Wow. We're lucky that the show got renewed, because this was not a lot of closure. We pick up five months after the Panthers have lost State, and there's a lot of jostling going on.

Joe McCoy is making a move to make Wade Aikman Head Coach. Coach confronts him once over his double dealing, but McCoy just stands there looking like Guy Smiley with his jutting rich dolt chin and telling Coach Taylor that he has the money, and the kid with the golden arm: what he says goes. And, actually kind of shockingly, McCoy is right. The Board votes to hire Wade Aikman as Head Coach of the Dillon Panthers. The catch? They also vote to hire Eric as Head Coach of East Dillon's new football team. The episode ends with Tami and Coach standing in the middle of East Dillon's football field -- the school has been closed for twenty years, and the field is tiny and in total disrepair. They look daunted, but all I can think is: MUD BOWL ALL THE TIME? BRING IT!

So, the kids. They're all jostling around, too, wanting and wishing and fearing. Nobody knows which end is up. Matt has been accepted to the Art Institute, and is planning on going. Julie is the saddest girl with crimped hair evah, and tries to break up with him, but he's like, "Um? No." In preparation for Matt leaving for college, Grandma Saracen has moved into a home, and I would be lying if I tried to claim that I didn't do the ugly cry the first glance we get in her new room. It just isn't home, you know? Matt is clearly totally conflicted. In the end, he leaves Billy and Mindy's wedding to go grab Grandma to come over and party. He tells her that aftewards, he's taking her home. As in, home. We get no answers here, but it's looking like Chicago is going to have to wait for its Matt.

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What was saddest is not that the Panthers didn't win State this year, but that you could see them knowing they weren't going to win, once the Titans got the ball into easy field goal range. The camera panned around to everyone's face -- Coach, Tami, Julie, Joe, Tyra, Tim, Landry, Matt, J.D. -- and each and every one of them just knew, knew that despite the four touchdowns they had reached deep down and drawn out of themselves, that they just were going to come up short tonight.

J.D. gets pulled off the field by Coach after losing control over his team and bratting around about it. He's confused and grieving because Coach and Tami (after realizing that, legally, they had to) called Child Protective Services on his father. The McCoys circle the familial wagon -- Joe staring Coach down in mirrored sunglasses, Katie telling Tami that she wants nothing to do with her, J.D. lost in the middle of it, betrayed not only by his own father's physical violence, but also by what he perceives as Coach's psychological violence.

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Mud Bowl redux! Except not, because ain't nothing ever going to be like Mud Bowl was. But Coach doesn't care, because there's nothing he loves better than watching his boys play football in the rain. This is the Panthers' last game before State, and it's a slippery mess of a Texas toad strangler (see? I learned!), but Coach tells them to have fun out there, and they do. J.D.'s father has told him to keep the ball on the ground because of the rain, but J.D. keeps putting the ball in the air. He makes a bunch of risky plays, Joe is in the stands freaking out per usual, but it works out in the end. It is probably just dumb luck that it works out, but it does. On the way to get something to eat after the game, J.D. is chatty and happy because he's fifteen and doesn't see what the big deal is whether it was luck or skill. But as the family walks through the parking lot in the pouring rain, Joe tries to "have a talk" with his son. When J.D. finally wakes up and resists his father, Joe completely loses it and starts wailing on the kid. Luckily (!) Coach and Tami are inside the restaurant; they see what's happening and rush out to help, their leotards and capes merely implied. Katie and J.D. go to the Taylors' that night. Joe McCoy last seen walking glumly out of the Applebee's parking lot in a downpour.

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Oh, what a beautiful episode. If last week's felt a bit schizophrenic, the story lines not quite integrated, this episode is an aesthetic whole, from start to finish.

Julie and Matt are still lying down together, like in Bible times, which is the best way to describe it, because Matt and Julie sleeping together is seriously the most wholesome thing I have ever seen. They love each other, and you can tell that they love each other. One person who maybe can't see immediately that they love each other, though, is Coach, who walks in on them in bed together one afternoon. Coach goes in lockdown, letting Tami have the conversation with her daughter. And it is a doozy of a conversation; I have mentally bookmarked this conversation for if I ever have a child, under "How to Talk to Your Child About Sex." Coach's conversation with Matt, however, I have just bookmarked under "Cringe."

If the Taylors are coming to terms with their daughter growing into adulthood, Lyla Garrity is coming to terms with the fact that becoming an adult doesn't mean you stop doing stupid shit. Buddy Garrity gets arrested for wailing on a guy at the strip club. They were having a "business meeting" in which the injured party told Buddy that he lost the $70,000 Buddy had given him to invest in a strip mall development. Ooof. What's worse is that the money Buddy tried to invest was Lyla's college money. Lyla moves out of the condo, into The Playgirl Ranch, livid with her father and unwilling to forgive him just yet.

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The Panther-Arnett Mead game gets picked to be the nationally-televised High School Game of the Week, making it extra special when Matt makes a game-winning play as receiver. Grandma Saracen and his mom have been arguing, but they put it all aside to watch Matt play.

Tim also plays a hell of a game, which is lucky because a recruiter is in town from San Antonio State scoping him out. When the recruiter catches Tim after practice, he's kind of zoned out about the whole college thing. Lyla tries unsuccessfully to get him to focus. Meanwhile, Mindy has dumped Billy, and Billy is a mess, which conveniently enough for Tim means lots of tequila-in-sympathy. Lyla has had enough of Tim's hijinks, so who better to commiserate over the Riggins with than Mindy? Lyla and Mindy tie one on big time, trying to create a no-Riggins zone, but that zone is quickly declared, basically, penis-deficient. Billy shows up and Mindy drunkenly throws herself at him once he assures her she DOESN'T have to quit stripping if she doesn't want to. The next morning, Tim shows up at Lyla's to apologize, tell her he's signed with San Antonio State (that was quick!), and tease her for smelling like a brewery.

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This episode had so many heartwarming moments, I spent the entire last half of it wondering who was going die or fall down a well.

Over at Our Gang's Club House, it's like herding cats trying to get Herc, Billy, and Tim on the same page as Jason. Jason's attempts to take charge in selling the now-rehabbed house are met with accusations that he's always playing the baby card; when he ups the selling price, there's a near revolt. But, a few girly slaps and welling-up tears later, they agree to follow his lead, and the house sells. Jason runs into a former Dillon Panther who's going pro, and his agent, and a big old light bulb goes on over his head when he hears the agent talk about the business. We end the episode on a sweet moment between Jason and Lyla; Lyla sadly realizing that he's going to leave Dillon, but giving him all of her confidence in his prospects.

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Tim Riggins leads the seniors in making the freshman run the "Naked Mile." It's not quite as naked as some viewers would prefer, but this is network television and actual freshmen are 14/15 years old, you perverts. Tim tells J.D. that he has to run two naked miles and Coach Taylor happens to be a witness, but he promises to not tell J.D.'s dad. Later, at practice, J.D. has problems and the other team members tease him about being naked and such. Coach takes Tim aside and tells him that it's up to him, as captain of the team, to get the other players to respect J.D. Tim takes J.D. for a tour of Dillon as a way to bond. It works and the Panthers beat Westerby. Tim tries to take J.D. out with the other players to make some "memories," but his daddy makes him go to Applebee's with his mom instead. At The Dillon Dance that weekend, Riggins and Lyla take J.D. to an off-campus party, where, due to non-Riggins-related peer pressure, J.D. gets really drunk. The next day, at church, J.D.'s dad makes J.D. apologize to Coach for being drunk. Coach seems more disturbed by the father than drunk J.D.

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Coach Taylor's gamble at having Matt and J.D. quarterback together pays off for him (Panthers win) and for J.D. (a few spectacular passes), but not so much for Matt (ultimately demoted to QB2). Much slumping of shoulders ensues. And then some thrashing and lashing out in the locker room, and an attempt to quit the team. Coach won't let Matt quit, but Matt has the last word, telling Coach that fine, he'll sit on the bench and go to practice and hate it. And, perhaps more importantly, Coach will hate it, too, watching him there on that bench. "Great talk, Coach" he says as he brushes by.

Jason Street is back! With a baby! And a baby mama! And a totally wacky storyline where he, Billy, and Tim Riggins try to buy Buddy Garrity's house (using the copper wire cash) so that they can flip it and make some quick money, which Jason needs to help support the baby and that girl who's the baby's mother but whose name I can't remember because after all, she was a one night stand. Oh. Erin. It's Erin. And then, just as we finally remember her name, Erin tells the new homeowner Jason that she's packing up and moving back in with her parents back east.

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Remember when Coach broke down a few episodes ago and said that he needed something good to happen? Well, some good things happened tonight. Coach agonizes over whether to start J.D. in the next game, worried that if he does so, he'll kill Matt. Tami almost loses her shirt when she sees how dreamy Coach is when he agonizes, telling him that his conscience is sexy, and then also advising him that he doesn't need to make a hard and fast decision now, to take the issue game by game. And so Coach develops an "unorthodox" offense for the next game: Matt and J.D. will trade off quarterbacking during the game.

Tami tries to throw her hat into the old boy's network, but the results are as mixed as that metaphor. One "accidental," "casual" run-in with the school superintendent doesn't hold a candle to Buddy's years of jostling with the guy on the golf course, and she realizes that she's going to lose the fight against the Jumbotron because they are all in agreement against her. So, she swallows her pride, and smilingly breaks ground for the new scoreboard with the boosters.

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The Arnet Mead game is here again, and so is the Coach's yearly barbeque. Does anyone else feel as warm inside as I do at having having this world keep turning? It's like a REAL TOWN! So the barbeque is stressing Tami out, because once again the work of preparing to host all the mean boosters and all the messy, shaggy boys in her house has fallen to her. When she runs into Katie McCoy -- J.D.'s mom-- in the grocery store and Katie offers to have it at their house, Tami gratefully accepts. But Coach is livid, thinks she's getting played, because the McCoys are starting to play hardball trying to get J.D. starting as quarterback. The barbeque goes off without a hitch in the McCoys seriously whopping McMansion; no hitches except Coach getting waylaid by Buddy and McCoy. Off to the side, though, we get our first brief meeting with J.D. actual -- when the kid comes upon Matt and Julie chuckling over all the trophies J.D.'s parents have displayed. And, just as I suspected, he seems like a sweet, dorky kid being pulled along by the current of his dad's weird displaced ambition.

Matt is really feeling the pressure to win on Friday. As he puts it to Julie, the outcome of the game could pretty much change his life. As in, if he messes up, he gets benched and J.D. goes in. In our first nail-biter of this season (in part courtesy of the great song the game is set to) the game comes down to the last minute. Matt's taken a beating for four quarters, but he swears to Coach that he has one more play in him. He runs the ball and just makes it into the endzone, but gets hit hard and fumbles the ball. Arnet Mead wins, all of our hearts break, Matt's shoulders slump, and Coach comes home to a bunch of "For Sale" signs posted in his front yard.

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Tami is getting flak from all sides for her decision to reallocate the funds the Football Boosters raised for a Jumbotron. She gullibly gives an interview to a newspaper, which then runs a Brangelina-style piece about how the Taylor's marriage is on the rocks, and nobody in town will talk to her. Buddy and the Lady Mayor are stopping just short of putting a horse's head in her bed, with the threats and the backdoor meetings with the superintendent and such. It also doesn't help that Tyra is repaying Tami for all her faith and hard work by running for Student Council President on the "I'll get you laid" platform. Which, BTW, totally works.

Lyla and Tim are still peas in a pod... under the sheets, that is. But things get a little John Hughes-y when Lyla buys her wrong-side-of-the-tracks boyfriend a blazer and brings him as her date to a fancy lunch with her father and the McCoys. Buddy is cruel and vicious, and Tim eats some raw pigeon. But Tim looks like he might have the best revenge; because when Lyla comes by his house later to apologize, she looks pretty damn at home surrounded by the underpants-wearing, beer-drinking Tim, a shirtless Billy, and stripper Mindy.

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Happy Birthday to Me! Seriously, today is my birthday, and I can't imagine a better birthday present than my beloved show being back on regular television.

Things have been happening in Dillon. Tami Taylor is now the principal, there's a new hotshot freshman quarterback in Dillon vying for Saracen's spot, Smash is rehabilitating his busted knee, Tyra's college dreams are being dashed by her crappy new guidance counselor, and Julie wants an after school job. Now, am I forgetting anything? Hmmmm, anything? Oh, right, Lyla has traded Jesus in her heart for Tim Riggins in her pants!

Tami looks great in all her cute Hot for Principal fitted blazers and pencil skirts, but the job is a shitshow. There's barely any money for chalk, but Buddy Garrity is handing her personal checks to buy a Jumbotron for the football stadium and she's realizing that somehow her husband, the coach, has a new computer and air conditioning in his office while the rest of the teachers make do with sweating and abacus. It turns out that the new quarterback in town is there because his dad moved the whole family down from Dallas specifically so Coach Taylor could make his son great. Coach Taylor, it should not surprise you, does not take well to fancy Dallas talk about "greatness."

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TV Guide.com is telling me that Friday Night Lights has reportedly gotten an order of six more scripts. I'm not sure what that means. Does that mean the show is coming back next year for six episodes or are there six more episodes for this season?

Either way I do not care. The more Friday Night Lights the better, I say. I so totally love Matt Seracen and the rest of the Dillon Panthers.

Go Panthers! Oh and Kyle Chandler is a hottie!

I was going to sit down and write an entire thing on why Friday Night Lights is the best show on TV and why you must watch it tonight, but then I found that someone already wrote it for me! Check it out.

You have to watch tonight if for no other reason than Julie Taylor tells her quarterback boyfriend, Matt Seracen that they should totally DO IT! They are the cutest couple! Am I lame for saying that? But it's true.

My favorite show this season, Friday Night LIghts, is moving to Wednesday Nights. I hope and pray that this will bring in the much needed ratings boost because if this show gets cancelled at the end of the season my head will explode. In order to hook new viewers, NBC will broadcast back-to-back-to-back episodes tonight.

Not only do you get to watch the best show on TV, but that's three hours you don't have to talk to your annoying relatives in town for the holidays. It truly is a win-win. And once you become obsessed with this show after watching these three episodes, (which I guarantee will happen) go to NBC.com and watch all the other episodes from this season for free!

Every TV season there is a show that I have on as background noise until another show comes on I really want to watch, we all have one, am I right? Well. this year that show was Friday Night Lights. But I suddenly started to realize over the past few months how great the show is and instead of background noise, it has become my must see TV, almost to the point of obsession.

This has to be hands down one of the most engaging, dynamic shows out there right now. I would go so far as to say it's a work of art, does that make me lame? If it does, I don't care. Here's why you should be watching it too:
Family – This show is more about family than football. Traditional family, obviously. This week we learned about Smash’s backstory and how his family ended up in Dillon from a very poor town where most guys head to jail instead of college. We get to see a vulnerability in Matt Seracen as he coaxes his demented grandmother out of a bathroom by singing the song her deceased husband used to sing to her. This entire event takes place in front of the coach's daughter on what was supposed to be their first date. Stunningly brilliant TV, people.

Loyalty – When the team finds out that Riggins has been sleeping with Lyla behind Jason’s back, they show their loyalty to him and give Riggin’s truck a major destructo beat down. But when the team needs Riggins to rally for them in the final moments of the big game, he’s there for them, even if they let him down, he won’t do the same because when it comes right down to it, team loyalty transcends all petty differences.

NBC announced today that it has given a full-season order to its critically hailed freshman drama Friday Night Lights

"We're proud to reward an authentic, poignant series like Friday Night Lights with a full-season order, demonstrating our confidence in it's appeal and quality," said NBC President Kevin Reilly.

This is great news because now that it has a full season, I’ll find out what happens with Riggins and Layla because hot damn, it looks like from last week’s episode that Street knows they’ve totally been making it behind his back. And then there’s all the coach angst. Poor Kyle Chandler, I want to hug him because he is getting screwed by all the busy body townies who think they know what’s best for the Dillon Panthers. He’s the coach, leave him alone!

Our female football fan blogger chatted with some of the cast last week, including Zach Gilford who plays back up QB Matt Saracen and who I totally heart. I don’t want to talk about him too much lest my TV boyfriend Hugh Laurie might get jealous.

Are you watching Friday Night Lights for the football or for the drama or for both? (Are you watching at all?) Some stars from the show recently sat down and chatted about women and football just for readers of our sister blog, The Female Fan.

The coach's wife, Connie Britton, is joined by Zach Gilford, who plays replacement quarterback Matt Saracen, and Jess Plemons, who plays his best pal, to talk about why women should be interested in Friday Night Lights whether or not they like football. It's all about the relationships, the choreography, the drama...

For more photos and video, join the ongoing discussion at The Female Fan.

In an effort to promote the most amazing new drama on television that no one is watching the smart folks over at NBC will air Friday Night Lights tonight, in a special night and time after the hugely popular drama Heroes. If you've never watched Friday Nights Lights on Tuesday night because you're checking out Mario Lopez's adorable smile on Dancing With The Stars, now is your chance.

Check out our handy guide so you know who everyone is, but don't worry, this is one of those shows you can just pick up at any point. It's teen (and adult) drama at it's best.

Just in case you missed last week's episode, let me give you a brief recap: It's rivalry week leading up to the big game between the Dillon Panthers (go Panthers) and the Tigers from the next town over (boo tigers). Well, the Tigers break into the Panther's locker room and totally trash it. But the Panther's coach, Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) tells the boys not to retaliate and instead use the anger on the field... but do these hot headed, testosterone fueled, football players listen to their fearless leader? Not a chance, they totally retaliate smashing the Tiger's quarterback's car to pieces. Go Panthers.

Speaking of quarterbacks, the Panther's QB, Jason, is in the hospital paralyzed and guess what, his girlfriend, Lyla, a cheerleader of course, is totally getting it on with Riggins, Jason's best friend. She tells Riggins it CANNOT happen again, but guess who finds herself in Riggins's bedroom at the end of last week's episode, that's right, Lyla. See, I told you this was good, but it gets better.

Coach Taylor tells Saracen, the new QB for the team that he needs to relax. He tells him he should go out and have a good time, get a girl in the backseat of a car, you know that sort of thing teenage boys do. Guess who Coach Taylor sees Saracen hitting on at the end of the episode? His own daughter, Julie and we close in on Coach Taylor's realization of what he's done. Looks like he brought it on himself, I'd say. Tune in tonight to see how this entire debaucle gets resolved.

The new NBC drama Friday Night Lights, which premieres tonight at 8pm has everything you could ever want in a television program. Why do I love it? Because even if you’re not a football fan or don’t really know much about the sport you’re in luck because this show is about so much more than football.

First of all, you have young guys in spandex pants. Sometimes guys in spandex pants can be a fashion “don’t” but these guys look good and I mean really, really good. Then there’s the delicious high school drama ALA one of my all time favorite shows, Beverly Hills 90210. I hated high school when I was in it, but now I can’t get enough of watching teenagers dealing with back stabbing friends, sex and angst. More angst, I say. And finally, there’s the brilliant Kyle Chandler, who is so convincing as the passionate and intense football Coach Taylor that by the end of the episode, I wanted to get on a plane and meet him for coffee in Dillon, Texas. Why can’t characters on TV be real people?

Just in case you’re gonna tune in and are worried you don’t know enough about football, head on over to The Female Fan ivillage blog. This lady knows more about football than most guys I know, so check it out and while you do that, I’m going to think some more about Kyle Chandler… me likey.