Friday Night Lights: Football Like You've Never Seen It Before

I would be the first to admit that I think football is a ridiculous sport (for the benefit of non-US readers, let me just clarify that I mean American football, the kind that rarely involves a foot touching the ball). I have never watched an entire game, I don't understand any of the rules, all I know is that it involves running on a field and carrying the ball to the end to score a touchdown. I don't understand the scoring system, I'm not entirely sure how many players there are, and I only know the names of some positions. So the idea that I would watch Friday Night Lights, a show that is all about a Texas high school football team, seems rather ludicrous.

However, for the past 5 years I have been hearing non-stop praise for this show. The critics were particularly effusive this year when the show finished its fifth and final season and was nominated for some Emmys. The show had been snubbed so often that people were desperate for it to gain recognition in its final year, and luckily it did pick up awards for Kyle Chandler as Outstanding Lead Actor and Jason Katims for Outstanding Writing. Since I was finished with all available seasons of Mad Men, I figured it was about time to give FNL a chance, so I loaded up the first season on my iPad and set off for the gym.

It took precisely one episode for me to become a raving fan. The show might profess to be about football, but it is really about the people in this small town of Dillon, Texas, where football reigns supreme and is the main chance for these kids to make something of themselves. The series begins as Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) arrives in Dillon as the new Head Coach of the high school football team, the Dillon Panthers. He has a solid relationship with star quarterback, Jason Street (Scott Porter), but is facing immense pressure from the townspeople and the press who need him to take this team all the way to the state championships. Anything less would be a failure. With his loving wife Tammy (Connie Britton) and weary-of-moving daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden) by his side, Coach Taylor forges ahead, trying to instill the importance of football in his players and make them forget all the other stuff. All that matters is the game and their team motto: Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. Off the field, he is the consummate family man, engaging in sincere, often hilarious conversations with his daughter as he attempts to give her "fatherly advice" and placate his much put-upon wife.

In the very first game of the season, Jason Street is involved in a horrible accident and has to be carted off in the field on a stretcher. While the town reels with the shock, Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) the back-up quarterback has to take the reins and lead his team. He is shy, underconfident, has never started in a game, and is terrified. No one expects anything from him at all. But you, the viewer, have been sucked in at this point. As the game proceeds, interspersed with montages of Jason being operated on at the hospital, your heart is in your mouth. When Matt throws that last desperate pass that may or may not win the game, I almost fell off the elliptical in the gym and elicited a lot of weird looks from other people as I desperately tried not to cheer, "Go Panthers!" All this from a girl who doesn't know the first thing about football.

Kyle Chandler & Connie Britton, aka Coach & Mrs. Taylor:
the best TV couple EVER

The rest of the season proceeded to amaze me every bit as much as the first episode. After the Emmys, some critics wistfully declared their wish that Connie Britton had managed to win Outstanding Lead Actress as well. At the time I thought they were being greedy, but now I am outraged that she didn't win an award for her performance as Tammy Taylor, a woman whose picture should be in the dictionary as the sole definition of the word "sassy." Tammy can praise you or eviscerate you with a single sentence and as the loving but determined school guidance counselor, she provides just as much support for the entire town of Dillon as she does for her family. The actors playing the high schoolers are absolute marvels, with Scott Porter bringing strength, resilience, and vulnerability to the character of Jason Street, while Zach Gilford evolves from nobody to star quarterback right in front of your eyes. Sure these kids seem to have way more adult problems than even the adults of Dillon, but that's what you get with high schoolers on TV. And these kids are always dreaming about how to get out of Dillon and worrying about their future, so it's little wonder that they grow up so fast.

I also have to mention the soundtrack. The opening theme is composed by W. G. Snuffy Walden who composed all the original music for the series. Even after 22 episodes, I still get goosebumps when listening to the opening swell of music that promises so much heartfelt drama, humor, and action up ahead. The episodes are filled with amazing songs, particularly "Devil Town," which I will never be able to hear again without recalling the noble and desperate town of Dillon. 

I've heard that the second season is a bit of a letdown, and given the sheer brilliance of the first season, it really does have a lot to live up to. I just saw the first few episodes and it has wandered into dangerously Gossip Girl/Beverly Hills 90210 territory. But the next three seasons are supposedly back to form, so I will persevere. I was terribly disappointed to discover that the second season is only 15 episodes long due to the Writer's Strike of 2007-8, and the subsequent seasons were only 13 episodes since NBC shuttled the show off to DirectTV. But I'll save my complaints for when I get to the series finale. And given how invested I've already become in these characters, I foresee some massive Friday Night Lights withdrawal up ahead.