All of the Lights: Friday Night Lights

 by Jason Krakower  

We plan on debuting some new columns over the last couple weeks of the spring semester. Today, we introduce sports and entertainment, a column by Jason Krakower. Jason plays club baseball at Syracuse University and studies Newspaper Journalism at the university. Now, I turn things over to Jason for the first edition of EP Sports and Entertainment (It's a working title. We'll think of a better name over time. Promise.)

            Sports dominate my life, but anybody who knows me also knows that I love movies and TV nearly as much as I love sports.  I get almost as excited for a show on HBO as I can for one on ESPN (sometimes more so, depending on if Omar Little is involved), so anything that combines sports and entertainment is automatically a winner for me. Major League, The Replacements, Miracle, 30 for 30…you name it, I’m up for it. Naturally, we at EP Sports Mag wanted to find a place for this theme among the usual rotation, so this should kick off a weekly column open to all things sports and media related.

          The reason I’m bringing this up today is that NBC is finally launching the fifth season of its critically acclaimed series Friday Night Lights, which I’ve been watching since the first season in 2006. For anyone who doesn’t know, the series is a spin-off of the 2004 film of the same name, which was also an adaptation from the non-fiction book by H.G. Bissinger that chronicles the 1988 season for one Texas high school’s football program. The series follows the same pattern, albeit with fictional players and a fictional football-obsessed town.

It’s also brilliant.

FNL has an innocence that the NFL simply lacks.

          Beyond the amazing acting (for the most part, but future Mrs. Derek Jeter – Minka Kelly - has a pass on this one), the series just feels real. The character interactions, the problems, and the emotions all feel accessible and relatable to a kid who really shouldn’t understand what it’s like to live and die with football in a small Texas town. And it’s not just football, but the type of true, corporate-less football that disappeared years before 2011 lockout.

          But, for some reason (possibly Jersey Shore-related, but I’m not gonna point fingers or speak in slow, short words so they’ll be sure to understand), FNL’s ratings have been microscopic from the start. It never seemed to have a chance, much like the East Dillon Lions that Coach Taylor was forced to take over at the beginning of the fourth season. Also like the Lions, though, the show had enough determination to keep on chugging against all odds.

Minka Kelly is reason enough to watch...uh...sorry, I lost my train of thought.

          Having seen the final season already (and trust me, it’s incredible), I can say that anyone can start following the series without missing much. Given that, my goal is to leave you here with the hope that you flip on your TV on Friday night at 8 p.m. (or whenever you decide to watch it online), and witness one of the best sports television shows or movies that I’ve ever seen. The way I’m going to do that is by giving you a quick little description of an episode from season one called “Mud Bowl” (Spoiler Alert).

          It’s the semifinals of the Texas State Playoffs, and Coach Taylor’s Dillon Panthers were supposed to be the home team before a chemical spill nixed that plan. Taylor’s under a lot of pressure, some of which is coming from his impending decision on whether to take a college job as a QB coach. He just wants to clear all that away and do what he loves without all of the distractions. He drives by an abandoned cow patch and gets a look as if Ray Liotta just whispered something in his ear. After an agreement with the other team, Taylor’s building his Field of Dreams: simple, scenic, and all about football. The game starts and the inevitable torrential downpour takes over. The game is brutal and defensive, and Taylor barks out instructions from the sideline to scrawny underdog QB Matt Saracen as everyone gets absolutely drenched and muddy. The Panthers come from behind and win epically as Saracen dives into the endzone on a bootleg, and everyone in the makeshift stands joins the team diving into the mud. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen on TV before.

          If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, give it a shot on Fridays for the next few months. Or, if you get sick of waiting until the NFL gets off the operating table, go back and start the show from the beginning. Get to know Coach Taylor, Mrs. Coach, Saracen, Street, Smash, Riggs, and everyone else who came and went through Dillon because they have something that the NFL doesn’t seem to have right now, and will need to get back into this league: Miles and miles of heart.