Friday Night Lights
I binge watched Friday Night Lights some time ago and I recently recommended it to someone on Ask Metafilter. They were looking for shows with little violence that showed people working towards a common goal. I wasn’t alone - this show is popular! Before it was a TV show, it was a movie and before that, it was a non-fiction book by Buzz Bissinger.
I used to read about FNL all the time, browsing recaps here and there, but I didn’t think it was worth my time when it was on the air. It would be too easy to call FNL a soap opera with football. Everything is a soap opera with X these days! The sole reason I did start watching it was that I ran out of episodes of Nashville. I missed Connie Britton’s warm, sassy, motherly ways and acting. LOL if I had to name a fantasy TV mother, it would be Rayna James.
FNL ran for five seasons and like so many series, the first one is the best. Season 2 was heavily affected by a writer’s strike. I almost stopped watching at this point because it was so dreadful with lots of impossibly bad writing and scenarios. The last three seasons focus on repeating Season 1, but this time, surprise, Dillon has a sketchy part of town, East Dillon, and due to zoning changes, several of the, uh, West Dillon players and teachers find themselves as fish out of water in the underfunded, underdog high school.
One of the reasons that I felt Season 1 was the best was that it was the most organized and had a really interesting, documentary feel of small town Texas life. It had a real air of authenticity particularly as Matt struggles with his family life when an accident forces him into the spotlight as captain of the Panthers. The later seasons, while still good, were just not as great. Sometimes the show forgot that the main characters are still in high school (LOL a few of them take off for a week to Mexico). What kept me watching was that the actors, especially Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler and Brad Leland, kept bringing their A game no matter how ridiculous the dialogue or plot. Like most soap operas, or series in general, the show burned through a lot of material and characters. Some of these characters, like Waverly, who struggles with bi-polar disorder, appear a few times and are never seen again. It's important to note that none of the teenagers in FNL were actually actual teenagers - labour laws make it difficult to cast real teenagers, so the actors were in their 20s. Unfortunately this sets a dangerous precedent for audiences who forget what teenagers are actually like or look like (remember the "me at 14" meme?).
Personally, it was humbling to watch Britton and Chandler as parents because it gave me some insight into my own parents - such is the benefit of watching from far, far away. This is just one way to watch FNL though - you can watch it as a straights sports drama or teen drama, project your own youth onto it or consider all the times it slipped in sensitive topics to a conservative TV audience. Once theme it did not explore, surprisingly, was that one of the East Dillon assistant coaches is gay. He is spotted by Julie in a gay bar and it goes no farther than that. It really feels like FNL was just on the verge about what mainstream, prime time, Midwest audiences could tolerate - another few years and it could have handily pushed the envelope farther.
I used to read about FNL all the time, browsing recaps here and there, but I didn’t think it was worth my time when it was on the air. It would be too easy to call FNL a soap opera with football. Everything is a soap opera with X these days! The sole reason I did start watching it was that I ran out of episodes of Nashville. I missed Connie Britton’s warm, sassy, motherly ways and acting. LOL if I had to name a fantasy TV mother, it would be Rayna James.
FNL ran for five seasons and like so many series, the first one is the best. Season 2 was heavily affected by a writer’s strike. I almost stopped watching at this point because it was so dreadful with lots of impossibly bad writing and scenarios. The last three seasons focus on repeating Season 1, but this time, surprise, Dillon has a sketchy part of town, East Dillon, and due to zoning changes, several of the, uh, West Dillon players and teachers find themselves as fish out of water in the underfunded, underdog high school.
One of the reasons that I felt Season 1 was the best was that it was the most organized and had a really interesting, documentary feel of small town Texas life. It had a real air of authenticity particularly as Matt struggles with his family life when an accident forces him into the spotlight as captain of the Panthers. The later seasons, while still good, were just not as great. Sometimes the show forgot that the main characters are still in high school (LOL a few of them take off for a week to Mexico). What kept me watching was that the actors, especially Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler and Brad Leland, kept bringing their A game no matter how ridiculous the dialogue or plot. Like most soap operas, or series in general, the show burned through a lot of material and characters. Some of these characters, like Waverly, who struggles with bi-polar disorder, appear a few times and are never seen again. It's important to note that none of the teenagers in FNL were actually actual teenagers - labour laws make it difficult to cast real teenagers, so the actors were in their 20s. Unfortunately this sets a dangerous precedent for audiences who forget what teenagers are actually like or look like (remember the "me at 14" meme?).
Personally, it was humbling to watch Britton and Chandler as parents because it gave me some insight into my own parents - such is the benefit of watching from far, far away. This is just one way to watch FNL though - you can watch it as a straights sports drama or teen drama, project your own youth onto it or consider all the times it slipped in sensitive topics to a conservative TV audience. Once theme it did not explore, surprisingly, was that one of the East Dillon assistant coaches is gay. He is spotted by Julie in a gay bar and it goes no farther than that. It really feels like FNL was just on the verge about what mainstream, prime time, Midwest audiences could tolerate - another few years and it could have handily pushed the envelope farther.