Letters to the Editor
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As soon as I saw you were awarding another Buffy...
...I clicked the link muttering to myself that it had better darn well be Friday Night Lights.
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Why?
Why is a teenage soap opera with a hand held camera so worthy. We get it - gritty. We've done gritty. We've also done motion sickness. Buy a damn tripod already.
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Yep.
I tried to watch. I wanted to watch. I loved the book and I really loved the movie. But the shaky camera took me out fewer than fifteen minutes into each episode I tried.
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But it's about football...
I accept that it's an excellent drama, but I can't get around that it's about high school football. Just like people won't watch BSG because it's a SciFi show, I won't watch FNL. I wish it the best of luck.
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Hate football. Should I watch?
This review makes it sound like a show about small-town life, but the previews/advertising made it look like a show about football.
I'd heard good things about this show but I never bothered to Tivo it because I dislike sports in general, football in particular. If someone doesn't have a deep understanding of football (and therefore doesn't "get" football metaphors), would that person be equipped to appreciate and understand the show?
Thanks, Salon readers, for your thoughtful answers.
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football
You need not care about, nor know anything much about football, to love this show. My girlfriend and I watch together and she loves it as much as I do without knowing a first down from a home run.
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I hate football, but love this show
I read somewhere (I can't remember where; it may have been Salon, but I'm not sure) that the problem with Friday Night Lights is that people who would normally like this show for the drama don't watch because they think it is about football and people who initially watch because they like football are turned off by the drama and larger issues that make up the majority of the show. So, please, if you don't want to watch because you don't like football, watch anyways! It's worth it.
One of my favorite episodes, actually it was two episodes, was when one of the assistant coaches makes a seemingly racist comment to a reporter. This leads to tension and an eventual field walk off by the African-American players. The brilliant thing about the show is that they didn't present the coach as being a straight up bad person, a racist klansman. He was a normal guy who provided for his family but had these prejudices he wasn't even aware of. Rarely do you get the kind of character complexity on a TV show, especially on network tv.
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Shaky
I finally got around to watching an episode and while I did indeed enjoy and appreciate the stories and actors, the hand-held camera gave me a splitting headache!
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Guilty Pleasure of the Year
In spite of the fact that they filmed the first season of this series in my back yard, I tried really hard NOT to like Friday Night Lights. I demanded that it be even more authentic than it was. I complained about every stereotypical Texas tic and about every plot shortcut the writers took. I HATED the paralyzed star player season arc. I railed. I raved. I ranted. But in the end, I watched every minute of every single episode because, beginning-to-end, this was the most riveting television show I watched all of last year. Once I started to watch an episode, I couldn't leave my seat until the end. I fell in love with Lyla. Later, my allegiance shifted to Tyra. I found myself rooting for the Taylor family. I even came to love Riggins.
Hate football and Texas all you want; Friday Night Lights is still must-see TV and very deserving of this award.
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Wish I could
I trust Heather's judgement completely, and so I've tried a few times with this show, unfortunately without being able to see the episodes in their proper order because I came in midway.
I can tell it's a really good show, and that there's a lot going on in it besides football, but I too hate, hate football -- not just the game, but the whole culture around it -- and there's enough football in FNL to keep me from being able to embrace the show. It's difficult to get engaged with characters who care so much about something that seems so stupid, trivial and boring. I might try to rent the DVD set to see if I can get past this if I watch in the right order. All this is helping me to understand why certain people can't get past the spaceship aspect of BSG. Sometimes when all the aesthetic paraphenalia of a setting really turns you off, it's impossible to screen it out. But I'm really trying!
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"Guilty" pleasure?
What induces guilt? It's "quality tv"--something that Heather Havrilesky ought to be spending more of her (and our) time on instead of When C-Level Celebrities Attack.
But still it shakes like Jell-O on a vibrator.
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Need Coffee
But still it shakes like Jell-O on a vibrator.
At first I read that as "But still it shakes like J-Lo on a vibrator," and thought wow, let's get this show some awards.
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Premier Friday Night
One problem I see. A program about high school football, likely to be watched by many high school football enthusiasts, premiering a new season on Friday night, when high school football games happen to be played...think that might cut into the viewing audience?
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hate football, love this show
I hate football. I went to high school in Texas, and I utterly disdained high school football. But I adore this show. Football here is mainly a symbol of different individuals' goals and dreams and disappointments. I think the problem with its ratings might be that a lot of the people who would appreciate it are like, "oh, it's a show about football, that's the last thing i want to watch;" and a lot of hardcore football fans watched one episode and were turned off by all the emotional nuance and complicated relationships (also, the relative lack of actual scenes of people playing football).
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I'm an Australian and I don't like American Football...
...but I love this show. I don't watch it for the football, while the games are riveting and I cheer along with the crowd when the Pathers score, for me this show is not about the football. It's about the people living in this town and I love watching every minute of it.
The camera work is marvellous from a technical standpoint, which is the only way I can view camera work. I'll watch a movie and go 'oh, that was a brilliant use of the camera,' or 'the cinematography in that movie was awesome.'
The characters are real and relatable, the dialogue has a realism I haven't seen in a long, long time (maybe ever) and I cannot wait for season two to see where these people go.
I agree that it's the most underappreciated show on the box right now, and that doesn't bode well and since I can't impact on the ratings, I'm hoping that the American fans will tune in and we'll get a third season.