Friday Night Lights

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Network: DirecTV
Premiere: Wednesday, October 1, 9pm

Considering that it spent its first two seasons on NBC, it's strange to think of Friday Night Lights as a cable show.  After struggling through its second low rated season on network television, NBC made a deal with DirecTV to bring the drama back for at least 13 additional episodes.  Unfortunately for those without the satellite service, the episodes will first air on The 101, which is a channel exclusive to DirecTV subscribers.  The third season will kick off on The 101 on October 1, but won't air on NBC until early 2009.  That technically makes Friday Night Lights a cable show, at least until mid-season.

Regardless of where the episodes air, I'm thrilled to have one of the best shows on television back for what's sure to be another emotional year.

The great thing about FNL is that it's a show that refuses to be pigeonholed.  It's a series about football players that doesn't require any sort of knowledge or enjoyment of the sport; it's a family drama that never stoops to the moralizing clichés and easy fixes of a show like 7th Heaven; it's a show about teenagers that refuses to add any sort of CW sheen to its characters.  The only thing Friday Night Lights is concerned with is portraying the dramas of everyday life in the most realistic way possible, which is what makes it so compelling.

On the rare occasion when the show slips into melodrama, the loyal fans make their objections known.  The second season of FNL stirred up plenty of controversy with a plot line that found Landry (Jesse Plemons) and Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) murdering a man in self-defense and dumping the body.  While the storyline was a bit out of place, it also led to some of the best acting I've seen on television in the past year.  Both Plemons and Palicki turned in such amazing performances that it's a shame they weren't noticed by the Emmy voters.  Friday Night Lights is the rare show where every cast member does award-worthy work, but their excellence often gets overlooked.

Fans who disliked the murder drama needn't worry, because executive producer Jason Katims promises that season 3 of FNL will take the show back to its realistic roots.  There will also be some big changes in store when the series returns.  Actors Scott Porter and Gaius Charles will no longer be regulars, as both their characters will have graduated high school by the start of the new season.  Joining the show will be Kim Dickens as Matt Saracen's long lost mother, as well as D.W. Moffett, Janine Turner and Jeremy Sumpter as a new family that moves to Dillon, Texas.  Katims has also teased a new romance between Lyla (Minka Kelly) and Tim (Taylor Kitsch), as well as more marital drama for the best couple on television, Eric (Kyle Chandler) and Tami (Connie Britton) Taylor.

With its amazing acting and its ability to defy and transcend the usual storytelling clichés, Friday Night Lights has proven to be a show that cannot be missed.  It's a series worth seeking out, even if you have to subscribe to DirecTV to do it.


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- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)