In my recent excitement over the return of Olive Snook, I forgot another big show returns tonight. For those with Direct TV anyway. Yep, for some lucky bastards people, tonight marks the return of Friday Night Lights.

Unfortunately, I am not one of the lucky few with Direct TV. This fact never bothered me until I learned that, without it, I’ll have to wait until January to watch one of my all-time favorite shows.

I am torn. On the one hand, I am thrilled that the show is still on the air, albeit under odd circumstances. I want it to do well in its return to regular TV in January (or February, or whenever NBC decides to put it back on their schedule).  I want to support it in 2009. I want to watch it live, and pretend that I am a member of the Nielsen family and that my eyes matter.

But I also want to watch it now. I want to find out if Jason is having his baby, what’s going on with Tyra and Landry, and how my favorite TV Couple in all of TV Coupledom, Eric and Tami Taylor, are doing.

So…should I be a good little TV watcher and wait until 2009, or should I be corrupt and download?

I’ve been trying to rationalize to myself that, even if I do go the download route, I’ll still watch it when it returns next year. And I think that I will. It won’t be like that one time after college when I had no money and downloaded the new Ben Folds album, promising to buy it when I had the money, but never did. I would totally watch it again in 2009. I would! Stop looking at me like that.

I don’t have this problem with Dexter. I downloaded it all last season, and didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. After all, I don’t have Showtime, so how else am I supposed to see it? And you know what? I bought season 2 when it came out, even though it’s still all on my computer.

So, even if I do download season 3 of Friday Night Lights, I can make up for it by watching it again on NBC, and watching it AGAIN when I buy the DVD. Right?

Look, we all know I’m just gonna download it. I’m not even sure why I am having this discussion with myself, or sharing my inner monologue with you all. I guess it’s like cheating on a test or skipping school – you know it’s wrong, you do it anyway, but you have to tell just one person.

Sorry, Jason Katims. I will watch in 2009. I promise. I promise to you with all of the Interwebs as my witness(es).

Video of the Day: Unfortunately, the Interwebs are scarce with FNL footage. (That is so wrong.) So, I’ll put up a recap of season 1 that I love. (For the record, though, I wanted to put up either: 1.) Coach Taylor’s stirring halftime speech, 2.) Gracie being born or 3.) The Tami and Julie scene when Tami sees Matt buying condoms.)  See, after watching this, you really can’t blame me for not waiting. Right?

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!