I’ve watched the NFL in the past, but this year I didn’t really follow any games. My wife hates football, and I don’t love it, so usually I see a couple of Colts games but nothing else.
So on Saturday, I posted this on Facebook:
The season finale of football is tomorrow. I haven’t seen the rest of the season…will I be lost? Should I wait until it comes out on Netflix? No spoilers please!
I thought it was witty, and I figured it would end there. But then a friend of mine actually replied.
Sure thing, David!
At the beginning of Season 50 of Days of the National Football League, one of the most infamous heels dominated the story line. This character, Tom, was always picked last in gym class, but now he’s married to the homecoming queen and everyone else kinda resents his success. It’s not that he’s rubbing everyone’s face in it, as that would be weak writing, but he’s done a couple shady things in the past that haven’t quite caught up to him. Surveys show that viewers have mixed feelings about this character.
Anyway, the organization that Tom’s boss works for decided to put out a report that would finally get Tom into trouble. Tom’s boss didn’t like this, so he got a bunch of really smart scientists to say that the report wouldn’t hold up. Remember, all of this is in the premiere episode! Unfortunately, the next couple episodes get bogged down because it turns into a courtroom drama. (SPOILER: Long story short, Tom gets off again.)
Tom also has this coworker who is a bit of a rival. His name is Peyton. They have a nice love-hate relationship, but Tom always gets the promotions at work because Peyton is a little old and never quite finishes his work. Viewers really like Peyton, and they’ve been rooting for him to have one big victory before he’s got to retire. In this season, he and Tom had essentially, to use an appropriate analogy, a chicken parmesan bake-off. Peyton’s team members really did an awesome job and kept distracting Tom during the competition, so now Peyton is really, really close to this awesome promotion he’s been waiting for. Viewers are on the edge of their seats!
The only problem is this hot-shot young kid came out of nowhere. Last year he nearly died in a car accident and now he’s practically been touched by an angel. His team is just impressing everyone in the office. This kid has all the storyline of Tom without the baggage, and he has some of the positive fan support that Peyton has. So now they’ve got to go against one another in the season finale. In my opinion, though, the penultimate episode featuring Tom and Peyton had stronger writing and more at stake.
There’s a lot of other minor characters, but they won’t be in this episode. This is a shame because there’s a lot of backstabbing and political intrigue. One of the characters dressed up in a disguise in one episode so that they could go to a party without anyone noticing. Another guy has been stuck at a desk job because his boss doesn’t believe in him even though everyone thought he was going to be awesome. His boss actually put him into a really dangerous situation and then blamed the guy for getting into trouble.
The plotlines are a bit tired sometimes, but the character arcs are to die for. I’d give it a 7/10.
Brilliant work, sir. You’ve made it even more unbelievable that the NFL isn’t scripted.
