Now that the writers are officially back (congrats, and welcome) life can finally get back to normal. We can stop reading books again, get back to eating our dinners from a TV tray and start petitioning networks not to cancel one of the best shows currently running.

Of course we're talking about Friday Night Lights here. Who isn't? Thanks to some negative off the cuff comments from NBC exec Ben Silverman and the news that last Friday's episode represented the last the cast and crew were able to complete prior to the writer's strike and you have a lot of people realizing all at once that they may have seen the last of the Taylors, Riggins, Garrity, et al.

And, as much as I want to see it continue, I'm not entirely convinced the quick death isn't the best available fate. That's how much I like the show, but that wasn't always the case.

While there were a number of noteworthy critics lauding Friday Night Lights from the pilot episode, I gave the show a rather tepid but hopeful review after one episode. While relying too heavily on the precedents set by the book and the movie, I wrote the following:

I was wrong. The characters have revealed a depth that puts any reality show star to shame, the very people who are supposed to be real, relatable. Tim Riggins, in the 30-plus episodes we've seen thus far, has easily become the most compelling character on television, drinking pitchers before practice, yearning desperately for the girl who has made the breaks he's never been able to catch. (And his hair reminds women of Jesus, so there's that.)

Up against American Idol for most of its first season, FNL struggled for viewers. Websites started sprouting up in support of the show and, after some deliberation, NBC renewed it for a second season. On Friday nights.

As many predicted, the crappy time slot put the show in an almost impossible position. It's tough to draw viewers on a night when there aren't any and even the critical approval of sports-culture figureheads like Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman can't replace the ad revenue that the show apparently cannot deliver. We're not making art here, we're pushing product and if the latter coincides with the former all the better. If not? There's always My Dad is Better than Your Dad.

Which brings us to the very real possibility that last week's mid-season ending was the ending. As fans of the show we've already been granted a death row reprieve once, the odds for a second in showbiz are about as long as Tim Street impregnating a beautiful and understanding waitress.

If that's the case, however, I am prepared to let the show go. Cruelly cutting the cord, considering the circumstances behind it and the public support against it, would only serve to make the show even more memorable.

This isn't a particularly profound or unique thought. You could have your pick of clich