September 21, 2007
You Should Be Watching Friday Night Lights
Have you been missing out on NBC's Friday Night Lights? Did last season's Wednesday night showing time not gel with your schedule? Well, we're going to give you five reasons why you should make time to watch this award-winning, but low rated, show.
1. The show is filmed in Austin. Local landmarks show up on the show, from EZ's in the opening credits to the Dairy Queen on Manor (where Matt works) to Brackenridge Hospital downtown (where Jason was hospitalized). Austin has even stood in for Dallas; last season's finale was based in Dallas and a hotel room shot featured the Frost Tower in the background.
Also, being filmed in Austin means the show uses some local cast and crew (see our interview last year with Assistant Director Michael Waxman).
2. It's award-winning. Salon gave it the Buffy Award last week. They say that the series "shows us real Americans living regular lives, enduring the indignities of frustrating, dead-end jobs, grappling with narrow-minded co-workers or neighbors, ushering up laughter in spite of family arguments, and doing the best with what they have."
It was also one of the few new shows to win a Peabody Award. And if the Emmys do anything for you, the show won one for casting and was nominated for best direction.
3. The Sports Guy at ESPN calls it "the greatest sports show ever." And he only got into the show recently through the DVDs!
4. Speaking of the DVDs, the first season set is sold with satisfaction guaranteed. If you buy the DVDs before December and don't get into the show, NBC/Universal will give you your money back.
5. This season the show is actually on Friday nights. This is both positive and negative; positive because it is easier to remember what night it is showing, but negative because Friday night tends to be the last step into the sunset for shows.
If you want to check out the season 2 premiere, you can view it on Yahoo! already. Or you can wait til October 5, when the show kicks off on its new night at 8pm.
Friday Night Lights [official site]
Starts Friday, October 5 @ 8pm
NBC/KXAN, ch. 36/cable ch. 4
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You forgot all the musical reasons to watch:
1. Explosions in the Sky does most of the music including the theme song.
2. Lil Capn' Travis plays during a scene at Continental Club in one episode.
3. Music by Jon Dee Graham and Billy Joe Shaver is also featured in the show.
4. One of the characters, Landry, is in a speed-metal band called Crucifictorious. Watching Crucifictorious play at Broken Spoke was a trip.
If the producers see a resemblence between Austin and Dallas, perhaps things are getting drastically worse here.
It's not supposed to be Dallas, it's supposed to be Odessa, right? Other than the fact that it's obviously Hutto and I doubt Odessa has a EZ's or Bonzai or Cap Metro busses in the background sometimes.
Oh yeah, I didn't recall that first part about the state champs which were partly filmed in Dallas I think because they used Texas Stadium. The location goofs are some of the best things about this show. I like how in the opening credits the Dillon Panthers stadium has a big H on it for Hutto.
I got sidetracked. What I mean is that I didn't recall the first part of the write-up because I got excited about the latter parts and austinist wouldn't let me post earlier this afternoon.
In response to guest #3, no, its not supposed to be Dallas OR Odessa. Although the original book that the series/movie is based on is about Odessa Permian, the television show is based off of a fictional west texas town of Dillon. I am not a football fan, and not really all that into high school drama shows...but I am completely HOOKED on this series. Its originally filmed, amazing dialog, interesting story lines and has compelling characters. (Kyle Chandler is the most realistic character I have seen on television probably EVER.) I cannot say enough about this show, I'm trying to recruit all of my friends into the FNL cult..seriously, watch the first 3 episodes and you won't turn back.