Friday Night Lights (Season 1)

It's nice to see a television series can successfully adapt, and even transcend, one of the best football films of the last decade. Friday Night Lights focuses on the Dillon Panthers, a Texas high school football team. Two things seem destined to destroy this show, however. One, people think it is a show about football. Wrong. It is just an aspect of the show, but you need no real football knowledge to understand the themes and stories. Two, that it is about teenagers in high school and holds no emotional or intellectual weight. Wrong, again. It is a tightly written, smart show that uses a football town to relate to the larger world. Much like Veronica Mars, another high school centered show that was really for those long out of it. The cast is wonderful, especially when it comes to the work of Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, and the Zack Gilford/Jesse Plemons combo. A finer season of television will be hard to come by, so give Friday Night Lights the chance it deserves, if only to keep it from cancellation.

Genre - Drama (3.75)

Screenplay (4)
Acting (4)
Production (4)
Directing (3)