Tonight my wife and I watched the most recent episode of NBC's Friday Night Lights, a weekly soap opera about the life and times of the people of Dillon, Texas, a town obsessed with football. Centered around the coach and his family, the show has earned high marks for its gritty, real-life look, favoring the bumpy, hand-held cinematography that made a lot of the difference between the realism of a Jason Bourne and the comic-book plasticity of a James Bond. It's a show about a particular kind of life, the life of a small Texas town, building up and executing sympathetic moments of triumph over adversity, of pathos, and of Realpolitik. The characters are sympathetic when the writers want them to be because of their immediacy. This most salient feature of the show is also its most compelling one. [TO SKIP THE SYNOPSIS CLICK HERE]
Tonight they upped the stakes. They set themselves up on a big, big stage...and blew their opportunity about as badly as they possibly could have done. A new character (to the current season), Becky, discovers that she's pregnant after a one night stand (her first time) with an aw-shucks country boy, Luke, who says "Yes sir" and "Yes ma'am" (his too). When she breaks the news to him, it's in the school yard and she tells him not to worry about it, it's her problem, she'll deal with it, but can he help with some money? The story plays out over a few episodes, in which Becky seeks help from Tami, the guidance-counselor-turned-principal (and coach's wife), who advises Becky to tell her mom in a late-night heart-to-heart. Becky's mom, a single mother, reacts to the news with even less aplomb than her 16-year-old daughter.
Meanwhile, Luke's dad corners him in the kitchen one night, concerned about Luke's recent withdrawn attitude, and Luke confesses the problem to his dad, with whom he has a strong, open relationship. Dad tells mom and the parents (good ol' Bible-believin' Christians) reassure Luke after practice one day that, "We'll figure this out; Joseph and Mary thought they were in a tough situation too."
Luke responds, "Becky and I aren't Joseph and Mary."
"Becky," says mom thoughtfully into her coffee mug, "so that's her name."
At the clinic, the doctor is beginning to give the state-mandated information about the stage of development of the fetus when Becky's mom forestalls him, repeatedly raising her voice as the doctor attempts to explain that he's required by law to tell Becky this information and then she can make "her" decision. Mom, after insisting that "we don't need that information; she's not having the baby anyway," vents as they walk back to the car that "this right-winger insulted us" by ramming all that talk down their throats.
In the middle of the night before the abortion, Becky comes back to the Taylor household to talk to Tami, who advises her that she's "in a really tough spot". Becky tearfully relates how "It's really obvious" that mom wants her to have the abortion, and "I was her mistake," and she should have known better and it was her first time and she barely even knows the guy and "I don't want to throw my life away." Tami, all the while, is very quiet, laconic, sympathetic, but says, "You need to think about your life" and "It's a hard thing; it's a hard situation." At this point (for the only time during the whole story) Becky asks herself explicitly "What about what *I* want?" I could have the baby, she opines, and love it, and be there for it... But what if I resent it? What if I spent the rest of my life resenting it?
When Becky finally asks her, "What would you tell your daughter?" Tami says that she'd tell her she's in a really tough spot, and she needs to think about it, and to think about her life, "and I'd support whatever decision she made." With Becky's response the scene ends: "I can't take care of a baby."
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