In a recent interview with Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler from “Friday Night Lights,” Chandler discussed his onscreen marriage to Britton. According to Chandler, executive producer Peter Berg told him and Britton “that the relationship wasn’t going to break up from divorce…It was going to be a regular marriage, with two people who were dedicated to each other and loved one another.” Even though other dramas often feature divorces and marriages collapsing, “FNL” took a stand and attempted to show a strong and realistic marriage with two committed adults in it. In fact, one of the best aspects of “FNL” is how the show is able to create realistic situations where characters are allowed to make both good and bad choices. Because of that and the show’s focus on both sides of the controversial debate, “FNL” has managed to overcome a recent controversial storyline about abortion.
Several weeks ago, I wrote about the “Friday Night Lights” pregnancy storyline that ended with Becky, a pregnant teenager, aborting her child. She did this partly because her mother strongly advocated that decision and because she felt that her mother always regretted giving birth to her. The episode ended with Becky talking to Luke, the baby’s father, and telling him that she had taken care of the situation. Although he was aware that Becky had contemplated having an abortion, he didn’t realize that she was definitely going to do it until procedure was completed.
In the three episodes that have aired since that episode, the pregnancy storyline has focused on Tami (Britton), a local school principal, dealing with the political ramifications of the situation. After becoming pregnant, Becky had approached Tami and asked for information about getting an abortion. That conversation proved controversial as some individuals, including Luke’s mother, called for Tami’s resignation after the abortion. In the show’s season finale, Tami planned to publicly apologize for her role in the situation but opted against it at the last minute. Instead she said that she “had always put the welfare of the students ahead of everything else” and that “every action that [she] made was with that intent.” Tami was then put on administrative leave. Instead of suing the school to get her old job back, Tami said that she would accept a lower-profile position serving as the head counselor of a local school where her husband coaches the football team. The season ended after she offered to make such a deal.
Managing a difficult abortion storyline was always going to be controversial for a television program and “Friday Night Lights” took a major risk in featuring it. Inevitably, after handling such a topic, there was going to be a political outcry with conservatives and/or liberals criticizing the show for its depiction of a teen who decides to have an abortion. However, “FNL” has often tried to show how its characters would react to situations in real life and it has handled many tricky subjects with care. This year alone, a teen grieved for his father’s death in Iraq (an episode that was quite moving), another teen chose whether or not to engage in gang violence after his mother entered a rehab program and another teen faced the real-world consequences of illegally dismantling cars.
During the pregnancy and its aftermath, various characters on both sides of the abortion issue were portrayed fairly (unlike some shows that would likely have only shown one side). Luke’s mother, for instance, is a religious woman who was grieving the death of her grandchild. After learning about the abortion itself, Luke’s mother visited Becky and told her that she wished she could have been there for her during the pregnancy. Eventually, Luke’s mother tried to get Tami fired for offering Becky advice about having an abortion. Luke’s mother even informed the local newspaper of the situation to get publicity for her case. Even though at times her actions seemed harsh, Luke’s mother was not a mean woman. She was a religious woman grieving the death of a grandchild who wanted to find someone to blame for the abortion because she felt that it could have been prevented.
On the other side of the abortion debate, Becky’s mother was depicted as a strong pro-choice voice on the show. Upon hearing that her daughter was pregnant, she practically insisted that her daughter abort the baby. In fact, after a doctor tried to give Becky information about the child inside her, Becky’s mother became livid. She didn’t want to hear and didn’t choose to tell Becky about the other options that she had available to her. She wanted her daughter to abort the baby and did not want to even discuss other possibilities.
Aside from these two characters, after the newspaper printed information about Tami’s role in the abortion, Tami did face some pro-life protesters. Those scenes were minimal as the show tried to depict what the public backlash would be if such news was printed on the front page of a local newspaper in such a small town.
Ultimately, I think the show managed the controversial subject well. However, I don’t believe its handling of the situation was flawless. I think the show should have shown Luke and Becky rethinking the abortion or questioning their choice after it happened much more than it did. The teens both had complicated feelings before it happened but after it occurred and failed to depict any outstanding doubts or raw feelings afterwards.
Although I am personally pro-life, I think that the show handled the delicate subject in an honorable way. Even though we may disagree with the choices made, we can agree that teens do face such decisions each day in this country and that is what the show attempted to depict.
What pro-life advocates need to do is accept that reality and provide information to such teens about the options that are available to them other than abortion, options that should have been presented to Becky by her mother. If Becky had more information and her mother was more accepting, she could have realized that other options were much better than the one that she ultimately chose.
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