herc!

Hey, it's me. The underachieving summer blogger. Although it may not seem that way, my summer of television has actually been quite awesome. I am officially caught up and butt crazy in love with Friday Night Lights. Last weekend, I finished the third season. I have yet to get started on the current season though - need a little breather to collect myself.

I won't attempt a full assessment of my FNL experience quite yet, but I will be mentioning the show in upcoming posts - since I've been living and breathing it for the last two months. Oddly enough, I remember watching the first couple of episodes when FNL first premiered, and it didn't really catch me. But as my favorite TV bloggers continually praised it and rabid fan support led to the network "creativity" of marketing it through DirectTV, I knew I had to give it another shot. So glad I did.

Gross summary: I would argue that these are some of the most well written (if not the best) teenagers in the history of television. Between the photo editing, the music, and the casting, I join the chorus of fans wondering why this show doesn't have 100 Emmys. That's not even including the amazing performances by Kyle Chandler (Coach) and Connie Briton (Mrs. Coach) - finally nominated this year - and the seemingly effortless work by Zach Gilford (Matt), Adrienne Palicki (Tyra), Jesse Plemons (Landry), and pretty much everyone else, including the wonder that is Tim Riggins.

Wait! That wasn't the point of this post. I can't even help it. I could go on and on. The point was to highlight one of the smaller, great roles in FNL - that of Herc played by Kevin Rankin. The story of Jason Street could have gone to a teenage-angst-melodrama bad place. But thanks to the writing and performance by Scott Porter (6), complemented so well by Rankin, I would argue it turned out to be a near perfect story. Texas forever.

Kevin Rankin co-starred in NBC's short-lived medical drama Trauma last season. In a semi-under-appreciated show, Rankin's character stood out as the best for me. So, I was really glad to see that he will be on our TV screens again this season. According to Ausiello, Rankin has been has a Patrick Jayne's brother-in-law on the CBS drama The Mentalist. This show isn't quite appointment television for me, but I do keep it on the DVR and enjoy watching. It's clever and easy to watch with great performances from Simon Baker (Jayne). Rankin's character is a con artist womanizer, and there's a possibility for recurring status.

Happy as I am for Rankin, I will not let this hinder my mental image of Herc traveling the globe with the quad rugby team spreading wisdom and breaking hearts on an international stage.