Friday Night Lights (TV Series) The Son (2009) User Reviews

What this show is all about (Spoilers)

[maqer · 10/10 · 5 December 2009]

Sometimes in a series you come across an episode that really displays what this show is all about. I couldn't find a better example than this one. Sometimes the acting has been questionable and the storyline takes a lapse. However when they come around with an episode like this, it really washes away the blemishes. Saracen (Gilford) continue to proves to be one of the better dynamic characters with all his internal struggles and his constant pressure to grow up quickly and face reality with a punch in the gut. He really brings some tear jerking moments with his performance while struggling with the loss of a father that he never knew. Instead of drawing up fictional over the top situations like most TV dramas do to reach the heart of viewers, Friday Night Lights draw upon the reality of the life of a small town and their struggles. When reflecting about the movie this series was based upon, the two are more than similar with the intensity, the reality, and the emotions each bring out of it's viewers to better understand what happens in a football town.

personal

[Joseph-gabo · 10/10 · 8 June 2011]

Sometimes you dwell in a fictional story and set of characters to get away from reality. I had done so with Friday Night Lights. But sometimes an episode is played, that is so powerful and true to ones personal reality, it burns a memory forever inside your soul. This episode had done that. I guess the spoiler is for those who had not yet seen this episode, is that Matt Saracens fathers character, an Army Soldier was killed while serving in Iraq, and Matt buries him. The episode is a powerhouse of emotion for the viewer. In his fathers death Matt tries to find his emotional understanding on what to feel, even going into denial that the man in the casket is even his father. Which leads Matt, who after drinking a few beers with his family of friends, go into the funeral home to see if the man in the casket is his father. The episode ends with a powerful song by Great Northern called Driveaway. Matt makes a balanced speech and after tells the funeral workers to leave so he alone can bury his father with the shovel. Blood cakes his hands, and you feel his pain. This episode aired in 2009 in December. I personally lost my own father who was in the Army in August 2009. We laid him with military honors as did Matt. So no matter how this episode played with other viewers, I teared up, I lived in reality what the fictional story played on TV, which is a true story for many of us who lost our own fathers and had to bury them.

Outstanding

[riadlr · 10/10 · 7 April 2019]

Arguably one of the best episodes in the history of television.

Captivating Episode

[jringland · 10/10 · 6 October 2018]

I do agree that this show has mediocre acting at times (besides Kyle Chandler), but Zack Gilford delivered an absolute scene of emotions that made it feel real to the viewers. As unrelated as I was to Matt's situation of losing his father, I still felt heartbroken from his character and acting. It was emotional and definitely one of the best episodes I've seen from this series.

One of the best episodes of TV period

[susan-covington · 10/10 · 20 August 2014]

This episode is absolutely classic, and one of the best treatments of death and grief I've come across in any medium. Matt Saracen's processing of his complicated relationship with his father and the impact it's had on his life and his character is stunning - it's incredible that they managed to fit so much finely nuanced emotional power into 45 minutes. The writing and acting - especially Zach Gilford's performance - are first-class, and they create so many brilliantly realized moments with incredible restraint, which makes it all the more moving. This show is far from perfect, but this episode certainly is. It's worth watching the entire series (which is pretty good overall) just to appreciate the full impact of this one episode.

Just absolutely incredible

[anujlal1 · 10/10 · 25 December 2009]

This episode about Matt's father's death is absolutely the most carefully crafted and well acted episode of any TV show in the history of entertainment. It is just so amazing that this show is able to garner real emotions out of the people in the audience. Friday night lights has the ability to make anyone feel like they are literally face to face with the people in the small town and that the character's strife is their own.

IT MAKES ME INFURIATED.... ABSOLUTELY INFURIATED THAT THIS SHOW IS NOT CONSIDERED THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION and that it has to be aired on freaking Direct TV 101....

Forever, I will love this show more than any other on TV...

Can't not cry

[cfidallas · 10/10 · 26 February 2021]

One of the best episodes in the history of the series which is really saying something. If you make it through this episode without crying you are not human.

Perfect

[aaaaaron-frannnnnnnn · 10/10 · 25 June 2021]

Perfect Acting, great story.

Small details like Lyla and Devin being at the funeral was a nice touch (similar to Spiderman 1, with Flash at the funeral).

When Matt tells the story of his dad at the store, it truly pulls the heart strings in the most bittersweet way.

Touched me to the bone, it made me shiver

[martijn_happy · 10/10 · 9 December 2009]

Im not sure why I'm typing this. I'm not gonna talk about the acting in this episode. but i feel like i have to say something since i've never cried about a movie or TV-series ever. today was the first time, I don't know why and I don't know how. I just think this episode really caught me to the bone. I guess it might be because a friend of mine lost his father due to some horrible circumstances. I think the plot of this episode was amazingly done and an other thing is that the hurt in the episode seems so real and so believable that it just caught me in my heart. I do think however that if u've seen just this episode or just a few episodes of Friday night lights u won't feel the same way that I did, because you don't fully comprehend what Mart's life was about and how he lived it. So I guess the conclusion to this is: if u wanna attend this episode to it's full emotional potential you should watch the entire show or at least enough to get an emotional picture about Mart because we all watch TV drama series to find something familiar or of interest to ourself that we can rely or see ourselves in.\

yours sincerely Martijn from Holland

Immaculate and heartbreaking

[hendl-57355 · 10/10 · 9 September 2021]

2015 my then Girlfriend (now wife) and I were watching this show. We stopped at season 4 episode 4, went to bed. Woke up the next morning to my mom calling me telling me my father died. After spending the day at their home, we came back, ordered some food turned on the TV and this is the episode that was next. Can't tell you how long I cried for. I hadn't really had any emotion the whole day up until I watched this episode. To me, it's the best episode in the history of television.

Feels real

[hyperbart · 9/10 · 4 December 2009]

I started watching Friday Night Lights because I like football and the movie upon which it is based is good. Actually, though the show has received positive critics, I'm don't think overall this show is that good. The storyline isn't stunning and, most import, the acting feels weird at times. People stutter too much and act weird and apathetic towards each other a lot of the time.

This episode however, is different. Like much of the series it's not about football, though it starts with that. It's about the lives of the people in this town of Dillon, Texas. And in this episode, Matt has to cope with his dad being killed in combat. His dad, who he hates, because he never really got to know him, he was always gone. For a television series, the hurt is shown in a great manner. We see the drama people at home have to go through, not just because they lost a family member, but because they lost that family member in a different way long before he was killed.

It's a sad, but therefore very good episode. The acting feels real this time. That's why I felt to comment on this specific episode.