TV Review: Friday Night Lights

Genre: Drama
Channel: NBC
Season: 1

The Premise: A small town in Texas revolves around its high school football team, which is ranked #1 in the state and lead by the #1 recruited quarterback in the country, so anything less than a state championship is considered failure.

I have to admit I am probably a bit prejudiced against Friday Night Lights. As a sportscaster in small town Florida, I've had enough of people giving a rat's ass about high school football to last me ten lifetimes and in the case of this show, and many of the small towns I covered, people do much more than give a merely rat's ass.

The production of the show is excellent and the cinematography and editing of the football games are beyond reproach. The story, however, is pretty straight forward and involves fairly cliched characters, none of whom I really found myself liking, much less caring about.

The entire show can be epitomized by one story arc. As soon as the star quarterback who all the kids in town admire and expect to be better than Peyton Manning was introduced, along with his back up who is teased by teammates for his lack of playing time, the producers might as well have just put a timer in the corner of the screen counting down "32:00 Until Star QB Gets Crippled."

Sure enough, the kid breaks his spine, the back up comes in to win the game, and life goes on.

Rating: 2/5 yawns