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5 stars
A show worth repeated viewings
January 19, 2007
I caught the Friday Night Lights marathon on Bravo over the Christmas/New Year's holiday. Frankly, I have never seen a show like this, a show that takes the basic story about a small Texas town with a high school football team, and spins stories about humanity, hopes and dreams of the young and old, and contemporary social issues. It never preaches or sentimentalizes the issues or the characters, it never takes the "easy way out" with the characters or stories. You get a love triangle featuring the crippled star quarterback, his best friend, and his devoted cheerleader girlfriend and you find yourself sympathizing with every side. You watch the new quarterback care for his legal guardian, his grandmother who suffers from the early stages of Alzheimers, tell his father to go back to Iraq because he knows how much his father loves being a soldier. And you watch a loving and supportive family raising a daughter who finds herself falling in love with the new quarterback--with hilarious and tender results.
None of the emotion is manipulative, none of the acting feels false. The handheld camerawork heightens the documentary-like realism and emotional impact that helps Friday Night Lights transcend good television to a work of art.
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4 stars
Great show even for non-Football fans
November 21, 2006
I saw the pilot for this show on an airplane and really enjoyed it even though I don't know the first thing about football and have never watched a game in my life.
It seems to capture that small-town "football is everything" atmosphere. The high school players and especially the coach are town celebrities, constantly discussed on the local radio station.
In addition to very exciting game coverage (well, i think its exciting, but don't have much to compare to), the show gets inside the lives of the players, their friends and their families. That's the most interesting part for me - learning about everyones problems and dysfunctions and how they deal with them.
I expect that this show will be a hit.
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4 stars
Small Town Football - done right!
December 5, 2006
This a great show, mainly because it doesn't spend forty five minutes of every hour showing the football game, play by play with false drama buildup to the inevitable win for the home team. Instead this is a drama about small time life as it is lived by a football coach and his team. The plot choices to paralyze the star quarterback in the first show, the rejection of the unbearable Katrina refugee replacement, the alcohol and steroid abuse, the best-friend betrayal all demonstrate that this is Drama with a capital D, not a silly football show. The acting is superb even by the pretty boy actors whom I suspect will go on to be real actors because of this on-the-job training. I look forward to every episode.
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4 stars
Start Watching Now!!!
April 4, 2007
My question is this...Why isn't America embracing this unbelievably well-done dramatic series? It drew me in from the very first episode and I haven't stopped watching since. In the day and age where Reality shows dominate the weekly schedule, I feel that the majority of the viewers have lost touch with quality, compelling programming and that is why FNL doesn't draw the numbers it so richly deserves. Start watching...you won't be disappointed and if your lucky, the network will renew for another season. Let's hope!
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5 stars
Read why this show is the best on TV
December 5, 2006
I played high school football and went through so much of these things. The pressure to be tough, strong, fit in with different groups of kids, and understand girls etc. Each episode taps into something I experienced as a teenager and gives me chills – literally. I don’t know of any other show filmed in such high quality. It’s like watching a movie ever week. FNL is the real deal, takes on all current issues and doesn’t sugar coat what high school kids face today. TV without this show would leave the millions of guys who played sports - and don’t care about Grey's Anatomy - with no other options. I hope the Dillon Panthers have a great season and come back next year for sure!
