Friday Night Lights
It's been a long, long time since there was a show on TV that I went out of my way to watch on a weekly basis. Even House, which I love, didn't make me rearrange my schedule to watch it. But Friday Night Lights has me by the throat and the heart. I watched the first two episodes on liine, and even the jittery internet connection didn't put me off. There is something about this series that is so, so right.
The first week left me weeping. The second week got me again. Last night's third installment, the first I got to watch on my regular set, didn't quite measure up, but was still compelling. Apparently ratings for the show haven't been very good, but those of us who like it are telling everyone we know to turn it on. Tuesdays at 8:00 on NBC.
Friday Night Lights is the story of the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, and the football fever that infects the town. It's based on the real town of Odessa, Texas, which is about three hours down a bleak interstate from Abilene and the house I grew up in. The coach on which the major character of the series is based on ended up going to Abilene and coaching at Abilene High School (I think), where he attended Highland Church of Christ. Even though I didn't play high school football, when I watch the show, the culture they've constructed is so right on that it puts me right back in those growing up years, which is one of the reasons it moves me. It's about home.
Listen to this rave from the New York Times:
Lord, is "Friday Night Lights" good. In fact, if the season is anything like the pilot, this new drama about high school football could be great--and not just television great, but great in the way of a poem or painting, great in the way of art with a single obsessive creator who doesn't have to consult with a committee and has months or years to go back and agonize over line breaks and the color red; it could belong in a league with art that doesn[base ']t have to pause for commercials, or casually recap the post-commercial action, or sell viewers on the plot and characters in the first five minutes, or hew to a line-item budget, or answer to unions and studios, or avoid four-letter words and nudity.
Kyle Chandler plays Eric Tylor, the new coach of a perennial Texas powerhouse team based on the Permian Panthers of Odessa. Coach Taylor is said to have ridden the coattails of Jason Street, an outstanding quarterback played by Scott Porter, and when Street goes down to a devastating injury at the end of the first episode, Coach Taylor knows his job is at risk. This is a football world where losing will not be tolerated.
The role of faith in the show is interesting as well. What's cool is that it's there because it's a part of the culture, not because Peter Berg--the writer and creator of the show--has any intention of peddling religion. Faith in all its honesty and hypocrisy is there for the world to see.
Turn on the TV...
5:48:21 AM 
