Friday Night Lights
After two episodes, I think I'm ready to declare FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS my favorite show of the new Fall TV season.
Alan Sepinwal, one of the TV columnists for the Star-Ledger, writes a blog and liked the first epsiode. He also wrote about the second episode, which aired last night.
I'm totally, totally hooked on this show. The look is gorgeous. The style is slick without being obnoxiously so. The show is cast really, really well. I like the music. I think I like everything about it.
One commenter on Alan's blog disliked that we only get to know a few of the characters. She also didn't like the build up to the second game of the season which lead to a kickoff cliffhanger. I responded:
I think that we're only starting to get to know the characters is one of the great things about this show. It feels somewhat documentary-like, but with really well chosen music to play underneath the dramatic scenes. It's as if we've been dropped right in the middle of this town and this casually unfolding story and we have to catch up, we have to figure out who these people are and how they relate to one another. To me, taking a year to watch that happen is going to be a pleasure. I didn't realize the ratings for the first episode were low and that's really disheartening.
I like that this episode was about football the idea and not about how well the folks behind the scenes could script a game, shoot it from different angles and cut it together in a convincing way. The show really exceeds at being about the small town life and about the way people go about their days, with the idea of Friday night football as the focus.
That's my two cents. And also a sort of quasi-announcement that I think I'll be taking my DVR blog down sometime this month.
Comments
Have you seen the movie?!?! Love the book..love the movie...have avoided the TV show..
Posted by: chris Larry | October 11, 2006 05:10 PM
I agree - not showing the game was probably also a smart way to show audiences that this show will be about more than just a football game each week.
I've really enjoyed both episodes too, but feel like NBC isn't showing it much love with that time slot. Why isn't it on at 7pm on Sundays (before NBC's NFL game) instead of that mind-numbingly dull 90-minute pregame show? And for that matter, why don't they show mini-episodes during halftime each week to drive viewers to watch the show on Tuesday?
Posted by: mas | October 11, 2006 09:15 PM
totally agree with chris on the movie-- it was super good.
Sad about the DVR blog; I hope I'll still be able to read about all of the tv goodness here.
Posted by: planbreaker | October 14, 2006 07:40 PM
ok, so at Mooney'surging we watched a few minutes of Friday Night Lights last week.
I hate to disagree with you Marc, you know that, but based on the small sample I've seen, Friday Night Lights is the same nonsensicle television drivel as everything else.
TV Guide said "Friday Night Lights is Dawson's Creek with goal posts." That looked true from the part I saw, and I do not consider that a good thing.
Posted by: ez | October 24, 2006 11:16 AM
Chris said the episode was laughed at when you flipped past it and watched a few minutes. I dismissed him and said the show was good.
I got around to watching the episode Friday night. I was disappointed. I felt like I was watching a very different show. Something happened between episodes two and three! I hope the goodness returns in episode four.
Posted by: Marc B. | October 24, 2006 01:50 PM
Yeah, we gave chris a bunch of grief about it when he tried to put it on.
It's kind of amazing, with Army around, I'm actually the second meanest and cynical person in the room. Hazzah!
Posted by: ez | October 25, 2006 05:17 PM