“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t LOSE.”
Coach Taylor
If you’re not watching Friday Night Lights on NBC, either by DVR or live, and you watch television—you are missing something extraordinary. It is a seldom and fleeting feeling to be inspired by a television show, and then to sit down and write about it. Even rare moments have to happen. So goes my last fifteen minutes immediately after turning off the television and walking up the stairs.
The show is based off of the much acclaimed book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by HG Bissinger. It was then adapted into a lackluster movie that banked off of the success of Billy Bob Thorton. Typically, I take the time to read the book before the movie but I didn’t in this case. Upon watching the movie, it seemed irrelevant and tired from the overused “ideas” of what a football movie was supposed to be. The actors didn’t quite bring the characters to life in a way that we truly sympathized for them. A large part of what draws people to sport’s movies is the nostalgia of it all, the moments that seem so far in the distance that we can vaguely capture the essence of what it felt like to be larger than life within our limited imaginations. So we leave it to the artists and writers to retell our epic stories of gridiron glory. The sad ballad of forty-something’s sitting around the bar reminiscing hyperbolized stories of greatness. Only those that have really played the game, or any game for that matter, can forget the day they last wore the jersey. Part of the sadness of football is that when you do take off the pads, you really don’t ever get to wear them again.
In the third telling of the story Peter Berg does so with an intricately measured stroke and a larger canvass. He’s been afforded this opportunity for three seasons largely due to the critical success of the show. My hope is that everyone will give it a chance, and see what this show has achieved that so many others have tried to fabricate. Berg has accomplished a triumph of the human spirit, however, he does so without prejudice of what’s been stumbled through before in pursuit of a spike in ratings. He does it with an artist’s sensibility, and the reverence of a veteran.
The show focuses on a group of primary characters closely typecast after the original players but with profound dimensions. The heart of the shows cast is the coach’s family. Coach Eric Taylor played by Kyle Chandler has some of the show best moments. He plays the part so genuinely that he captivates you with his passion for the “boys” and his family. He manages to school the Academy Award winner whose version was flawed by overwrought gravitas. We couldn’t feel what he felt. To us, he was just a coach that tried to be more. Chandlers coach is a father, and a husband who is a great coach.
The supporting cast is well placed, and has a more authentic version of themselves than their big screen counterparts. The superstar quarterback, Jason Street, from season one has some particularly touching moments. The boastful and flashy running back grows on you as he takes his journey through the show. The second-string quarterback, Matt Saracen, is a younger version of the coach whose acting chops get better as his character progresses. His struggles with his home life seem to eclipse anything that could happen in a game, but in Texas this isn’t the case. The feckless loaner played by Tyler Kitsch, Tim Riggins, is portrayed more accessibly and vulnerably than most rebel’s-without-a-cause. Connie Britton, who is also in the movie, plays Mrs. Taylor who clearly is the “good angel” on the Coaches shoulder and clearly marks her territory throughout the show with some of its most effusive moments.
The cast is large and sprawling, and I can’t give you a rundown of every character. I don’t want to cheapen the magic of the show, and the affect that each and every character has on you. I believe that if you give this show a chance, you will see that the critics aren’t wrong. It is a sad fact that this show is on the proverbial chopping block this season. It is unfortunate that we have to trade quality for lame competitions and B-List celebrity versions of a show that should have been cancelled years ago. Please give Lights a chance to entrance you with quality story telling through the eyes of a cast and creator that do so in earnest.
*I would recommend renting the DVDs first, but to save the show we would have to skip and come back.
