Do not go gentle into that good "Night"

“Friday Night Lights,” the series about a small Texas town obsessed with its high-school football team, may just be playing out the clock on this season – as one of too many serialized shows to premiere last fall, its ratings never reflected critics’ enthusiasm for the show – but its players can leave the field with their heads held high.

(As for the headline - sure, it's a stretch, but at least it's not as hokey as "Thank God it's 'Friday'" or "Turn out the 'Lights.'")

Even though it’s steeped in melodrama, the show is constantly surprising: You’ll be rolling your eyes one moment, genuinely moved the next. The show probably never overcame the fact that it fell between two barstools – the football probably chased away female viewers, while the soap-opera elements no doubt had some of its more testosterone-laden fans fleeing – and enough with the epilepsy-cam, already.

But the show’s picking up a head of steam as it enters its final four episodes of the season. Tonight, Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) mulls that college coaching job he’s always dreamed of, but daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden), smitten with Matt (Zach Gilford), doesn’t want to leave town, even though she’d be moving to Austin, which Taylor describes as “arty – you like arty,” adding, “They’ve got some great ballet-ers.” A class act, that coach.

Meanwhile, wheelchair-bound Jason (Scott Porter) turns disappointment into – well, something less than disappointing, and his whole story hinges on an unlikely placed refrigerator. Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) befriends a neighboring MILF (Brooke Langton), whose initial resistances prove awfully flimsy. And Tyra’s (Adrianne Palicki) efforts to improve herself are repeatedly torpedoed by her mom.

Next week’s episode’s finale carries quite an impact, despite the fact that it hinges on a really stupid premise. A train derailment and possible toxic fallout near the school’s stadium sends Taylor in search of a new field for the state semi-final game. Instead of a nice, state-of-the-art stadium, Taylor opts to have his team spend their prep time building a field in a pasture instead of practicing for the upcoming game. (No seats? No toilets? No lights? No problem!) Then, of course, a storm unleashes its fury during the game (and disappears the second the game is over).

Meanwhile, Lyla (Minka Kelly) and a new friend go out shooting to as a cathartic response to boy problems, but they’re not the female character most in need of a gun.

Despite the narrative artifice, the ending is genuinely gripping. Two more episodes after that, however, and they’ll no doubt, yes, be turning off “Friday Night Lights.”