Win Seasons 1-3 of Friday Night Lights on DVD
Why I'm giving away 3 seasons of FNL:
- Because it's one of the most under-watched shows on television.
- Because i just finished watching Season 3 and it is killing me, killing me, that this show isn't more popular, that it's been limited to low-rated short-order seasons and that it's a miracle that we've somehow managed to get a commitment to 5 of those seasons.
- Because it's a transformative, important, real, raw, progressive, spiritually uplifting show that has a heart for the world and doesn't flinch. It forces you to live with characters you don't want to live with, and then it forces you to share its heart for them. It forces you to remember what it was like to want something with your whole heart. It forces you to think about what it means to stumble toward adulthood. To remain graceful under the weight of the world. To fight when no one else is fighting for you. To go on when you've lost everything. To hope when all hope is gone.
- Because it kills me that there are like 15 million people watching Monday Night Football every week, and nobody is watching this show. :(
- Because the acting, cinemetography, writing, and direction are all phenomenal. The women of Friday Night Lights, especially, are remarkable, and so real, and so amazing. All the more because it's a show that's superficially about football, the supreme act of male bonding--and yet there is nothing male-only about this show.
- Because I believe it has the power to change lives. Or at least to change television. And maybe both.
- Because season 4 so far is better than all the others.
- Because loftily would not stop telling me to watch this show until I finally finally did. And now I want to pass along that sense of, "no, you don't understand, watch the show" because that is exactly how I feel about it now.
What They Say:
- High school might be clique-y, but Friday Night Lights is not. It is one of the most objective views of high school life I've ever seen, and if you can find a way to watch, you should. - TV Squad
- the quality of the show’s writing - some of the best on television - elevates rural American inanity to high art. - Best Week Ever
- the level of devotion you feel for the show can become an obsession. There’s nothing quite like it on television. - Variety
- Chandler and Britton play the most realistic, believable married couple ever on television. The writers have completely nailed the dynamic that exists between two people who both love each other and have figured out, mostly, how to live with each other while not submerging their own identities. - House Next Door
- I can’t wait to get junkie-level, absolutely-can’t-miss hooked again when season 4 premieres. - Popwatch
- Extraordinary in just about every conceivable way. - The Washington Post
- Flawless. - TV Guide's Michael Ausiello
- FNL is the greatest sports show ever. - ESPN
- “When I look back at my life, I'm going to say, "Wow, [executive producer] Peter Berg really changed my life."" - Eric Chandler (Coach Taylor).
- "[FNL] is what I imagined filmmaking would be, before I saw what filmmaking was." - Jason Katims (exec producer and head writer).
- Our fans are absolutely ridiculous; we have the most diehard fans of any TV show ever. - Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor)
- 2007 - Time Magazine's #4 returning series
- 2007 Winner - Television Critics Association Award - Outstanding New Program of The Year
- 2007 Winner - Peabody Award for Broadcast Excellence
- AFI - Top 10 TV shows, 2006 & 2007
Friday Night Lights isn’t perfect. But it is sublime. No show moves or impresses me more from episode to episode, and I cherish the fact that for at least one hour a week, network TV is shining a light on ordinary people made extraordinary by the level of acting, writing and piercingly intimate direction." - Matt Roush, TV Guide
What your flist says:
- Oh, this show. No one ever stops wanting, but they have to balance what is impossible with what might be possible, and try to make sense of their hopes and their reality. They haven't got a lot of hope, it would be unfair if they did. But they do the best with what they have. - loftily
- I'm grateful for you, my readers, for all the support over the last year, and for friends, who get me through, and my dogs, even though they kind of drive me nuts. I'm grateful for Friday Night Lights. - Sarah Dessen (writergrl)
- I've been SO inspired by some of the writing on this show. They might be talking about keeping at football, and trying hard on the field, and all that, but it can apply to just about anything you want to do, and do well. I am always up for more motivation, but especially when I'm writing. Thank you, Coach Taylor. I'm listening, I promise.- Sarah Dessen
- The very best thing about this show is the way it gives every last one of these characters their own agency. ... On this show, hope is earned. - therealjae (original post has spoilers for the S1 finale, but is a fantastic mini-deconstruction of the show.)
- It took several episodes...but the more we watch, the more invested I feel in the lives of these characters, and the more impressed I am with the texture and complexity of the world that's been created here. ...I am loving this show. - kassrachel
- The show is written masterfully. Issues are raised, and addressed, and not dropped, and turned on their heads and come back again in another guise. People don't forget the past, people move on (or don't), people surprise you in unsurprising ways. And it all ties back to the fact that this is small town Texas, and the stories that come out of this place are not the same stories they would be if it were set in my home town in Massachusetts, or in California, or in Ohio. - cofax7
- It is, quite simply, the Best Fucking Show On Television, and if you're not watching it, then you're missing one of the most realistic, heart-breaking and warming, best acted, best written dramas on TV. - azewewish
- It is almost impossible for me to maintain emotional distance from this show. And I'm not sure I'd want to, really...This show captures so much about my adolescence with an accuracy that rips me up inside a little bit. - heresluck (S2 spoilers in the original post)
- They really are doing it, are they - tackling race in drama television. Oh, God, I love this show; how could I forget how MUCH? - monanotlisa (series spoilers in original post)
I've written all this and I still feel as if I've said nothing about this show, that I haven't captured a single bit of it, because what do the characters say, what do the themes say? You can't get it from those alone. It's all there in the moments, and you can't experience those unless you watch them. This isn't a guilty pleasure, it's not just entertainment, it's a quiet work of art. My attempts at quantifying just how amazing this show is are feeble, as it's really only something that can be experienced. - - loftily
How to watch FNL:
- 1. Trust the writers.
2. Be patient through the first half of Season 2, because the plot moves into teen drama, flies off the rails at various points, and takes a while to get back on track. But it does. <3 Also know that Season 2 was cut short by the writers' strike.
3. Leave your condescension for small-town life and rural conservative values on the bench. to quote cofax7, "The residents of Dillon go to church, all of them, and they pray before football games and they have earnest pancake suppers to raise money, and this is not sneered at."
What to do to win 3 seasons of FNL
- 1. Promise to watch it if you win--at least give S1 a try.
2. If you watch it and like it, consider buying S1 for a loved one or football fan or a teacher or role model in your own life, as a way of passing it on. Season One is only $15 at Amazon right now, so this is like asking you to consider buying them lunch. Trust me, S1 of FNL will fill them up a lot longer.
3. If you win it, watch it, and love it, then tell people about it.
To acknowledge 1-3 and enter the drawing, please copy/paste the following phrase as a comment on this entry: clear eyes; full hearts; can't lose. I will close this entry on Dec. 16th and draw a winner at random.
Watch Friday Night Lights: On NBC here, or on Netflix.
if you love friday night lights, post a memory of one of your favorite moments or images from the show in your journal. talk about it. pass it on.
screencaps from here
