Friday Night Lights has been the perfect guilty pleasure TV show since the first episode aired in 2006. Despite the reruns, reunions, and binge-watching on Netflix, nothing has helped lessen the pain of losing one of the best TV series ever made.
Based on the best-selling novel and the 2004 film of the same name, this TV drama follows the lives of the players, their families, friends, and the coach of a high school football team in Dillon, Texas. In this small town, football is a religion and the players are like gods. But the TV show is so much more than that!
The Friday Night Lights appeal lies in the shows optimistic plots and characters. FNL does not shy away from controversial and real issues that many people face. There are episodes that deal with race and class issues, the impact of religion and community, and shattered dreams and the hope of moving on to bigger things in life.
Best of all, the show manages to depict some of the most believable relationships and issues ever displayed on TV. The marriage between Coach Taylor and Tami isn’t sugarcoate. They argue and disagree like any real relationship, but it still is a relationship filled with love, humor, and affection that create an amazing example of a successful marriage.
While many fans were in for a shock when the show made a huge leap in characters and a plot twist between seasons 3 and 4. It gave the characters the chance to graduate and some to move on to lives outside of Dillon, while others continued living and growing outside of high school. This was an amazingly innovative way for the show to continue past the time many main characters are due to graduate. While many shows create characters who seem like their in high school forever, FNL portrays a realistic shift from the first 3 seasons so we can continue to grow with the show.
In addition to losing many of the main characters, there is also a major shift in the setting, as Dillon is redistricted and Coach Taylor is hired to coach the East Dillon Lions. This allows the show to develop further and to explore the issues of poverty and overcoming repression. The kids on Coach Taylor’s new team are underprivileged, socially excluded, and understandably skeptical and hesitant at the changes Coach Taylor brings to the program.
Ultimately what makes the show stand apart from the rest is its sincerity. It knows life isn’t perfect and everything doesn’t go exactly how you expect it to, but it tells us too that life is worth living regardless. It proves that even the smallest of dreams are worth chasing and that life goes on when things fall apart. It is a show that is unafraid to wear its heart on its sleeve and urges its audience to do the same.
Oh, and Tim Riggins. He get’s his own section because…
Riggins is the backbone of the Dillon Panthers football team but he becomes so much more. He brings a deepness and vulnerability to the role of a high school football player. He struggles to find his identity and fights against personal demons that add to the complexity of his character. Riggins is the contrast to the typical leading man and is extremely likable because of it. He is far from perfect and severely flawed – he started out as a womanizer, a heavy drinker, a poor student, and typically unreliable, but that’s what drove his character development. He had good intentions; he was just a tortured soul. Tim Riggins is the perfect representation of the development between the 5 incredible seasons of Friday Night Lights.
Texas forever.
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