The Captivating Glare of ‘Friday Night Lights’
by John P. HanlonIn the pilot episode of NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,” after a star football player suffers an injury on the field, the new coach in town, Coach Taylor, narrates the end of the episode while members of the football community visit the hospital where that player has been moved. In a voiceover, he states, “Life is so very fragile…We must carry this in our hearts: that what we have is special–that it can be taken from us. And that when it is taken from us, we will be tested. We will be tested to our very souls.” Several weeks ago, the third season of “FNL” was released on DVD and if you have not seen this program, this summer is a great time to catch up on this phenomenal show which showcases the daily tests that the characters in the community of Dillon, Texas face on and off the football field.
I only started watching the critically acclaimed program last year and since then I have purchased all three seasons on DVD. Readers and viewers might be familiar with the overall idea of the show because before there was a television show, there was a popular book and a feature film (with Billy Bob Thornton as the coach) with the same name. Even if you have not read the book or watched the film (and even if you do not like football), the show is well worth seeing.
“Friday Night Lights” takes place in Dillon, Texas, where at the beginning of the program, the new high school football coach arrives in the community with his wife and teenage daughter. The show revolves around the lives of Coach Taylor’s family, the football team, and members of the Dillon community who show up on Friday nights to watch the team play. Coach Taylor’s new football team is tested from the beginning of his tenure. For instance, Matt Saracen, who is played superbly by Zach Gilford and who is one of the stars of the football team, has faced many tests during the show. From the loneliness that he feels partly because his mother is not around and his father is in Iraq, to his daily responsibility of taking care of his aging grandmother, Saracen is seen throughout the show facing major tests that are easily relatable–this is one of the reasons the show succeeds. The characters are not stereotype jocks playing on a grassy field or sitting in the bleachers; they are well-developed members of the Texas community who often make mistakes and deal with the consequences of them.
Critics loved the first season and third season which concluded it’s run on NBC a few months ago. However, the much-criticized second season is worth seeing too because even though the plotlines did not live up to the expectations set in the first season, the show was always captivating and well written during that year.
“Friday Night Lights” is one of the best shows I have seen in the past couple of years but it has struggled to get big ratings (although it was recently renewed for two more seasons).
This show explores the personalities of its strong characters (played by great actors like Gilford, Kyle Chandler, and Connie Britton). The latter two of those actors deserve Emmy nominations according to Entertainment Weekly’s own Michael Ausiello who had them on his dream ballots for best actor in a drama and best supporting actress in a drama, respectively.
“FNL” is an often-brilliant depiction of a football community that often celebrates at the football field under the glare of Friday night lights.
(The first three seasons of the program are now on DVD and the highly anticipated fourth season will air on DirecTV first and then is scheduled to run on NBC in the summer of 2010.)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
31 Comments
i'm from west texas and spent many a friday night under those lights. i've watched from the beginning, and the opening always moves me to tears as it brings back so many fond memories.
Does the tv show have the same irritating herky jerky camera work that marred the movie?
If NBC wonders why the ratings aren't big, they really ought to re-examine how they choose to air it first. Regardless, it's one of the few network shows I've enjoyed in the past few years.
I'll go even further. Friday Night Lights is one of the best television shows ever. Everyone who has not seen it should rent or buy the DVD's and watch it from the beginning. The show is a masterpiece.
I have watched this show from the beginning. In my opinion, it is the best show on television, period. The acting is incredibly good, the writing exceptional and Peter Berg's production values are superb. These are characters I care about. This show, filmed outside Austin, also features the music of an excellent Austin based band called Explosions in the Sky and that music works perfectly with the show. Yes, the impact of high school football on towns in Texas is the backdrop, but this is, ultimately, a character driven show. If you have not seen it, I urge you to see all three seasons on DVD. I was fortunate enough to catch season 3 commercial free in High-Def on Direct TV
Simply one of the best dramas on TV in many years. It's overlooked by the L.A/NYC media folk because of too many reasons to name.
After reading so many rave reviews, I went to HULU and watched all available episodes until I was current.
I also downloaded as many of the tracks as were available. I absolutely love the show and have recommended
it to relatives and friends, but always mention the importance of watching the first season in order to better understand the characters.
Great post. Great show. Go Panthers!
Right on, John. When the show first aired and had trouble finding and audience, i though it was the best show on TV. I was that guy singing its praises to anyone who'd hold still. Glad it still lives. Fantastic show.
I've been there from the start and I love it. In my opinion, we are in a Golden Age of television, led by this, Lost, Chuck and any number of other TV shows on the air right now or in the recent past. I watch far more shows than I ever have. And, that's network TV, which the hoi polloi usually turn their noses up at in favor of cable shows (too weird and liberal for me for the most part).
I'd recommend avoiding the book. It's a leftwing polemic. I finally got sick of the Reagan bashing and gave up on it about 142 pages in.
Sorry to swim upstream and be an a-hole while doing it, but that was a bad piece of writing. John, if you're good enough to contribute to BH, you can do better than this. I like the show, but seriously:
"“FNL” is an often-brilliant depiction of a football community that often celebrates at the football field under the glare of Friday night lights."
Sorry for the Haterade.
Sorry to be the negative Nancy here but I can't get past the whole football sports thing.
Yes I've seen the show, more than one episode, and I don't deny the drama's pretty good. But I couldn't help thinking while watching all the trials and tribulations that 3/4 of their problems would be solved if they just got rid of the dam football team.
If anything the program is a perfect example of why schools should get rid of highschool sports completely.
As you can tell I'm not a big supporter of sports programs.
For all those people above who posted how great this show is… I'd like double down on that. This is one of the greatest shows ever made and I'm glad you put a spotlight on it Mr. Hanlon. I was skeptical at first but by the first episode I was hooked. Yes, season two (in retrospect) was flawed but still head over heals better than most television and last season was a triumphant return to form. Glad to hear it got picked up for two more years. maybe by that time it will get the audience it deserves.
Whaaaat? Are you serious? I'm the last person in the world to watch a show about football but I love the show because, as so many have pointed out, it's not about football. Of course it's your opinion and that's cool… but it still baffles me.
And I might point out tha more than 3/4 of the problems people have on American Idol would be solved if they didn't have singing too.
The show is about football, if it wasn't it would be named something like "Friday Night at the Dairy Queen". For me the program is just another in a long line of shows that portrays sports, in this case football, as being more important than it is, or at least as it should be.
Football requires lots of guys, who are specialized, like speedy, graceful receivers, brutal power running backs, nimble and quick little running backs, disciplined throwers, and blcoking, blocking, blocking. That's just on offense, on defense it's again cooperation, with no man creating victory or defeat.
This is WHY football is popular, as opposed to loner sports like tennis or swimming, or not very team oriented sports like Soccer (best conditioned team wins). Cooperation and playing smart can get a win over a more gifted physcially team. I've seen it happen. Every season. Which is WHY Football makes GREAT DRAMA.
"Peter Berg's production values are superb" Yes, this even remember me that when I was watching The Kindom I notice something familiar to it and then I found out that Berg was the director. He knows how to create the mood to give his characters root for their actions. A solid director and producer.
"3/4 of their problems would be solved if they just got rid of the dam football team. "
I don't know about real schools, but in the show the football team works as a simbol of lives meaning; something that puts actions that are aparently incoherient into a meaning. Try to re-watch it thinking not of football, but life.
It's irrelevent whether the sport is football,soccer, tennis or speed walking. In the end the show is just another in a long line of cliches. When it disappears we'll see another tv show or movie,telling basically the same stories yet again.
Carlos,
They could do a show using the Dairy Queen as a way to teach lessons about real life. That would be original.
They could do a show about the 99% of the rest of the student body that doesn't find the meaning of life through sports. That would be original.
Opus,
"That would be original" I have a real problem with this ideia. Originality can be in lots of places in a drama; it can be on the way characters can be portrayed, the way cameras are used, etc. Originality is as good as it helps to better give shape to the experience the drama is trying to say, because it is not a end in itself its a way to it you portrait something.
Even with you don't like football – I'm from Brazil (land of soccer), and have a hard time trying to understand these crazy game where men jump on each other – I can relate to tragedy (bad things that happen to good people), loving the impossible girl, being under pressure to deliver, etc. These show is about the internal world of the characters, and for that you don't need a original plot, just that the characters are shown as avarage people, with normal problems.
Originality for the sake of it, is a kind fetisch.
The coach shows total commitment to his wife. The marriage is not played up as a utopia and it's not played down pessimistically. You see a bunch of teenage kids (and adults) screwing up their lives but the coach and his wife are always there for them. Marriage is subtly played as the building block for society in this TV show. Because the Coach and his wife work through their commitment to each other they can demonstrate to all the kids what real commitment and success is. There is no delusion of grandeur in this show that athletic ability is penultimate quite contrary, often times the episodes revolve around the humbling experiences the players go through when the shroud of vanity is yanked-out under them for the first time in their young lives.
I always watch it. And you can see every episode for free online at NBC . com
I have been so turned off by the dem networks that no matter what the new shows are, I dismiss them out of hand. I'm so used to values-bashing, hateful rhetoric that the networsk have cease to become entertainment options for my family out of sheer boredom. This is the first time I have read or heard a detailed description of this show. I think the reason why shows like this don't have enough ratings is the post traumatic stress disorder people have with both the hatred and pure lack of talent that inhabits hollywood right now, and things like this can slip through the cracks.
AKA Goode Family.
This is the first time I have ventured to even consider watching it. Good work.
Love this show- I grew up in Austin and it is a lot like my life was back in the 1980s. Of good news: Berg is supposed to be directing Marcus Luttrell's "Lone Survivor" movie- so that will hopefully live up to his previous forays.
But in many, many small towns in Texas, high school football IS the meaning of life! In such towns, there's little or nothing to do on a Friday night EXCEPT go to the football game. If you're an adult, you're a spectator. If you're s student, you almost HAVE to take part, as a player, a cheerleader, or a "band queer" (I didn't make up that phrase- it's widely used throughout Texas).
I grew up in New York City, where most schools don't even have football teams. I didn't know towns like "Dillon" (a fictional version of Odessa) existed. But they do.
Twenty-three hours after the first post – can't believe I'm the first to say it:
Clear eyes, full hearts – CAN'T LOSE!
My family has watched this show since the beginning. Everything positive that has been said on this thread is true. However, I love the whole football angle of the show. Football is big in our house because my husband grew up in a tough neighborhood in the Bay Area. He and his multiracial friends played football and won back to back State Championships. While the other kids in the neighborhood were breaking and entering, this coach was making men out of his players. My husband believes that his coach made the most important impact in my husband's life. continued …
continued…My husband encouraged our bookish son to join football in highschool. Our son played his junior and senior year. We went to every single home and away game, even though our son played a total of three plays in two years on the field. My son loved, loved, loved, the experience. He bonded with the other guys, learned about being a team, developed great leadership skills, and got an award for the highest GPA on the team.
We love that Coach Taylor seeks to make men out of his boys – in fact, this is more important to him than winning games. And we believe that this coaching, combined with the characters' life experiences, shows how young people can be guided to become decent , moral citizens.
I am a TV addict, but FNL is the best show, ever. I grew up watching MASH and a lot of other hits that truly were great TV, but I have never loved a show more than FNL. I'm like a Pavlovian dog when I hear the opening tune. I am a female and not a huge football fan, but I think the amount of football is perfect. For those that might be turned off thinking it's a sports show it's not, because the show is not about football, it's about life.
When I found out it had been picked up for 2 (yes 2!) more seasons I wanted to do cartwheels. I can't wait until October!
I am a big fan of the show. I think the central characters of the coach and his wife are the most pivotal and show that good marriages endure. If/when this show "jumps the shark" and starts messing with Coach Taylor and Tammy's marriage, I will stop watching.
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
You must be logged in to post a comment.