Seriously, Start Watching 'Friday Night Lights' Now

I'm not asking you. I'm ordering you. Start here and get caught up so you can watch season 3 with the rest of us -- all 3.5 million of us, which is just pathetic for a show this good.

Feel free to skip over most of season 2. As I noted last year, it got pretty melodramatic for a while there in a misguided and unsuccessful attempt to goose the ratings. The whole plotline about Tyra's would-be rapist was just embarrassing. That's all over now. FNL is back in top form, operating at the human scale of tiny triumphs and tragedies, making the most of the prodigious acting talents of its stars, particularly Zach Guilford, whose tormented, tongue-tied Matt Saracen will wring your heart. (But don't take my word for it.)

Like the Dillon Panthers, FNL has had to beat some pretty long odds just to make it this far. Were it not for the deus ex machina of DirecTV, it would be off the air by now. It still has a miserable time slot and a reputation as a show about football, which it really isn't. It will probably get canceled after this season whether you start watching now or now. Watch anyway.