2. Friday Night Lights

We just finished watching Season 3 of the TV series Friday Night Lights. It’s about a high school football team (the Panthers) in Dillon, Texas. We have no interest in football or high school students (played by 20-something actors, no less). But we really enjoy this series. (We almost said ‘enjoyed,’ but it looks like the show has been renewed for two more seasons. You’ll have to wait a while for Season 4, though. It doesn’t start until summer 2010.)

How we discovered Friday Night Lights:

This series is a recent enthusiasm. We heard the series was good, and Season 1 was sitting on the shelf in the library. So, we took it home, watched a few episodes, and became hooked. A week later, we watched Seasons 2 and 3 in one week. (Just so you know: it’s called Friday Night Lights because the Panthers' football games happen on Friday nights under bright stadium lights.)

Why it’s worth watching:

The characters are simultaneously simple and complex and so are their relationships. And the acting is frequently amazing. You may find yourself caring about characters that you disliked early in the series. You will understand why FNL has a 8.6/10 rating on imdb.com.

We are often surprised by the number of people we know who are addicted to the series. (A few days ago, we mentioned to a co-worker that we had just finished watching Season 3. By the end of the day, we had promised to lend our Season 3 DVDs to 3 different co-workers. All of them are female and none of them has an interest in football. That says something. Hopefully, it doesn’t just say that there are a bunch of cute boys in the show.)

Is Friday Night Lights a brilliant show? No. It's trashy TV. (Picture an adrenalized, American version of Coronation Street with a younger, more attractive community and an overuse of handheld camera work and quick editing. Then, throw in a football, a locker room, and a handful of broken homes.) OK, so FNL is essentially a Texan teen soap opera. At least it's good trashy TV. A pleasure you don't have to feel guilty about enjoying.

The series:

It’s hard for us to discuss this show in terms of its story arc. Yes, the series has an arc, but it’s not as finely executed as in some series (e.g., Mad Men, The Wire). The strength of Friday Night Lights is its characters and the relationships (friends, lovers, teammates, family members) between those characters. We come to care about a gawky, ginger-haired dweeb trying to rock out with his Christian metal band, Crucifictorious. We come to care about an ex-cheerleader who finds religion after cheating on her boyfriend (with his best friend, of course). We come to care about an oily, fast-talking car salesman who derives his identity from his ongoing relationship with the Panthers.

Here’s a commercial from said car salesman, Buddy Garrity:

Surprisingly, the football games in the series can pack an emotional wallop because you get to know the players off the field. You also get to know another side of the players, the head coach, and even the fans during games.

The characters who form the three-chambered heart of the show:

1. Eric Taylor: He is the head coach trying to "do what's right for the team," even if it's unpopular in football-obsessed Dillon. (This is a town where everyone has an opinion about what the coach should be doing to win on Friday night.) Kyle Chandler's understated performance is remarkably compelling.
2. Tim Riggins: Yep, he's the tough, perpetually hungover bad boy who the girls can't resist. But Taylor Kitsch turns him into a strangely nuanced and decent young Texan.
3. Matt Saracen: He's the uncharismatic first-string quarterback -- aka QB1 -- who looks after his bathrobe-wearing, dementia-afflicted grandma. Zach Gilford makes him the most refreshing character on the show.

There are a variety of strong female characters as well, including Tami Taylor (the coach's wife, who also works at the high school; she's spunky, headstrong, and intelligent), Julie Taylor (the coach's daughter, who dates one of the Panthers), and Tyra Collette (a pretty blonde who initially accepts, but eventually wants to transcend, her white trash upbringing; her sister is a stripper and her mom is an aging sexpot).

The first and third seasons of the series are consistently good. Unfortunately, the second season takes a few ill-advised detours. (We believe Season 2 may have been somewhat lacking due to the Writers’ Strike in 2007/08.) The way Season 3 ends, we’re not sure how many characters will be returning for Season 4. But we’re looking forward to finding out.

Other reading/viewing:

The series FNL was created by Peter Berg, co-director and co-writer of the film Friday Night Lights (2004). The film was, in turn, based on the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H.G. Bissinger. In his book, Bissinger writes about a high school football team (the Panthers) from Odessa, Texas (the town in the TV series -- Dillon, TX -- is fictitious). We started to read the book, but its prose was too overheated for our taste, so we abandoned it. And we haven’t seen the film.