Oh, Tim

Of course he didn't get kicked out of Coach's house for drinking or illegally hooking up the cable box to porn or making out with Shelly (who I now kind of love being reduced to a shirt-buying dork by that fullback’s sly smile). No, in typically heartbreaking fashion, Tim Riggins had to get kicked out after protecting Julie from both tornadoes and hormonal teenage boys. He had to get turned away and disappointed by yet another father figure. I guess next stop is Buddy's halfway house for orphaned football players and super-sad divorced guys.

I know that some fans were turned off when this season flirted with sensationalism, but all that murder stuff’s over (I think) and the most dramatic stuff between Landry and Tyra this week was that she rejected him to accompany a 35 year-old rival player to the Fall Formal. The truth is Friday Night Lights still packs more sheer entertainment and emotion than any other show on TV. I laugh, sigh, cringe and get a little teary pretty much weekly. It even makes me kind of care about football. Kind of. The real reason I’m addicted is the characters. Buddy could have been a one-joke background player, but he's become the chewy center of his own compelling storyline. Former perfect mother Tami has stumbled, clinging too tightly to both Julie and Shelly and only managed to push them both away. And then there's Coach Taylor. Whether rendered wide-eyed and speechless by a chat with Buddy or enraged by the sight of his daughter is in the arms of a Riggins, he’s the dreamiest man on TV.