Friday Night Lights: Matt’s Goodbye Gets Two Extra Episodes

So the second version of Friday Night Lights–I call it that, yes, because we’re essentially changing most of the cast, right?  Seniors graduate and go to college.  There’s a reason why High School Musical isn’t going to college, although it’s getting a fourth installment, which is, well… anyway.  I digress.

I talk about that because, according to Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello, we can expect to see Matt Saracen in the show longer than he is supposed to.  Yes, sure, he’s also going to college, and he’s staying on for the fourth season of the show just to wrap up his storyline and say goodbye like the others.  That was supposed to be for five episodes; he’s now set to do it for seven.

It sucks having to say goodbye for a longer time when you can just wave at everyone and disappear.  Why can’t they do it like, say, Lucas and Peyton on One Tree Hill.  But I’ve no complaints–surely having more Matt is a good thing, right?  All that Matt-Julie loving.

The new season is set to premiere on October 28 on DirecTV (and this summer, if you’re only watching it off NBC).  Gilford’s seven-episode farewell arc will, according to sources, fall during the first half of the season, and one of those episodes will be directed by the show’s creator himself, Peter Berg.

But the impact, I guess, will be the same.  Much like when Jason Street said goodbye, we can expect tearing up when Matt Saracen does, too.  And that, perhaps, is something we can get ready for.  Or not.

Friday Night Lights TV Show Summary

One of two football-themed series of the 2006-2007 TV season (the other was The Game, the NBC dramedy Friday Night Lights was based on the H.G. Bissinger book and the 2004 theatrical film of the same name. Like its predecessors, the series took place in a small Texas town (Odessa in the film and book, Dillon on the show), where high school football was not merely a game but a “religion”–or more succinctly, a matter of life and death, with literally every person in the community having a personal stake or a heated opinion of the weekly game. Kyle Chandler headed the large cast as Eric Taylor, the newly hired coach of the Dillon Panthers (the role played by Billy Bob Thornton in the film).

Also seen were Connie Britton, recreating her film role as Eric’s wife Tami; Scott Porter as star Panther quarterback Jason Street; Minka Kelly as Jason’s cheerleader girlfriend Lyla Garrity; Gaius Charles as running back Brian “Smash” Williams; Zach Gifford as perennial benchwarmer Matt Saracen, forced by fate to take over as quarterback during the playoffs; and Adrianne Palicki as high-school vamp Tyra Collette. Unfolding in a semi-serialized fashion, Friday Night Lights kicked off on October 3, 2006.