One of these is not like the others

After a bit of hunting I found the first two seasons of Friday Night Lights! It was well worth the trouble as the series proved to be dazzling from the beginning.

It is true that I was roped into the show by just watching the last 5 episodes of season 3. But at the end of Tomorrow Blues (episode 13, season 3) I knew that I just had to know how it had all started. Were Tim and Matt always friends? How had they come to be on the football team? What about this Street character we heard about every so often? And so many other questions. I wanted to see how the show had evolved and how it came to the climax I had just seen.

The first season was breath-taking. The visual aspects of the show are so outside the norm. Though the show has polished up a bit more since the first air date, the original feel has not been lost. Though fictional, the series is shot in a documentary style that provides a real sense of action for the audience. The use of natural lighting, light props, and fluid camera movements that follow the characters focus attention on the narrative presented. These attributes remain true through to the current season and its truly an accomplishment to maintain their roots.

The biggest and possibly only problem I have with the show is the characters ages. At the beginning of the series, there are no real indicators of how old or what grade level any of our characters are in. That wouldn't be a problem if it didn't seem like the characters apparently changed ages. It's just hard to keep track of, with Julie Taylor and Lyla Garriety seeming to get younger by season 3 than when the show started.

Aside from that issue the rest of the show was just bewitching. Though not a football fan, almost at all because of my lack of understanding on the game. I was never bored, not once. The players, their families, their interactions and behaviors were constantly interesting. The primary story is that it is the first season for Coach Taylor as head coach of the Dillon Panthers. Coach Taylor is put into what I can only relate to Remember the Titans type experience, with a win it all or lose it. Coach is basically the Cheiron trainer of heroes for the town of Dillon, Texas as he guides the football players to winning. Aside from just the football, the Taylor family dynamic is brought into the light. Mrs. Taylor becomes the yin to the yang, she brings in the rest of the school outside of sports. While Julie brings conflict to the family by rebelling, and particularly by dating a football player to her father's dismay. Also during the first season was the focus of Street and his injury, the audience is taken on a journey of pain and anger that escalates with the emotional betrayal of his girlfriend and best friend. Some of the smaller themes include steroid use, love, sex, and familial turmoil.

Two episodes of note in the first season are It's Just Not the Same for Girls and Nevermind. The first being an episode about how Lyla Garriety is treated for having a sexual relationship with Tim Riggins. The a process of emotional break-down, as she is an outcast and verbally abused by her peers. Her treatment is horrific at times, including the building of a website and vandalizing of her locker. What the intriguing part comes to be is her strength, where it comes from and how it manifests at the end of the episode. While in the second episode, it's moving to see the effects of a solider coming home on leave from Iraq. Matt's father comes home, while his son expects parental aid and encouragement. Matt is disappointed to discover his father detached and aiming to have him moved to other family members and leaving his grandmother in a house. Its a heartbreaking scene when Matt fails to get his head in a game and proceeds to have a very public fight with his father in the parking lot.

For something truly different than most of the other shows on TV, think about checking out Friday Night Lights. Starting Season 4 in October on NBC.