"Friday Night Lights" Returns in Fine Form on DirecTV
By Ed Martin TV / Video Download Archives
A new chapter in television history will begin tonight with the debut of Friday Night Lights on DirecTV. The commercial-free telecast won’t simply mark the beginning of the acclaimed series’ third season (after two on NBC) – it will also herald the beginning of an experiment that could bring renewed life to additional low-rated but high-quality broadcast network series.
Through a partnership between NBC, Universal Media Studios and DirecTV, Season 3 of Lights will begin tonight on DirecTV’s entertainment channel The 101, and I am happy to report that it has lost none of its dramatic power or heartfelt humanity in the transition from broadcast to satellite. (This shortened season of Lights episodes – 13 in all – will be repeated early next year on NBC.) In fact, tonight’s premiere plays much more like an episode from the show’s universally acclaimed first season than one from its problematic second year, which started off with a number of unfortunate and uncharacteristic plotlines, especially the one in which shy guy Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons) accidentally killed a man who had been tormenting Tyra Collette (Adrienne Palicki) and then the two kids attempted to dispose of the body. As Season 3 kicks off there is a renewed and very welcome emphasis on the personal dramas of the core characters, all handled with uncommon skill and insight by cast, crew and creators alike. If Lights remains so luminous, it may once again give AMC’s Mad Men a run for its current critical status as the best drama on television.
A few months have passed since the end of Season 2, and during that time Tami Taylor (Connie Britton, sexier than ever) has been made principal of Dillon High, while her husband, Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), has overseen big changes among the Dillon Panthers and continued to work with former tail back and recent graduate Smash Williams (Gaius Charles), who lost his chance at a much-needed college scholarship at the end of the previous season. It’s now senior year for several of the main characters, including quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), whose star status is threatened by a hotshot freshman quarterback; Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), whose promotion to tailback has the local press wondering if he has put his bad behavior behind him; Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly), who has broken up with her conservative Christian boyfriend, moved back home with her father and resumed her relationship with Riggins; and Tyra, fearful that she will end up as directionless as her mother and sister and newly determined to improve her grades, be accepted to a good college and leave Dillon.
The hour is filled with seemingly minor moments that make lasting impressions, as when Landry advises Matt, “This is your senior year. After this, it’s all downhill.” Throughout the episode we are movingly reminded that Lights is only in part a show about high school football. Yes, it shows how important the success of a high school football team can be to virtually everyone in a small town like Dillon, where almost everything else about their lives is largely unremarkable. But it is also about the quest for identity and recognition that young people in small, economically depressed towns grapple with and their decisions to either strive for something bigger or settle for what they have been handed in life.
For those of us who embraced Friday Night Lights at the start, the challenges it has overcome simply to survive from season to season are almost as intense as those faced by the characters on its canvas. Why haven’t the ratings been higher? Why haven’t voting members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences seen fit to nominate it for Outstanding Drama Series? Why haven’t series leads Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton been similarly supported or honored? What the hell is wrong with people?
This isn’t the first time DirecTV has taken a series from the brink of broadcast cancellation and made a home for it. It isn’t even the first time that DirecTV has adopted a series off of NBC. Last year it produced an additional season of the NBC soap opera Passions after the network decided to end it.
Passionsdidn’t seem to make much of an impact on DirecTV, perhaps because it suffered budget cuts in the switchover and looked very cheap. (No worries with this project: Lights still looks great.) It also seemed to remain restricted by broadcast entertainment standards and practices, a disappointment to viewers who were hoping Passions would be sexier and edgier once it moved to its new home. It was no more explicit or over-the-top than it had been on NBC.
Surely, it wouldn’t hurt if the producers of Friday Night Lights decided to take a slightly more adult approach to the production, in the manner of a basic or pay cable series. Frequently, Lights reminds me of The Last Picture Show, the 1971 classic about young people in a dying Texas town -- but without Show’s realistic R-rated content. I’m not saying Lights should go that far, but I think there may be great potential in producing edgier versions of some episodes for DirecTV, DVD and online downloads and tamer ones for NBC and online streaming. That, too, would be something new.
Ed Martin
Ed Martin is the chief television and content critic for MediaVillage. He has written about television and internet programming for several Myers publications since 2000, including The Myers Report, The Myers Programming Report, MediaBizBloggers a…
