Friday Night Lights back on track?

I'd really been kind of disappointed with Friday Night Lights this season so far. A lot of the storylines were just so cliched and predictable, and I felt like they were cramming too much into each episode while at the same time dragging things out for too long. I really hated the Landry/Tyra murder plot, and I still don't understand why no one in the town seems to know about it. I really hate the Matt/Carlotta thing and I really hope that ends sooner rather than later. I don't know what the heck they're doing with Jason (who hasn't even been in the last two episodes), and even the Taylors have been all out of sorts.

And I'm totally surprising myself by saying this, but there kind of hasn't been enough football. I think one of the things I loved so much about last season was that there was this urgency and structure to the season that was geared towards winning the state championship. But this season there's hasn't been much of that at all. There have been snippets, with Smash's recruitment, and Santiago, and lately the Laribee team coming to share Dillon's field (another Degrassi parallel here, by the way), but as a whole, there hasn't been too much tying things together, and I think that's been a bit disappointing.

But last night's episode kind of proved to me that the show can still be amazing. It was a little strange not seeing so many characters at all in the episode (Landry, Tyra, Lyla, Buddy, and Matt were all almost completely absent), but I liked that we got to focus on just a few things. I'm so glad that Tim finally just went back home, and the way he and Billy made up was just so low-key and perfect. I'm so glad that the silly misunderstanding with Julie from last week was cleared up relatively quickly. I'm so glad Smash didn't end up doing something stupid. And I'm kind of glad that Shelly's gone and that the Taylors are kind of back to status quo.

And it's also the little moments that make an episode for me too. How funny was Lois honking the horn and waving at Tim while waiting for Julie to apologize? And Tami wearing the shirt that Shelly said was too tight for her? And how cute was the Coach with Gracie at the end?