The Unappreciated Beauty of “Friday Night Lights”

I have been waiting along time to write about my favorite TV show. Now that I have finished watching season 3, which looks like it could and most possibly will be the final season of the series, I can tell you that you have missed out on one of the greatest TV dramas ever made. 

Off the top I will admit that I have a weakness for football movies. I can’t really explain why, since I haver never played the sport and have just in the last 3 years taken to watching it on sundays. There has always been something about football in movies that has kept me fascinated. No matter how many times I see the home team win on a last second hail mary pass, it always gets me choked up. So you can imagine my delight when they decided to adapt H.G. Bissingers novel about a small texas high school football team into a weekly hour long drama. I was already hooked.

This could have gone the wrong way. It could have been turned into a soap opera that was unrealistic and over dramatized, with terrible actors and poor writing. Luckily it turned out to be one of the best acted and realistic shows on TV. If you didn’t know better, it could almost be passed off as a documentary. Throughout the first season we are introduced to the characters that will drive this story. Jason Street, the all star QB who is paralyzed in the first game of the season, Matt Saracen, his backup who is unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight as the most popular and most scrutinized player in the fictional town of Dillon Texas. Tim Riggins, quite possibly the coolest high school student ever shown on the small screen, and a very talented and troubled football player. Then there are the Taylors. Coach Eric and his wife Tammi. These two redefined the roles of a TV marriage, showing the good and the bad but always showing the love they had for each other.

The cast is deep. A lot deeper then I can get into here. (look forward to my post “Tim Riggins: Coolest guy ever? and where can I get a plaid shirt with snaps”) What also works for this show and is something that they used appropriately is the football. They didn’t have a game every episode. And when they did play, it always wasn’t a nail biting ending. Which only made the times when they needed the last ditch effort to win all the more exciting. The football was so compelling I wished they played 30 games a season.

The friendships that are built in this show are so true to life that it makes you wish you were born in Texas and could throw a pigskin. The deepest and most rewarding one is the friendship between Jason Street and Tim Riggins. It was supposed to be the best year of their lives. Street at QB and his best friend Riggins at Full Back. They were expected to go to state and win it all. Then Street gets paralyzed and everything is up in the air. Through the next 3 seasons we see these two young men go through a lot of ups and downs, only to end up better friends and stronger characters.

I don’t want to ruin the show for anyone, because it is a journey that is so rewarding and heart wrenching that I could not possibly do it the justice it deserves. All I can say is go get it. Seasons 1 and 2 are on DVD and Season 3 is starting its network run on NBC. It is a high quality show. And in an era that is filled with reality and game shows, this show could not be needed more. Too bad no one watched “Friday Night Lights“.