Say It Ain't So, Jason Street

I knew that Season 2 of “Friday Night Lights” was widely regarded as a bit of a fiasco. What I didn’t expect was that the story of Jason Street and his spinal cord injury would regress into tired disability cliches. Almost immediately, we get the two of the most predictable developments for a disability storyline … Jason starts pining for a miracle cure, and he’s becoming the “bitter, angry cripple” he never quite was in Season 1. Maybe this is what happens when an otherwise good show loses its way. The elements of a good show are still there, just in their worst form. The disabled character who in Season 1 gave us a realistic, nuanced portrayal of disability falls back on the lazy, predictable stereotypes we thought it had avoided.