TV Catch-up

A little catch up this afternoon before starting in on Thursday night shows. Highlight for spoilers:

• Bones: I have nothing against the actor who played Sully, nor was the character really that bad, but I'm absolutely thrilled to see him leave. Booth's relationships haven't thrown the show's tone/pacing/whatever off, but every scene with Brennan and Sully seems to grind the show to a halt. At least to me.
  
  This week they find the body, or rather skin and organs because someone removed the bones, of a mail order bride from China. The lack of bones makes things a little difficult, but eventually, thanks to guest star Michael Paul Chan (Lt. Tao from The Closer), we come to the conclusion that the bones were removed for some kind of Chinese wedding/burial ceremony, but we eventually loop around to find it was the weird lady who runs the bride import company. Not a great mystery, but not that bad.
  
  Despite the especially gory case of the week, we still had plenty of funny moments: "No bones, no Bones," switchamacallit, and the balloon head. I tend to prefer a little more Zack and Hodgins, but it was still an ok episode. The presence of a lot of Sully was made up for by the fact that we won't be seeing him again (for a while at least... I hope).


• Friday Night Lights: Somehow I completely missed the fact that Julie would be completely pissed at the idea of leaving Dillon for TMU. Her scene with her dad near the end was really nice. The Taylor family is easily one of the best on TV. A lesser family drama would've had him turn the job down right there and have a group hug, a shock-value show would have him accept for the drama of the moment, while Friday Night Lights is patient with the storyline and to squeeze real drama out of it.
  
  I love that Street got unceremoniously cut from the quad rugby team. Quite the ego on that dude though. He may be the best athlete on the floor, but he's been playing the game for what, six weeks? I have no idea how long, really, but he broke his neck in the first game and the football season isn't over yet.
  
  The scene where the tattoo girl (whose name slips my mind) offers Street a ride was hilarious. "I can give you gas money, or... something." Wink, wink. So that finally goes where it was obviously heading, with a make-out session at Stonehenge II (I was hoping it would be a stonehenge that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf, but it was a roughly full scale replica).
  
  And the scene where Street coaches Saracen is the scene I've been waiting for all year. Great step forward for Street, whose future, I think, is in coaching. Great moment for Saracen, too, who has yet to gain the swagger needed to lead a football team, but Street figures out right away how to inspire some confidence. ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons
  likes to count the "chill scenes" in sports movies. I don't remember many in sports TV shows, which are typically pretty awful, but this was a rare one. And a great one. I actually came to this show from the movie, which I liked a lot, and was much much heavier on the football content. I still love the show, but do miss the football sometimes, and this was by far the best scene they've ever had on that front.
  
  Thank goodness Riggins finally tried to get into his neighbor's pants, cause the kid storyline, which I didn't really mind, got old fast, and like tattoo girl, we all know where this was heading.
  
  Tammi makes Tyra her personal project as a guidance counselor, but Tyra's mom is not playing along, and continues to freak out over the Buddy thing, and just have issues in general. But they sorta make up at the end, though I'm sure the crazy isn't anywhere near over yet. Speaking of crazy, Lyla's having trouble with her father and Street, and ends the episode with a nice little rampage at the car lot.
  
  Yet another great episode. I'm probably more desperate for Veronica Mars to hang on for another season, but FNL is a close second.

Left to watch: All caught up.