Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Mini WMTMQR: Didn't You Forget Something Important?

Gregg has some thoughts about the semi-popular primetime drama "Friday Night Lights":

The Panthers are back in the Texas state championship, via yet another last-second touchdown -- Dillon blocked a punt with 34 seconds remaining, scored to draw within 14-13, then went for two and won. The episode included five crying scenes and four drinking scenes: Don't they do anything in Dillon, Texas, but cry and drink? A subplot involved redistricting Dillon to build a new high school because of population growth, which was puzzling because previously we have been told Dillon is a dying town that's so small it has only two motels. There are two more episodes in the "Friday Night Lights" series. Let's see whether the finale involves a game at Reliant Stadium, site of this year's actual Texas 5A championship. Dillon's 2006 fictional championship game was played at Texas Stadium, though the actual 2006 5A title game was in the Alamodome.

That's all well and good, but Gregg has skipped over a really important issue. And that is: the producers of FNL are so worried about creating characters and a story that will actually engage viewers that they've forgotten to have Dillon High play the correct number of games to get to the championship game! Yes, I'm afraid it's true. You just can't trust a fictional TV show to accurately reflect reality in every single possible way. Dillon has won four playoff games so far, but that should only put them in the semifinals, not the finals! Here, check out the official Texas 5A championship bracket for 2008 and you'll see what I mean.

Pretty disappointing, isn't it?

4 comments:

Chris W said...

i have been bamboozled by your link.

Jeff said...

I too was bamboozled.

You can expand this to include obviously unrealistic movies that he devotes time to pointing out ways that they are unrealistic....Dark Night and Iron Man come to mind immediately.

Chris W said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CitizenX said...

I, for one, would think an episode where they all daydream through an algebra 2 class would make great television. We'd all be looking at the clock and wondering what the fuck was going on.

It would be like we were there, in the class; that, my friends, is that mark of excellent television.