Tis The Season: Friday Night Lights 1st

Spoilers abound in Paragraph 5.

I’ll be the first to admit that, back in the youthful days of 2006, when the Friday Night Lights series was preparing to air I had one simple thought: Why? At the time, it seemed like such a money/ratings grab that I was just overwhelmingly annoyed it was happening. After all, I had read snippets of the books and seen the 2004 film adaptation, so why should I sit through another telling of this tale? I continued this line of thinking until a short while ago. Over the years I have heard all of the mad-lovers of this series and the uproar over the series move to the Direct TV Network from NBC due to low ratings. I had always heard the show was a surprising and phenomenal feat of television. I thought for sure this was just a pop culture minded opinion, much like the love for Glee (which is horrible).

Then I saw Kyle Chandler in J.J. Abrams exciting, albeit disappointing, Goonies-meets-E.T. film Super 8. He was pretty good in the movie, and effectively pulled off that “small town” hero feeling. I remember thinking it seems weird I’ve never seen this guy before (until realizing he was that jerk in Peter Jackson’s King Kong). Over the course of researching, I found out he was the lead in Friday Night Lights. So, I thought I would give it a shot. Short story from here on out, I fell in love with the series and understand fully why so many were hooked.

The show, in essence, is about two things: family and football. The series does not focus on which is more important at most points (though when it does, family wins), but instead shows how the two go hand-in-hand and complement one another. Coach Eric Taylor and his wife, Tami (played my Chandler and Connie Britton, respectively), are, I don’t hasten to say, the best portrayed and best written married couple in television history. This is, easily, the best part of the series. Their relationship is not pushed to the side as in the film version, which, interestingly enough, Connie Britton was also in as the “coach’s wife”. Instead, it is their relationship and how they affect those in the small town of Dillon, Texas that makes one want to watch episode after episode. From the first episode on, you know that you care about this family.

Also as interesting are the other families that make up the core of the Dillon Panthers: QB-1 Matt Saracen and his grandmother, FB Tim Riggins and his brother, Billy, Lyla and booster father Buddy Garrity, “Smash” Williams and his mother and three sisters, and several others.

SPOILER It is genuinely difficult to pick one story that culminates in this season over another. Obviously there is the new coach’s run to the state championship, Jason Street’s road to quadriplegic recovery, Lyla and Tim’s affair, Matt’s new obstacles (Starting QB and the Coach’s daughter), and the rise of Smash.

Here are four episodes highlighted:

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• "Pilot” – It seems obvious how important this episode is, not just to introduce us to literally everything, but to justify that this show should even exist and be set apart from the story we’ve heard twice before. It does just that, throwing us into a beginning similar to the great opening of the film, but then quickly gets the small town flavor characteristics  (something lacking in the film due to time) underway. The episode of course hinges on one aspect: the injury of star Jason Street and placement of back-up Matt Saracen. We are introduced to the inspiration machine known as Coach Eric Taylor and the wispy charm of Matt Saracen, the two that carry this season.
• ·         “Wind Spirits” – Here is the episode where Coach Taylor proves not only to his players, but to the town, that he is the head coach and nothing less. Facing having to illegally recruit a Katrina - displaced Quarterback with amazing talent, Taylor takes his team on a muddy field at midnight to show them what it means to be a team. The star moment comes as loudmouth Smash leads his team in what will be the show’s legacy line of dialogue: “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Loose.”
• ·         “Black Eyes and Broken Hearts” – As with any Texas themed show, race relations are always prevalent. Here, the Black players threaten to boycott their away game unless semi-racist commenting offensive coordinator Mac McGill is fired. As tensions mount, Mac proves to his team that no matter what he may have said or will say, that the team is more important to him than just about anything.
• ·         “Best Laid Plans” – This episode, airing just before the season finale, really set up the following season tonally. It has in it the two core dynamics that made this season not just good, but great. Coach Taylor and his family are thrown upside down by his rash decision to take the position as quarterback coach at fictional Texas Methodist University. This familial conflict makes the show incredibly biting, leaving you wondering how exactly this will come to a head. Meanwhile, lovable quarterback Matt Saracen gets coaching from an unlikely source: Jason Street. A brief symbolic moment ushers us in one moment from the past of these characters lives into the future and what will be.

In the last decade, no show has felt more resonant for me than Friday Night Lights. Although the later seasons begin to repeat themselves, this season does none of that. The characters feel like stereotypes of the high school drama at first, but slowly break that mold, piece by piece. While the subsequent seasons are by no means bad, this one will always be its finest.