot new Guatemalan caretaker.

* Both teen coach’s daughter Julie Taylor and Julie’s hot aunt (Jessalyn Gilsig) began developing special feelings in their nethers for Riggins.

* Julie also starts drinking, fighting with her mom, and spending a lot of time with a handsome journalism teacher played by the actor who assayed John From Cincinnati.

* Nerd doof metalhead Landry Clarke grew closer to the absurdly hot Tyra Collette, the pair bonded by their ill-considered efforts to cover up deadly misadventure. Landry later finds himself mired in a surfeit of willing, short-haired blonde teen girls. (I like to think Angela Chase’s nerd neighbor Brian Krakow would have endured a similar fate had “My So-Called Life” been granted a second season.)

* Quadriplegic ex-QB1 Jason Street sought a cure south of the border then jumped back into the dating pool.

* Crash Williams began boning a white girl, who in turn took a big role in steering his post-Panther athletic career.

* Coach Eric Taylor ditched his new university job to return to Dillon, only to find himself contending with a disturbed rival coach forced to share the Panthers’ facilities.

* Wife Tami Taylor found herself contending with Julie’s brand-new sister Gracie Belle, who made her debut in 2.1, then Tami abruptly turned to coaching volleyball.

* The character named “Herc” continued to be an obnoxious wheelchair-bound Texas fellow. Maybe he’ll start writing about TV for a website next season.

The season was cut short by strike, but 2.15 feels enough like a season finale, with Smash choosing his college, Jason embracing an unexpected, life-altering development and Coach Taylor trading punches with a cowboy-hat-wearing Peter Berg in a fancy restaurant. (We Texans are a fighty lot.)

Special note for residents of Greater Austin, where the series is shot: We learn late in season two that Landry patronizes Dillon’s Alamo Drafthouse!

COMMENTARIES

2.1 “Last Days of Summer.” Series mastermind Jason Katims and director-producer Jeffrey Reiner.

2.3 “Are You Ready For Friday Night?” Actors Connie Britton (Tami Taylor) and Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor).

2.10 “There Goes The Neighborhood.” Actors Jesse Plemons (Landry Clarke) and Adrianne Palicki (Tyra Collette).

DELETED SCENES

2.5 “Let’s Get It On.” Eric Taylor talks to Tim Riggins’ brother about the teen’s absenteeism (:53). Julie Taylor meets the hot Latina living with her ex-boyfriend Matt Saracen (:51).

2.6 “How Did I Get Here.” Jason lobbies his mom for a quieter 19th birthday party (:56). Lyla admonishes her dad for exploiting her ex-con friend (:28). Lyla tells the ex-con he doesn’t have to chase her daddy’s hogs anymore (:46). Much transpires at Jason’s birthday party as Riggins tries explain to Coach Taylor what he was up to in Mexico (3:04).

2.8 “Seeing Other People.” Tami talks to co-worker Glen about the difficulties of raising Julie (1:04). In likely the best deleted scene of the season, female coach Bobbie Roberts (the hilarious Alanna Ubach in a role originally conceived for Rosie O’Donnell) gives Eric Taylor unsolicited advice regarding both Riggins and Tami’s work-pal Glen (1:53).

2.9 “The Confession.” Riggins’ new meth-dealer roommate tries to entice him with a Patrick Swayze triple-feature (1:13). Coach Taylor and Coach Roberts haggle over Riggins’ services (1:28). Jason confesses his concerns about a blind date to Herc (1:10).

2.10 “There Goes The Neighborhood.” Lyla gathers intel on her depressed dad from the ex-con (1:24). Lyla finds her talk with Jason regarding her mom’s new boyfriend interrupted by Herc’s arrival (1:38).

2.11 “Jumping the Gun.” Tami’s hot, nearly-naked sister greets Coach Taylor in his kitchen (:38).

2.12 “Who Do You Think You Are?” Coach Taylor bitches out Crash Williams for ignoring crucial advice (:55). Crash and Matt discuss their romantic lives with Riggins (1:11)

2.13 “Humble Pie.” Coach Taylor manages to reduce an unathletic female volleyball player to tears (1:12). Herc buys an end to Jason’s silent treatment (1:02). Coach Taylor asks Smash to prepare a statement (2:05).

2.14 “Leave No One Behind.” Matt discusses his recent behavior with Tami (:39). Crash watches his team from the sidelines (:55).

OTHER

“William S. Paley Television Fstival” (36:18). A session conducted before anyone knew whether or not the show would be picked up for a second season. Panelists include series mastermind Jason Katims, director-producer Peter Berg, and actors Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Aimee Teegarden, Jesse Plemons, Taylor Kitsch, Scott Porter, Minka Kelly and Zach Gilford. Lots of funny audition stories. Learn that Chandler was shooting “Grey’s Anatomy” when he auditioned. Learn that the show, based in Austin, is shot entirely sans soundstages. Learn why concerns for the second season dictated who won the state championship in season one. Learn most of Britton’s scenes from the big-screen version of “Friday Night Lights” were cut. (How weird is it, by the way, that in the movie Britton played Sharon Gaines, an entirely different coach’s wife?)

The whole shebang is well-priced at only $18.99.

The good folks at Shout Factory forwarded an unsolicited copy of Oban Star-Racers Vol. 1, a French-Japanese cartoon series for kids, but a great French-Japanese cartoon series for kids. It’s about a 15-year-old girl who mourns her dead mom and absentee dad and finds herself the unlikely champion of Earth in an intergalactic pod race. It's better than it sounds; the storytelling, which traffics in season-long arcs, is compelling and touching and relatively free of the lame jokiness I often associate with kidvid. The CGI action and design-work on the “Star Wars”-influenced project are, to my eyes, spectacularly sophisticated and imaginative. Is this the “Speed Racer” for the 7-year-olds of 2008? I can see these 7-year-olds carrying an obsession for the show well into middle age. Some of them may prove determined to turn it into a live-action summer 2038 tentpole for Universal-Warner-Disney.

Nobody ever forwarded me any copies of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (which Night Shyamalan is already turning into a live-action feature), so I put this question to the parents and caretakers who have seen both “Oban” and “Airbender”: How do they compare?

I have not seen enough of “Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job!” to properly judge, but people who are funnier and smarter than I assure that this Cartoon Network non-cartoon sketch show is funny stuff. Entertainment Weekly’s Gillian Flynn gives it a big “A-minus” and calls it funnier than “Saturday Night Live.” (Flynn does not specify, but I suspect she means the current “Annuale”/“Grandkids In The Movies”/“MacGruber”/“Ambiguously Gay Duo” SNL season -- rather than the earlier “Toonces, The Cat Who Could Drive A Car” seasons or the “Canteen Boy” seasons or the “Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker” seasons or the “Sabra Price Is Right” season or the Norm Macdonald “Clara Turley’s Bible Challenge” season or the “Adopt Belushi For Christmas” season or “The Pepsi Syndrome” season or the “Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Tales” seasons. But, as Billy Gibbons likes to sing, I. Might. Be. Mistaken. Hawr hawr hawr hawr.)

Herc’s Popular Pricing Pantry

19.99!! VASTLY ENCHEAPENED HEROES!!

19.99!! VASTLY ENCHEAPENED OFFICE!!

19.99!! VASTLY ENCHEAPENED 30 ROCK!!

19.99!! VASTLY ENCHEAPENED SCRUBS!!

CHEAPEST TREK EVER!!!!
EVERY season of
The Original Series
The Next Generation
Deep Space Nine
Voyager and
Enterprise:

$35.49 PER SEASON!!!!

All of these were selling at north of $100 once upon a time and I expect most, if not all, of these 28 season-sets will return to $62.99 in the near future.

(Note that these new sets are actually priced lower than the second-hand sets!)