(S03E01) If you're fortunate enough to be a DirecTV subscriber, tonight you had the opportunity to see the premiere of Friday Night Lights. The Dillon Panther football team was back, as were all the characters who deal with real world life issues that have nothing to do with the grid iron. The best thing about Friday Night Lights, in fact, is that the show is only set in a sports environment. The drama is much more than who wins or loses a game, and that's what stays with you. There are no easy answers for Eric and Tami, Tyra and Landry, Tim and Lyla. Even Buddy has ambiguities.

That said, NBC will be back with these same Friday Night Light episodes -- season three -- at mid-season. Therefore, for people like me with the DirecTV dish, we're getting the shows in advance. TV Squad has decided to review the season premiere -- including spoilers -- so please, if you want to wait and be surprised, be forewarned. On the other hand, if you want to know what's happened since the end of last season, follow me after the jump.




Sometimes when you get what you wish for, it's not everything you imagined it to be. That's the case with Tami Taylor. She's now the prinicipal of the high school, which she discovers is struggling with a limited academic budget. The air conditioning system is on the blink and the history text books are 15 years old. Meanwhile, Eric's football operation has new computers and an ice-cream wagon proffering Smoothies to the players after a heated workout. Is that fair?

Questions like that are everywhere on FNL. Is it right that Tyra should be told to not pursue a good college because her freshman grades have dragged down her GPA? Is it just that Matt may lose his stance as QB #1 because this new McCoy kid has an arm like Dan Marino and a father pushing Eric to promote his boy? Should Lyla take Tim seriously as a love interest or will he only be good enough in her eyes to have as a lover? Will Tami's decision to blow up Buddy's dream of a Jumbotron scoreboard and keep the big money for academics blow up in her face?

The most poignant story, though, is the future of Smash Williams. Eric wants Smash to make it all the way back from a shattered knee, but Smash isn't sure he'll ever be Smash again. The attention and emotion between coach and player is real and true, one more reason to admire Taylor as a man. Their racquetball match was the high point of the show. The question looms, can Smash change his game and make a comeback as a football player?

Other points of interest

-- Old man McCoy is a slimeball, offering Eric Cuban cigars and a bottle of Scotch to "bribe" him into playing his son. Eric is not going to go for that, but young J.D. can play and he is the next Jason Street.

-- I loved Eric's "Smoothie" rant.

-- Seeing Tyra's reaction to her sister becoming engaged to Tim's brother, a drunken proposal at the 7 Senoritas restaurant, was all it took to get her to go to Tami and plead for help so she could plan a different future for herself.

-- The episode was divided by the days of the week, starting with Sunday, building to the big first game on Friday night.

-- Smash called racquetball the whitest sport imaginable. Still, he was a "smash" at the game.

-- Riggins is still Riggins. He stinks in practice, but on the field he's a beast. He wouldn't be the best boyfriend, but he does love Lyla.

-- DTV ran the episodes with a single sponsor, commercial free. More TV shows should do this. It's great.