Creators: Peter Berg, Buzz Bissinger
Starring: Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Aimee Teegarden, Adrianne Palicki, Zach Gilford, Gaius Charles, Minka Kelly, Taylor Kitsch, Scott Porter
Grade: A
The eerie guitar lick from the theme song of Friday Night Lights eases us into a trans, one that’s subtle but with serious undertones. That’s the drama. And then the drumline kicks in, providing a marching band-style cadence to accompany the guitar melody. That’s the football. And just as the rhythm heightens with a great crescendo to the climax, it retreats to only the guitar notes again, bringing us back to reality from the superficial, adrenaline-rush the game can be. But when the game is over, you’re left with life. This is Friday Night Lights.
Now don’t let the title, marketing, or naive word of mouth fool you, this is NOT a show about football. This show is based on the Peter Berg film with the same title, and even those who watched the film might suggest the television series will be football-heavy… but it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, football does play into the show quite often, but it’s merely a gimmick to connect all of the characters around. FNL is really about the hardships and struggles of high schoolers (jock and not), the small Texas town where everyone knows everyone and expectations are the moon for these football kids. And this is just scratching the surface. The show takes a very detailed look into every single one of its many characters’ lives, each one different, interesting, and most importantly each character is real.
Let me just briefly state the back-story to the first season. This small Texas town of Dillon eats, breathes, and lives football. When there’s a game, the town literally shuts down and everyone attends the game. This might seem extreme for some, but the fact is that this is the kind of thing that really happens, especially in Southern communities. So the Dillon Panthers are facing insanely high expectations because they contain one of the best high school quarterbacks, Jason Streit, and running backs, Smash Williams, in the entire country. Their run seems to be destroyed during a tragedy in the very first game. The star QB, Streit, tragically suffers a serious neck injury that has him paralized from the waist down. The town is devastated and it’s up to Coach Taylor to rally his team, and the entire town, back to form.
Okay, I know… the entire summary was about football, but that’s the starting point to this character-driven drama. As the season progresses, there are episodes that barely has ten minutes of football. The show is more concerned with the lives of the characters, the dilemmas they deal with, and the relationships between different type of people in different situations. There is so much that happens in the first season it’ll probably make your head spin, but if it does you’ll be left with a dizziness and a high for more.
I normally would address all of the characters, or atleast try to, and the actors that play them, but first off, there are way too many characters to do that for FNL and secondly, addressing every actor individually would be weakening the absolute strength of the show… the ensemble cast. Everyone on the show clashes beautifully with one another, which creates a neatly woven web that has everyone connected. But from the ensemble there is one stud that stands out. That would be Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler). He deserves Emmy recognition for his portrayal of a hard-nose coach on the field, and a loving and caring father at home. He’s able to balance family and football together and sticks with his morals over corruption. He is the coach, father, husband, and man anyone would be happy to know.
I’ll quickly admit that Friday Night Lights isn’t for everyone. Mixing genres of sports and drama was a plan to try and maximize its appeal to a variety of audiences, but this might’ve actually hurt its ratings. The football should attract a number of male viewers at first, but only a handful will continue to tune in once they realize that football takes a backseat to the drama. And female viewers might be shy to the series at first because of the inclination the show is only about football, but should be happily satisfied when they find out it’s not. Nonetheless, it’s one of the most gripping series on television at the moment. Yes, at times it can get sappy and soap opera-ish, but it’s without a doubt one of the rare shows of true life and spot-on teenage portrayals. The critics’ praise has kept this show alive, now it needs more viewers.
Posted by Rob Eng 
