8.7/10. I'm tempted to bump it up for the last few Smash scenes alone, but trying to be balanced for the other elements of the episode (most of which were good, but just not as good as the amazing finish to the episode).
Oh Smash. If this is really the way his story ends, I couldn't be happier with it. I was frustrated in the first episode by how it seemed like the show had thrown an arbitrary hurdle in his way after coming to a nice resolution, but if it was to counter the abruptness of the end of S2 and give us this lovely and graceful exit for him in S3, then I have no complaints. Those tears in his eyes when he was on A&M's field toyed with my emotions so much, and seeing him impress in their practice was great. I was on pins and needles when he got that phone call (even though, somewhere in my rational mind, I knew this wasn't the type of show that was going to keep him failing long term), and I was jubilant when he got word that he was going to A&M (and that means a lot from someone raised to root for the Longhorns).
The word "earned" gets thrown around a lot when talking about television, and those last few scenes are the epitome of it. Smash has been through so much over the course of the last couple of seasons, from the steroids, to the incident at the movie theater, to his knee injury. That moment where Corinna's face lights up and she declares her son is going to college; that moment where Coach talks the usual tough Coach talk but hugs Smash and you can tell his heart is soaring, and that moment where Smash, Riggins, Matt, and Landry go out on the Dillon field one last time to throw the ball around are all the well-developed culmination of this young man's story, and it stands out as the best achievement of the series thus far.
But the other great achievement in the show has been the Taylors' marriage. I can't say that I necessarily loved Tami's storyline here. I appreciate the idea that she's bonding a bit with Mrs. McCoy, and trying to take the advice of a woman who's a little more experienced in how these uptown movers and shakers operate. I appreciate that the thesis of the story seems to be that Tami is so committed to the courage of her conviction that she has a hard time playing the game. And I appreciate that even when she loses the jumbotron deal, she figures out enough of how to play it to (in the style of Logan Echols), commit Buddy to a charitable act he didn't intend. But I it still baffles me that the show doesn't really seem to acknowledge how even if Tami's beliefs are 100% correct, it's wrong to do what basically amounts to taking people's money on false pretenses, even if it's for a good cause and you can point to some technicality to justify it. They treat Tami as though she's fighting the good fight here, and at a macro level, she is, but at a micro level, she's being dishonest and it's frustrating for her not to be called on it at all.
Coach Taylor has trouble of his own, as he uses the bye week to not only help Smash gets his try out working (and he too is great in the scenes where he pulls a big stunt to get the A&M coach to give Smash a fair shot), but to install a spread offense that is more suited to J.D. McCoy's talents. As I mentioned in the last review, I love the conflict here, where on the one hand, Coach wants to be a good man and a good mentor, and not leave Matt in the lurch after Matt's done so much with and for him, but he also wants to be the best coach he can be, and that means putting his team in the best position to win. Those are two important, sometimes difficult to reconicle impulses, and the show doesn't pull punches on the difficulty of that for him. (As an aside, I like how the show hints that J.D. isn't exactly happy about being under his dad's thumb like this, and that he may not be mentally right having been raised to do this from the time he was in diapers).
But what I like best about each of these storylines are the Taylors' scenes together. I love the way that Coach stops at that bar and confides in his wife, talks about his dilemma, and how Tami, in turn, tells him that he can take it one game at a time and how he's a great person for caring this much about the well-being of these kids and not just wins and losses. ANd I love the reciprocal scene where Tami realizes that, thanks no doubt to Buddy's moving and shaking, she's going to lose the jumbotron fight, and starts to beat herself up over it, while Eric tells her that it wasn't a mistake because she was standing up for her beliefs, and that's who she is. There's a mutual support and understanding between them, despite the fact that they have conflicts from time to time, and that makes them one of the most endearing and relatable couples on television.
There's more great work in the episode with Matt, his mom, and his grandmother. Matt is back to his S1 quality performances, where he just seems like such a genuine teenage boy in how he reacts to everything from his grandmother's recalitrance to his mom coming back into his life, to his playful interactions with Julie. But the real surprise here is the actress who plays Lorraine, who's always been a pleasant presence in the show, but who's really been stepping up to the plate in this episode. The coldness in her eyes when she looks at Shelby, the anger when she has to get in the car with her, and the softness and regret when she tells Matt that she realizes her son can be difficult and maybe she didn't do enough to help Shelby showed impressive range for the character and the actress, that added to the realness of the scene.
It's easy to understand Matt's resistance to his Mom, but the story is so understandable: a woman who's too young when she has her child, a difficult husband, an ensuing life of regret, that's hard not to root for reconciliation. Matt is understandably still wounded, but hearing Lorraine shine some light on parts of the story he may not have considered is enough for him to want to at least let her into his life a bit, and that is quite heartening.
Lastly, we're back on the Tyra/Landry/Some Dumb Jock love triangle train. How many times are we going to go through different variations on this same storyline? Cash the rodeo star has nothing interesting about him thus far, and so it leads to a no-win situation. If this really is it (and given how Tyra's treated Landry, I hope it is), then it's a weak, melodramatic way to make it happen. If it's just another obstacle between Tyra and Landry being together, then it feels like another case of forced drama when it felt like they'd gotten past it.
But tthat can't take away from the joy o seeing Smash succeed. Some of the obstacles this show puts in front of its characters can seem like a stretch, or very convenient to the needs of a weekly TV series, but when they feel natural, when the grow out of who the characters are as we know them, and they're overcome, there a few things as rewarding for a TV viewer. Smash is the epitome of that on this show, and if this is his final chapter on FNL, I'm very glad to see it end this way.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-07-18T03:15:42Z
8.7/10. I'm tempted to bump it up for the last few Smash scenes alone, but trying to be balanced for the other elements of the episode (most of which were good, but just not as good as the amazing finish to the episode).
Oh Smash. If this is really the way his story ends, I couldn't be happier with it. I was frustrated in the first episode by how it seemed like the show had thrown an arbitrary hurdle in his way after coming to a nice resolution, but if it was to counter the abruptness of the end of S2 and give us this lovely and graceful exit for him in S3, then I have no complaints. Those tears in his eyes when he was on A&M's field toyed with my emotions so much, and seeing him impress in their practice was great. I was on pins and needles when he got that phone call (even though, somewhere in my rational mind, I knew this wasn't the type of show that was going to keep him failing long term), and I was jubilant when he got word that he was going to A&M (and that means a lot from someone raised to root for the Longhorns).
The word "earned" gets thrown around a lot when talking about television, and those last few scenes are the epitome of it. Smash has been through so much over the course of the last couple of seasons, from the steroids, to the incident at the movie theater, to his knee injury. That moment where Corinna's face lights up and she declares her son is going to college; that moment where Coach talks the usual tough Coach talk but hugs Smash and you can tell his heart is soaring, and that moment where Smash, Riggins, Matt, and Landry go out on the Dillon field one last time to throw the ball around are all the well-developed culmination of this young man's story, and it stands out as the best achievement of the series thus far.
But the other great achievement in the show has been the Taylors' marriage. I can't say that I necessarily loved Tami's storyline here. I appreciate the idea that she's bonding a bit with Mrs. McCoy, and trying to take the advice of a woman who's a little more experienced in how these uptown movers and shakers operate. I appreciate that the thesis of the story seems to be that Tami is so committed to the courage of her conviction that she has a hard time playing the game. And I appreciate that even when she loses the jumbotron deal, she figures out enough of how to play it to (in the style of Logan Echols), commit Buddy to a charitable act he didn't intend. But I it still baffles me that the show doesn't really seem to acknowledge how even if Tami's beliefs are 100% correct, it's wrong to do what basically amounts to taking people's money on false pretenses, even if it's for a good cause and you can point to some technicality to justify it. They treat Tami as though she's fighting the good fight here, and at a macro level, she is, but at a micro level, she's being dishonest and it's frustrating for her not to be called on it at all.
Coach Taylor has trouble of his own, as he uses the bye week to not only help Smash gets his try out working (and he too is great in the scenes where he pulls a big stunt to get the A&M coach to give Smash a fair shot), but to install a spread offense that is more suited to J.D. McCoy's talents. As I mentioned in the last review, I love the conflict here, where on the one hand, Coach wants to be a good man and a good mentor, and not leave Matt in the lurch after Matt's done so much with and for him, but he also wants to be the best coach he can be, and that means putting his team in the best position to win. Those are two important, sometimes difficult to reconicle impulses, and the show doesn't pull punches on the difficulty of that for him. (As an aside, I like how the show hints that J.D. isn't exactly happy about being under his dad's thumb like this, and that he may not be mentally right having been raised to do this from the time he was in diapers).
But what I like best about each of these storylines are the Taylors' scenes together. I love the way that Coach stops at that bar and confides in his wife, talks about his dilemma, and how Tami, in turn, tells him that he can take it one game at a time and how he's a great person for caring this much about the well-being of these kids and not just wins and losses. ANd I love the reciprocal scene where Tami realizes that, thanks no doubt to Buddy's moving and shaking, she's going to lose the jumbotron fight, and starts to beat herself up over it, while Eric tells her that it wasn't a mistake because she was standing up for her beliefs, and that's who she is. There's a mutual support and understanding between them, despite the fact that they have conflicts from time to time, and that makes them one of the most endearing and relatable couples on television.
There's more great work in the episode with Matt, his mom, and his grandmother. Matt is back to his S1 quality performances, where he just seems like such a genuine teenage boy in how he reacts to everything from his grandmother's recalitrance to his mom coming back into his life, to his playful interactions with Julie. But the real surprise here is the actress who plays Lorraine, who's always been a pleasant presence in the show, but who's really been stepping up to the plate in this episode. The coldness in her eyes when she looks at Shelby, the anger when she has to get in the car with her, and the softness and regret when she tells Matt that she realizes her son can be difficult and maybe she didn't do enough to help Shelby showed impressive range for the character and the actress, that added to the realness of the scene.
It's easy to understand Matt's resistance to his Mom, but the story is so understandable: a woman who's too young when she has her child, a difficult husband, an ensuing life of regret, that's hard not to root for reconciliation. Matt is understandably still wounded, but hearing Lorraine shine some light on parts of the story he may not have considered is enough for him to want to at least let her into his life a bit, and that is quite heartening.
Lastly, we're back on the Tyra/Landry/Some Dumb Jock love triangle train. How many times are we going to go through different variations on this same storyline? Cash the rodeo star has nothing interesting about him thus far, and so it leads to a no-win situation. If this really is it (and given how Tyra's treated Landry, I hope it is), then it's a weak, melodramatic way to make it happen. If it's just another obstacle between Tyra and Landry being together, then it feels like another case of forced drama when it felt like they'd gotten past it.
But tthat can't take away from the joy o seeing Smash succeed. Some of the obstacles this show puts in front of its characters can seem like a stretch, or very convenient to the needs of a weekly TV series, but when they feel natural, when the grow out of who the characters are as we know them, and they're overcome, there a few things as rewarding for a TV viewer. Smash is the epitome of that on this show, and if this is his final chapter on FNL, I'm very glad to see it end this way.