This Week’s Review: FNL

Friday Night Lights is a 5-season TV show that takes place in a fictional town in Texas. Its main plot revolves around the players, coaches, and fans of the glorified football team, the Dillon Panthers. As a whole, it’s a great show, although it goes through some rough patches. The first season is the most exciting and suspenseful of them all; it’s got the star runningback Smash Williams, the premature alcoholic Tim Riggins, and my favorite character, Matt Saracen. Matt was the average back-up quarterback who was thrust into the spotlight because of a tragic accident. The coach, Eric Taylor, tries to balance the decisions and responsibilities of being a coach and a mentor to all these high school football players.

The first season gave us so much drama, real-life problems, and character development. Race and class are popular issues, just like they are in our own world. On the outside, the show may seem like a football drama, which it is; but it’s also so much more. We see the struggle of Coach Taylor and his wife trying to compromise on almost every decision they make. We also see the athletes being put on a pedestal and being set up for failure after their high school life. The first season captures everything you would look for from a sports show or a drama and combines the two.

We kind of lose the sports aspect from the second through the fourth seasons, as well as some of the authenticity that made the show so great to begin with. Some of the issues appear to be forced and tacked on for the purpose of trying to keep fans’ interest in the show. The fifth season gains some of the traction back with the addition of characters like Vince Howard (played by Michael B Jordan) and Luke Cafferty (played by Matt Lauria).

All-in-all Friday Night Lights is a great show to binge watch if you find yourself with a lot of free time on your hands. Even those who may not be big fans of football or sports in general will still enjoy the show. It portrays this idea that even though there will be some struggle, the American dream is very attainable.

Review Score: 7.4 out of 10