Taste of Innocence Chapter 13

Up on FF.net and TWCS.  Here and on Twilighted soon.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5412456/14/Taste_of_Innocence

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Stealing Home Chapter 2

Stealing Home Chapter 2 is up on fanfiction.net.  I hope you like it!

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6031956/2/

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Taste of Innocence Chapter 12

Up on FF.net, I’ll put it up here tomorrow when I have a little more energy and motivation.  Here’s a link:  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5412456/13/Taste_of_Innocence

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The Lights Are Finally On Again

Matt's not the only one crying.

Yes, I know my TV blogs became few and far between as I got caught up in my fic writing but that doesn’t mean I stopped watching my beloved shows.  And now that they’ve all faded to black for the summer, the only new thing going right now is Friday Night Lights.

I was thrilled to get it back but I’ve had a bit of disconnect this year.  This is not surprising since it was gone for an entire year, plus the majority of the young cast that I know and love was either gone or limited.  Sure, Matt was there but he was only a shell of a man most of the time (I’ll get back to him in a moment as he’s what this post is about) and Riggins is back to being a wastrel.  I hated JD from the get go and I’m certainly not going to like him now.  Coach Taylor has had to be a complete hardass to get his new football program going and Mrs. Taylor’s all caught up in politics and football.  I was watching and still interested but not nearly as much as I was previously.  That’s all changed due to the last two episodes, but I’ll be back with that shortly as well.

First, I want to discuss the new guys.  Specifically Vince and Luke.  I love the similarities and dichotomies between these two.  Both are poor, although Vince’s circumstances are far worse than Luke’s.  Luke works on his family’s farm and has to deal with getting up at the crack of dawn, doing chores, school, football, more chores…etc.  Now, he was at Dillon West, starring on the team there but it was found that he didn’t live in the new boundary line and they lied to try to keep him but he was forced to go to Dillon East and he wasn’t happy about it.  But he wants to play so he’s out there and working.  JD and his fellow assmunches are still trying to drag Luke into being a prick and attacking his teammates but Luke told them to go to hell recently which I enjoyed greatly.

Vince is in a single parent family and his mother is a drug addict who doesn’t pay the bills.  He’s got similar friend pressures like Luke but his are pressuring him into a life of crime.  He’s already got a record and if he gets caught again he’s in juvie.  He and Luke have butted heads several times but seem to have reached a detente now that Luke isn’t hanging around with JD and Coach laid down the law.  Vince’s situation tears are the heartstrings.  He found his mother passed out on a couch outside and carried her into their powerless apartment.  I find myself rooting for him to stay the hell out of trouble.

What’s interesting is just how real this situation is but it doesn’t hit you until you see it raw and personal like FNL portrayed it.  My school has been well known for taking on kids from “bad” backgrounds.  Some of them stayed out of trouble, others didn’t, and of course the ones that didn’t get all the pub.  I myself have muttered about “thug” players a time or two but never really stopped to think about the circumstances that might have created them.  Vince’s situation opens my eyes in a way that they rarely have been before.  I find myself rooting hard for him to stay on the path that Coach has put before him but fearing the worst.  I really like the kid, though not as much as I love my Matty and Smash and co.

My heart breaks for Matt.

Matt…good God he’s broken my heart two weeks in a row.  Like, I’ve been a sobbing mess several times over.  FNL is one of the only shows that does to me consistently and Matt and Smash have probably been my two biggest culprits.  Oh, before I launch into Matt, let me say that I was nearly screamed with joy when Coach was watching a game on TV and the announcer talked about Brian “Smash” Williams whipping off a 22 yard run and being something spectacular to see and saying he might be a starter soon.  I love that Smash is doing well.  And yes, I am aware that he’s fictional.  He doesn’t feel that way though.  None of the kids on this show do.  That’s why I adore it.

This season was sorely lacking in Seracen, at least in my humble opinion.  Understandable since he’s out of college and just working as a pizza deliveryman and dating Julie, but still, I missed the hell out of him.  And I hated seeing him look so defeated and stuck.  I never wanted that for him even though I did want him to stick around for my own selfish purposes.  I adore Matt Seracen, plain and simple.  He put aside his art school aspirations to take care of his grandmother and be there for Julie and he’s just been treading water ever since.

It wasn’t until his father was killed over in Iraq that things came to a real head for Matt.  His “artistic apprenticeship” with some weirdo really did nothing for me except show how much Matt didn’t really belong there anymore.  And it broke my heart because I truly want nothing but happiness for that poor character.  The ironic thing about his father’s death waking him up is that his father did the selfish thing by leaving his family behind.  Now, I’m not saying that going and serving in the military is selfish.  It most certainly is not and my father spent 26 years in the Air Force so that would be beyond ignorant to say.  But his dad knew that his family needed him, he was out and he couldn’t deal with family life so he went back in.  He died the way he wanted to and that was fine for him but it was terribly hurtful for his son, who was selfless for his family and truly just wanted his father to be someone he could love, someone like Coach Taylor.

And it killed me when he went to dinner at Julie’s after finally getting to see his father’s body.  He had to confirm with his own eyes that his father was dead and seeing it destroyed him.  He tried to hold it together but he just lost it, telling them that he had to give a eulogy for someone he hated and he just wanted to tell him that he hated him but how could he talk to someone who didn’t have a face?   He freaked out and left.  Watching him walk away and watching Coach Taylor go after him and give him that shoulder to lean on, act like the father he always wanted…well it’s making me cry again and I can’t begin to capture it in words.  It just killed me.

A happy moment before the tears, sorry so small, NBC did not have it any bigger, damn them.

This week, Matt was Mr. Solid.  He was fine; joking, throwing the football, wondering why anyone would be worried about him.  Julie convinced him to go to a concert in Austin with her, without her parents approval.  All was well until Landry called him and told him that Mrs. Taylor had not given Julie permission to go and that triggered an argument with Julie wherein he revealed that he didn’t want her parents to hate him, particularly Coach.  Again, the father he wishes he had.  Their argument led to Julie saying that he should go, she could feel how much he wanted out.  She cried and they made up and went to their concert and he asked her if she really did want him to leave.  She told him no, she loved him and he kissed her and that was that.

Tami Taylor is a fabulous mother, putting aside her anger to comfort her daughter.

But it wasn’t that, because the idea was there, in his head.  He went to drop her off and they had a sweet kiss and whispered I love you’s and a heartbreaking smile and “I’ll see you later,” from Matt.  Julie went into the house and just broke down, because she knew.  And I knew.  And Mrs. Taylor even knew, because though she’d been waiting to lay into Julie, she ended up holding her while she cried and told her mother that she knew she was losing him, that he was going to leave.

We cut to Matt’s house, where he sat in the car and listened to his mother and grandmother though the window talking about the $100,000 in death benefits she was getting from the military and what they could do with it.  And just like that, he was free.  His mother was there with grandma and they had enough money to get by and he could go.  So he did.

The next shot, the final shot, was of him driving past a field, the sun shining and finally, blessedly, a small and real smile on his face for the first time in ages.  He was free and he was going somewhere to do something.  Maybe to Chicago to go to his art school, maybe anywhere.  And I cried then and I’m crying thinking about it.  I’m so happy for him, striking out to find his happiness, but so sad for Julie and for myself for not getting to see him until maybe a cameo in the 5th season.

Zach Guilford is a completely talented actor and I hope he tunes up in something soon.  I connected with his character more than any other on this show and the thought of not seeing him weekly makes me completely sad but at least Matt got to go out on his terms to find his dream.  I don’t ever want to see him beaten down again.

I need a hug from Coach Taylor, stat.

Bravo, FNL.  Just when I was thinking you’d lost your magic, you brought it back in a major way.  I will miss Matt more than I can say but I will enjoy the new characters you have given me.  The title of this episode was aptly named “Stay” and that’s what I’ll be doing, when it comes to this show.  Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.  My eyes aren’t clear since I’ve been crying, but this show always fills my heart.  I’m glad it’s back.

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First & Ten Chapter 3

Up here, up at FF.net, up at TWCS and soon to be up at Twilighted.

Here’s the FF link:  First & Ten Chapter 3

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Stealing Home

I wrote a new one-shot baseball fic that will be a two-shot because I’m wordy (hush rameau).  I’m not planning on posting it here unless I get requests to do so but here’s a link to the first chapter.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6031956/1/

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Taste of Innocence: An Interview With The Vampire

I went ahead and posted my interview with Smugward up on FF since people couldn’t find it on Twilighted.

Here’s a link, should you want to get to know our boy better!

Interview With The Vampire

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Taste of Innocence Chapter 11

Now up at FF.net.  Taste of Innocence Chapter 11

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