Friday Night Lights

Jason Street is the star quarterback for the Dillon Panthers. He has everything going for him until a freak injury after making a tackle paralyzes him from the waist down. This is how the first season of the NBC show Friday Night Lights kicks off and it leads to numerous dramatic storylines.

Friday Night Lights is a show about a Texas town that loves it's high school football. The show does a good job of balancing the football action with the stories of the players and the town. The show is more about the lives of these kids and their families and friends than it is about football. Each character has different issues and personalities. Most characters face serious decisions and many fall pray to immorality, but there are also many moments where characters show moral backbone and strong character. This show does a good job presenting many of life's difficulties from many different angles, and it does a good job explaining the background for these characters and their choices. Many times the characters make the wrong choices, but the show does a good job of showing the consequences of these actions.

I like this show for a number of reasons. Firstly, I like it because I love sports and football is part of every episode. I also like it because it brings up many life issues in a real and honest way, and allows the viewer to think about these issues sometimes in a different viewpoint than we usually would. The characterization is so good that I imagine myself in each of the character's shoes and wonder what they are thinking and what I would be thinking. For me, I know when a movie or show is good when I am emotionally attached, and Friday Night Lights has me emotionally attached. When one of the "good" characters makes a stupid decision I find myself frustrated with them. When one of the characters makes a good choice and shows humility I find myself cheering for them.

I have not found the show to take sides on issues so much, but rather present the issues through the characters lives and let the viewer decide whether or not the character made the right or wrong choice. This show may not be for everybody, but for me it presents an opportunity to see issues through different characters and helps me think about my own positions on important issues. I think that when issues are brought into question it provides an opportunity to strengthen our positions on life issues as opposed to weaken them. Overall, I would highly recommend Friday Night Lights to the late teen and up crowd. So many issues come up in this show that it is very likely I'll be posting about some of them in the near future.